Artistic & musical innovation

Participants made around 20 entries, and most were scenes, formats and settings rather than single acts. Pop-up events are using skate parks, grassy parks and car parks, where they need less infrastructure or permission, such as Heartholder’s series Hold Close.

Experimental drag is spreading beyond the queer community, in forms that go beyond the classic showgirl trope, such as by cabaret performers like GoGo Bumhole.

Participants also named skramz, a youth-driven lo-fi DIY emo scene, along with jazz doof, grime and queer-led hyperpop. They named artists such as Jamaica Moana, a rapper from Western Sydney, and Tillow from Campbelltown.

A participant who ran a live-music venue through the lockout years said the pop-up shows are great, but that without the smaller venues, young emerging artists do not get to practise their skills, grow and develop.