Frankston’s annual South Side Festival returns in May, delivering a captivating 11-day program showcasing thought-provoking performances, raucous comedy, dazzling installations, striking visual arts, and some delightfully naughty bits.
South Side Festival sparks creativity, captures imaginations, challenges perceptions, and creates numerous opportunities to engage the broader community and business sector.
Neon Fields returns from 8 – 11 May to glow up Frankston in 2025, transforming Beauty Park into a colourful fantasy world, inviting children and adults to interact and play among the lights.
Multi-award-winning Circus Trick Tease are taking over Cube 37 with their all-new shows: one just for adults, Cheer, and one for the whole family, The Farmy Farm. Expect energetic acrobatics, laugh out loud comedy, and high skill circus from an all-star cast.
Sydney Dance Company explodes onto the stage in Rafael Bonachela’s momenta. Witness an extraordinary force of movement, striking individuality and powerful unity, escalating to a joyous release.
Australian/Colombian artist Joshua Searle brings his vibrant artwork, Oro Vivo (Living Gold), to life turning the Frankston Library forecourt into a canvas of colour and culture, with the surrounding building facades transformed by spectacular large-scale projections.
Discover the power of healthy soil with a special screening of Kiss the Ground – an eye-opening documentary that uncovers how regenerating the planet’s soils can stabilise the climate, restore ecosystems, and ensure abundant food supplies. With stunning visuals and groundbreaking science, this film reveals soil as the missing piece of the climate puzzle.
Lovers and misfits is an exhibition of portraits by Peter Milne taken during the formative years of his artistic practice. Milne first began taking photographs of his friends, family, and the Melbourne punk scene in the 1970s and over the subsequent decades captured a flow of figures including Nick Cave, Anita Lane, Rowland S Howard and Polly Borland.
Councillor Brad Hill said South Side Festival had received huge success in recent years, seeing an increase in community participation of 87 per cent since 2022. “Destination events, arts and culture are key drivers for the future growth of visitor attraction in Frankston, and South Side Festival delivers on this vision,” said Cr Hill.
“South Side Festival showcases Frankston as a thriving hub for contemporary arts and culture. By supporting innovative, artist-led creative works, we continue to challenge and exceed expectations, highlighting the depth of our community’s cultural scene.”
“One of our key focuses is making arts and culture accessible to everyone, providing a platform for both local and international artists while ensuring inclusion and representation at every level, including gender and LGBTQI+ and First Nations communities,” said Cr Hill.
This year’s program focuses heavily on the importance of sustainability and healthy environments, showcasing exhibitions such as:
Let’s Get Real – an immersive art installation examining plastic productions impact on our wildlife, environment and potentially every person on this planet.
Plant Table – take part in engaging discussions and artistic activities that explore how we connect with the natural world. Surrounded by locally sourced organic materials and flora, you’ll be inspired to create, share stories, dance, and reflect through guided meditations.
Undercurrent – contemporary jeweller, Lori Hakim, explores the transformative power of craft to reclaim and repurpose waste.
Time To Act – these workshops will empower Victorian educators to teach climate justice through interactive, drama-based methods, offering tools, insights, and inspiration to foster student engagement in sustainability.
The 2025 South Side Festival takes place across Frankston from 8 – 18 May. For more information and full program, visit: www.southsidefestival.com.au for details.
Images: Neon Fields – photo by Steve Brown | Joshua Searle presents Oro Vivo (Living Gold) | Lets Get Real (supplied)