26 October 2024 – Victoria Park, Brisbane – words by Charlotte Poynton – pictures by Cassandra Warren
After several successful years of Ability Fest in Naarm, The Dylan Alcott Foundation and Untitled Group have brought their all-inclusive festival on the road and chose our backyard as the second stop on their 2024 schedule. Bringing local favourites including Cub Sport and Asha Jefferies, and big name stars including Ocean Alley and Bag Raiders, Ability Fest boasted affordable ticket prices, various activities during the event (silent disco, anyone?), and accessibility features including live captioning, pathways, and shaded undercover zones.
Due to the unfortunate last-minute lineup change, where Brenn! had to pull out of the festival, Ability Fest 2024 now features an all-Australian line-up, bringing the best homegrown talent to our stages. Exclusive acts to our Barrambin show of the two-stop touring festival included Middle Kids and Eves Karydas, ensuring for a day of female dominated indie pop.
Local cinematic indie-pop darling Stocker, fresh from her iconic showcase performances at BIGSOUND, opened our festival day with her charming popstar energy. A crowd quickly formed as Stocker cycled through tracks including ‘Lost So Much’ and ‘Haunting’, before finishing with one of my favourite tracks of the past few months, ‘Into Me’. Stocker set the vibes high, proving that Triple J Unearthed picked the very best for this opening slot.
Ability Fest – photos by Cassandra Warren
Up next was Naarm based performer Eliza Hull, who brought her beautiful voice and soulful power to our stage. With a stunning cover of ‘Wicked Games’ that saw the first big sing along of the day, Hull spoke to the importance of Ability Fest as a performer with a disability, highlighting the significance of this festival for all people involved.
Drawing a crowd who sang along to every song was local favourite Asha Jefferies, who cycled through hits off her album Ego Ride and shared a cover of Chappell Roan’s ‘My Kink Is Karma’. Asha Jefferies recent growth both in popularity and performance is something so special to witness, as I remember listening to her early singles and attending performances over five years ago in venues she now fills with ease.
The female dominated indie pop continued strongly with absolute darling Eves Karydas. Her star-studded band, featuring Zoe Davis and Dan Puusaari from Cub Sport, took the stage with matching black sunglasses and transported us through Karydas’ sophomore release Burnt Tapes. With a mention of how excited she was to see Middle Kids perform later that day, Karydas treated us to throwback tracks including ‘Couch’, ‘Complicated’, and ‘Further Than The Planes Fly’. This performance was one I have been anticipating since Eves Karydas was announced in the lineup, and I am still absolutely awestruck!
Whilst Sunshine & Disco Faith Choir treated audiences to sing along favourites and the perfect opportunity to get their boogie on, I took a moment to explore the activations throughout the festival. With a quick stop at the free glitter bar to get into the vibe, patrons had the opportunity to craft their own friendship bracelets, grab a free flavoured electrolyte water from Cocobella, check out the music at Mark’s Stage, or get involved in the silent disco (complete with sensory vests for full immersion into the music)! Ability Fest featured several rest areas as well, with food trucks aplenty, the only thing missing was an ice-cream truck to combat the heat!
Ability Fest – photos by Cassandra Warren
I made my way back to the main stage just in time to experience the wonder of Kita Alexander live, taking the energy up a notch as she opened her set with ‘Dancing Queen’. If you were lucky enough to be situated in the right side of the crowd, you got to witness the adorable dancing of Kita Alexander’s kids whilst she performed. After getting a mid-set photo with the crowd and her kids, we were treated to a cover of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’, and a throwback favourite with ‘Between You & I’.
King Stingray are a band who find themselves surrounded by an endless stream of praise, though this did not do justice to their absolutely phenomenal live performance delivered at Ability Fest. A set full of fan favourites with some new tracks sprinkled in, King Stingray got everyone moving and singing along, taking the festival up a notch as the crowd around the main stage doubled in size.
Middle Kids carried the energy and excitement through their set with a selection of hits off their latest album, Faith Crisis, Pt 1, and absolute staples including ‘Mistake’ and ‘R U 4 Me?’. I never realised how many words I knew to their songs, or how cathartic it would be to sing along to favourites like ‘Never Start’ with a crowd of people. Middle Kids performance really proved to me that Ability Fest had picked the best of the best to feature on their 2024 festival lineup.
Ability Fest – photos by Cassandra Warren
Anyone who knows me knows that Cub Sport are my all-time favourite band, and their performance at Ability Fest really just stood as reasoning for why I have so much love for them. With throwback favourites including ‘Good Guys Go’ and ‘Chasin’, Tim sharing his love story with bandmate Sam to the crowd before playing ‘Party Pill’ and ‘Best Friend’, and the iconic Jesus At The Gay Bar dance pop moments, Cub Sport got the crowd singing, dancing, living and loving unapologetically. After proclaiming “Addison Rae, you will always be famous”, they reprised their viral cover of ‘Diet Pepsi’ to an unsuspecting, surprised, yet excited crowd.
Though I completed my Ability Fest 2024 experience after Cub Sport’s set, there was no denying the excitement buzzing through the crowd for Ocean Alley’s performance that evening. I have nothing but praise for Ability Fest and the Dylan Alcott Foundation after this event, and have my fingers crossed that the festival will return to our sunshine state next year!
Ability Fest – photos by Cassandra Warren
