Frankston’s annual South Side Festival returns this week, delivering a captivating 11-day program showcasing thought-provoking performances, raucous comedy, dazzling installations, striking visual arts, and some delightfully naughty bits. The Australian Pride Network takes a look at 10 events worth checking out!
Neon Fields
Beauty Park: 8 – 11 May 2025
Neon Fields returns to glow up Frankston! When the sun goes down it is time to gather family and friends and venture into Neon Fields. Beauty Park will once again be transformed into a colourful fantasy world where you’re invited to interact and play among the lights. Fan favourites will return, and new neon installations will appear giving everyone a reason to enjoy a magical meander throughout the Park. Free event!
Joshua Searle: Oro Vivo (Living Gold)
Frankston Library Forecourt: 9 – 18 May 2025
Australian/Colombian artist Joshua Searle brings his vibrant artwork to life, sharing a slice of Colombian history and energy straight from his recent trip to his cultural homeland, turning the Frankston Library forecourt into a canvas of colour and culture, with the surrounding building facades transformed by spectacular large-scale projections. This 15-minute animated story, created by Mick Russell and paired with an epic soundtrack by local talent Josh Davies, is perfect for all ages. Free event!
Sydney Dance Company: momenta
Frankston Arts Centre: Saturday 10 May 2025
Feel the rush, the grace, and the power of movement like never before! From tender moments to an electrifying storm of energy, momenta sweeps you up in a breathtaking journey of individuality and unity. With Rafael Bonachela’s signature choreographic magic at its core, momenta weaves together the dynamic forces of life into a stunning celebration of connection and flow. Watch as dancers push beyond physical limits, exploring the full range of their bodies with raw vulnerability, strength, and elegance.
Peter Milne: Lovers and misfits
Mezzanine Gallery – Frankston Arts Centre: from 10 May 2025
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. Free event!
Scratch Arts: Creative Juices
Cube 37 – Frankston Arts Centre: Saturday 10 May 2025
Art and comedy collide in a highly interactive experience where you’re not just watching, you’re creating! Join award-winning performer Timothy Christopher Ryan as you explore wild hands-on art activities and turn your blank canvas into chaotic masterpieces. Think of it as a playful throwback to 90s kids’ art shows, but with a quirky adult twist. Expect laughter, UV paint, and your own masterpieces destined for a magnet on the fridge. No experience needed, just come ready to play!
Alternative Facts: Sincere Apologies
Frankston Arts Centre: Wednesday 14 May 2025
A bespoke theatre experience inviting you behind the scenes and into the spotlight to investigate all the apologies that the world keeps offering – the famous, the obscure, the deeply personal, and those that begin every second email in our inboxes. Sincere Apologies offers a unique experience that is awkward, funny, intimate, and strangely moving as the audience is transformed into a temporary community investigating how we say sorry.
Cheer
Cube 37 – Frankston Arts Centre: 16 & 17 May 2025
Energetic acrobatics, laugh-out-loud comedy and high-skill circus all wrapped in an explosion of high kicks and more enthusiasm than a double shot espresso martini. This exciting and sexy new show features circus, burlesque, comedy, and cheer leading acrobatics from an all-star cast. Presented by Circus Trick Tease, Cheer is the good times, positive vibes show that will make you leave with a pep in your step and a can-do attitude.
The Farmy Farm
Cube 37 – Frankston Arts Centre: 17 & 18 May 2025
Created by Circus Trick Tease in collaboration with Stunned Mullet Circus, The Farmy Farm has more going on than a chook in a worm farm. Jaw-dropping acrobatics on tall towers of hay, giant juggling carrots, fair dinkum high-flying farmers and loads of laughs for everyone! It’s all in a day’s work for our dead set legends and all-round larrikins Kenny + Jenny – they’ve been doing this for years. Still, you never know if they might need you to lend a hand!
Music at McClelland: Polyphonic Voices
McClelland: Sunday 18 May 2025
Music at McClelland is back with sonic sculptural splendour in 2025, showcasing the astonishing talents of brilliant genre-bridging musicians, up close and personal, overlooking the magical bushland setting of the sculpture park. Under the artistic direction of Michael Fulcher, Polyphonic Voices presents a wide variety of music – both accompanied and unaccompanied – from the classical choral tradition, but also arrangements of music from jazz, pop, folk and other alternative genres.
Backstage Confidential
Frankston Arts Centre: Sunday 18 May 2025
Embrace your inner VIP and go behind the Frankston Arts Centre curtain! Explore hidden spaces and secrets of the theatre, from underground passages and hidden bridges to exclusive backstage spots. Limited numbers for a premium experience.
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) | Sydney Dance Company presents momenta (supplied) | Peter MILNE, Nick Cave The Boys Next Door gig, Swinburne 1977, pigment ink-jet print, 30.0 x 20.0 cm, Museum of Australian Photography, City of Monash Collection, donated by Helen Frajman 2021, MAPh 2021.106, courtesy of the artist and M.33 (Melbourne) | Timothy Christopher Ryan presents Creative Juices (supplied) | Alternative Facts: Sincere Apologies (supplied) | Circus Trick Tease presents Cheer – photo by Brig Bee | Circus Trick Tease presents The Farmy Farm – photo by Brig Bee | Polyphonic Voices (supplied)