The west’s uniqueness will be celebrated in spectacular fashion with next month’s return of the Big West Festival.
New artistic director Marcia Ferguson launched the festival program last week, promising a diverse array of exciting and inclusive events.
Ferguson said her team had been working to create opportunities for as many ideas as possible to find a home in the festival.
She said radical changes to the city’s skyline inspired the theme of “construction, space and territory’’.
“A lot of people talked about the constant branding by the media of the west as being a dark or unsafe place,” she said.
“They raised things life the demonisation of African people in the media and the rapid change in the area. With all these massive developments here, people are feeling they have less and less control.”
The 10-day biennial contemporary arts festival returns to Melbourne’s inner western suburbs from November 22 to December 1.
It features 67 events across 42 venues, including three free, large-scale outside events, kicking off with an opening night party at Footscray Community Arts Centre.
The other anchor events are Braybrook’s Big Day Out at Braybrook Community Garden and a People’s Day Street Party at Little Saigon Market.
Ferguson said many of the events would be interactive, drawing in the community in ways that reflected the west’s unique people and spaces.
