These days, Aussie festivals look very different than they did 10, even five years ago.
Gone are the days of multi-city, international-headlined megafests. Instead, we’re seeing more local, independent and sometimes niche festivals that perfectly tune in to how we’re all listening to music at the moment.
One such festival is Dylan Alcott’s Ability Fest. Now in its fifth year, the festival is designed to give all fans the chance to enjoy music live and loud, no matter their ability level.
Keep up with the latest music news, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
As well as a fully accessible venue set up, featuring a sensory silent disco, elevated viewing platforms, designated chill-out spots and an assistance dog area, the festival features a cracking lineup. This year, it’s bringing out Ocean Alley, Cub Sport, ONEFOUR, King Stingray, Kita Alexander and many more.
Weeks out from her Ability Fest appearance and fresh off an arena tour support role for Madison Beer, we caught up with Kita.“It made me really excited. I loved it,” recounts the Brisbane-based pop singer of her recent support slot.
“I was there to win over some of her fans. I was there to make an impression.”
She tells me she hadn’t taken an opening position for roughly eight years, so she was determined to pick the right one. “I don’t really want to support someone who might have the same fans – I want to do a show where people are absolutely unfamiliar with me.”
In March, more than a decade since she began performing at age 15, Kita dropped her hotly anticipated debut record Young In Love, which has been the highlight of her gigs across the country.
“I definitely feel like people come to your shows not necessarily knowing all the songs. You don’t really expect everyone to go through the whole record,” Kita says with a laugh.
“I played Matter Of Miles, which is the last song on the record, and it really meant a lot to me. That one really resonated with people. I was really excited to hear that and see that in real life.”
Kita’s been firing on all cylinders, her music popping up in all corners of the musical world. Last year, her career reached a dizzying high when Australian DJ FISHER featured a track they’d worked on together as part of his Coachella set.
“Two weeks before Coachella, he asked me ‘Can you please write a second verse? I want to play it at Coachella’. So I wrote the second verse and that was kind of the last I’d heard of it,” says Kita.
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“I was really in shock when he was mixing the songs together. There were a couple of times I was like, ‘Is that Atmosphere?’” she says. “Then when it happened that first weekend, they had a really good drone set up with the crowd and it was really crazy just seeing how many people were there. It was very cool, really amazing.”
This year will also see Kita veer off the capital city path for a regional tour, the vocalist noting the excitement that surrounds a gig at a county town.
“Regional Australia is such an important part of music. I grew up in a small regional town, so I love them and I appreciate them. I think it’s so cool that a lot of artists are now touring a lot more regionally and not just focusing on major cities and I want to be a part of that.”
But before she heads out to the country, Kita’s got Ability Fest to play, happening in Melbourne on October 19 and Brisbane on October 26.
“I’m good mates with Dylan Alcott, who runs it,” Kita tells me. “We hadn’t even talked about it being a possibility, so when that came through, my mind was like, ‘Oh my God, yeah, of course.’”
It’ll be her first Ability Fest, and given the festival’s inclusive, heartwarming and pioneering nature, she’s so excited. “I think it’s such a cool festival and it gives me goosebumps talking about it – just what Dylan’s done for Australians and including everyone. I just think it’s really, really amazing.”
To see Kita Alexander (and many others) take the stage at Ability Fest 2024, get tickets here.
