Yabun (“music with a beat”) places an emphasis on being a family friendly festival, and is drug and alcohol free. The dance floor saw toddlers, hippies, nanas and young people enjoying the all-Indigenous line-up together.
This year’s program featured singer-songwriter Kev Carmody, the Honourable Linda Burney MP, Oka, X Factor finalist Rochelle Pitt, and many others. The Koori Curriculum hosted arts and crafts for children under 10. The Taronga Zoomobile was a hit with the jarjums (children) too.
The festival hosted over 100 stalls, including stalls from activist groups, ATSI advocacy organisations, and Aboriginal artisans, alongside classic festival favourites, Dutch poffertjes, and gozleme.
Klub Koori and the Wiradjuri Platinum Mixers also ran a ticketed after party in Darling Harbour. The party was for over 18s only, and featured DJ Tikelz, DJ Peter Guns, DJ Coco, and DJ I Site.
Attendance at the festival has increased massively, more than doubling since 2014, which saw 10,000 festival goers come to Yabun. Organisers attributed this to the strength of the program, and also to this year’s Invasion Day rally, which concluded at Yabun, bringing over 10,000 marchers.
Yabun is an event honouring Survival Day, recognising, enjoying, and acknowledging all that has been achieved by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the face of the great adversity and injustice of colonisation. The organisers of the rally, however, espouse an end to celebrating January 26th, and instead advocate a day of mourning. The two events merged in the afternoon.
