Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023): Transformational Experiences Beyond Borders: Partnership Development for Sustainable Futures
Research session 1: Events Experiences

If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution: Designing Experiences for LGBTQ+ Pride

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  • Victoria Firth-Smith
Victoria Firth-Smith
Monash University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24135/7es.7

Published 2023-12-01

Keywords

  • LGBTIQ+ festival,
  • lived experience,
  • feminist experience design,
  • Australia

Copyright (c) 2023 Victoria Firth-Smith

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of feminist experience design practice to design for the LGBTQ+ community by focusing on YES! Fest. YES! Fest, a pride festival forged in Canberra, so-called Australia, in response to the Australian postal vote on same-sex marriage in 2017. Australia has a long tradition of pride events, in larger cities, the most well-known is the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which started in 1978 and hosted World Pride in 2023. Yes! Fest was a unique contribution to Australian pride celebrations, as the experience designer of the festival used trauma-informed and feminist practices to party in response to a political cause. This paper explores the ways YES! Fest designed a feminist LGBTQ+ festival for allies in partnership with businesses, government departments and the community.

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