Out of the Park Picnic

Emma Donovan is a highly celebrated, ARIA-nominated, award-winning Indigenous singer and songwriter who has been touring the country for over twenty years. Emma performs soulful songs and shares powerful stories with audiences around the globe. Check out these testimonies:

"Donovan can front a well-oiled soul band in her sleep"
—Doug Wallen, Rolling Stone

"Donovan is reflective, contemplating the good, bad and indifferent of the world around her; in Donovan’s voice, it’s all worth listening to. Great soul singers are born, not made, and Emma Donovan is a charismatic soul singer for the ages."
—Patrick Emery, Beat

”Donovan’s raw, soulful vocals are equally as commanding of the listener’s attention, as she conveys struggle and strength effortlessly.”
—Kitten Jam, Soul Music and Beyond

“Emma’s voice is everything you’d want in a soul singer. She’s the real deal.”
—Devin Rimer, Wax Poetics  

”Years of experience have brought her the ability to put a song over in a direct and powerful way, but with a refreshing feeling of naturalness—there’s nothing forced, no slick stage craft.”
—Daily Telegraph

“Heartbreak and redemption bleed from every lyric, washed over with 70s-inspired funk and soul, rhythm and blues in a collaboration that’s best described as ‘new soul’.”
—ABC

DJ Jumps occupies a unique position in the world of DJs and turntablists. After 22 years touring the globe, playing  intensely rhythmic, live and highly eclectic music as a former member of The Cat Empire, Jumps has come into contact with musicians from many different cultures.

In Melbourne, Barcelona, New York or Havana, his own knowledge, both as a performer and as a listener, has been enriched and deepened by this journey. The record crates have piled up over the years. An appreciator of all good music, especially that which is driven by funky drums and percussion, DJ Jumps has dedicated himself to finding the best dance floor music from across the globe, with an emphasis on African and Latin rhythms.

There are many different beats to dance to in this world. DJ Jumps brings them all together, onto the dance floor, in his quest for universal funkiness.

African Star (aka Edward Eshun, aka Shabba) is a long-time Darebin personality with history of bringing together community and a passion for teaching African culture and tradition.

African Star specialises in delivering impressive performances, workshops and classes to deliver an inclusive and authentic West African cultural experience. For Out of the Park Picnic, the community is invited to turn up on the day to get involved in sharing a whole lot of drumming movement and high-energy, rhythmic fun. 

The Ultimate Darebin Picnic band! Melbourne’s cult pop-mystiques, Dorsal Fins. are back after an extended stay in the musical wilderness. Five years on from their most recent release, they’re back with their latest record, Star of the Show (2022).

Rising from the Hope/Ovens Street studio mile in Brunswick, the Fins have recently peeled back from the epic cast of nine mates, entrusting the band’s songwriting trinity—Liam McGorry and co-vocalists Ella Thompson and Jarrad Brown—to navigate a kaleidoscopic bag of sun-soaked horns, love-puddle funk and brat-pop night moves.

Dorsal Fins bring their new music to life with a fresh live show ready for Out of the Park Picnic.

Darebin resident and superstar host, Queen Acknowledgments, returns to Out of the park Picnic. She's a First Nations woman living and learning on Naarm Country in Melbourne. She's also the founder of Queen Acknowledgements, which provides a safe space and opportunity for all people to heal with the connection to self, culture and country, bettering the mind, body, spirit and earth in return. 

Queen Acknowledgements loves to use storytelling in different ways to express herself and to connect others to Indigenous culture and country. her work has reached thousands of people from across the world. 

She is also a mother who continues to grow her knowledge, understanding and connection to Indigenous culture and land. She's passionate about women's voices to be counted and to empower their healing journey to nurture and mother themselves to lead the healthiest lives possible.

MAV has a profound commitment to arts and artists, shaping the narratives that define who we are as a multicultural nation. We make art as a visceral response to the forces of bigotry and intolerance, which seek to undermine the hard-fought battle for pluralism. We make art to understand who we are as migrants on Indigenous land. We make art to draw attention to the work that is still needed to futureproof our identity as a society that deeply values its diversity.

Representing diverse cultures, the MAV team reflects the community it serves. Its staff are not only committed to creating opportunities for creatives and communities in Victoria, they are also all creatives themselves.

Melbourne's heavyweights of the Salsa music scene, known for playing 70's era Salsa Dura classics from New York, Puerto Rico and Columbia never shying away from playing their own original music made right here in Melbourne.

Quarter Street take their cues from the giants: Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barreto and Willie Colon and the seminal record labels Fania and Tico records and charge straight ahead at the 21st century.

Born in Iran to Persian and Mauritian parents, Neda's passion for inclusivity and generosity brings different organisations and artists to work together every day. She's a long-time friend of FUSE and MAV, and a Darebin-based performer and musician who has played with The Cat Empire, Tumbarumba and her own act, NEDA: All Colour Project.

A self-made artist, Neda has been a writer, performer, vocalist, percussionist, drummer, host, friend and connector in the arts industry for twenty years.

MAV has a profound commitment to arts and artists, shaping the narratives that define who we are as a multicultural nation. We make art as a visceral response to the forces of bigotry and intolerance, which seek to undermine the hard-fought battle for pluralism. We make art to understand who we are as migrants on Indigenous land. We make art to draw attention to the work that is still needed to futureproof our identity as a society that deeply values its diversity.

Representing diverse cultures, the MAV team reflects the community it serves. Its staff are not only committed to creating opportunities for creatives and communities in Victoria, they are also all creatives themselves.