FIFTEEN LGBTQIA+ festivals and organisations have united to create online festival Pride-Solation to celebrate Pride Month.
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Hosted by Thorne Harbour Country, it will see regional festivals including Castlemaine Pride, Trans and Gender Diverse Bendigo and Beyond, Daylesford's ChillOut Festival, Koori Pride Network, OUTintheOPEN Festival Shepparton, Mallee Pride, Gippsland Pride Initiative, Wimmera Pride Project, Geelong Rainbow Festival and Ballarat Frolic Festival hosted parts of a six hour online event.
Thorne Harbour Country program coordinator Claudia Validum said she developed the idea after watching an online DJ session in April.
"I was sat on the couch watching an online DJ as part of a community initiative and it had quite a few viewers at the beginning of April when COVID hit," she said.
"The community was putting pictures of themselves getting together and showing their connection through music. So why not do something with regional festivals that has educational elements.
"The festivals have come together to put this event on with the idea of bringing the best of the best from the regions for community entertainment. A lot of artists are going to be showcasing regional content. We're so excited for the show."
Ms Validum said the festivals had worked together over 10 weeks to create Pride-Solation.
She hoped thousands of people from all over Victoria would tune in from midday on Saturday.
"We have been working around the clock to get content together. it was done quickley but we have all worked hard," Ms Validum said.
"We will be live streaming across eight festival pages and from the Thonre Habour Health website. From the combined pages with cross-posting we expect up to 20,000 people to watch. But even if we get half that, it would be great.
"There has been talk of doing this again next year. The flexibility online has given us is something we will look at in our model.
"The festivals are keen to do this again and bring people together. The online platform is here to stay."
As well as entertainment from LGBTQIA+ organisations, Thorne Harbour Health will provide health education for viewers through the day.
"There were quite a lot of reasons to do it," Ms Validum said. "It is about connection with the country community where LGBTQIA+ people can be isolated.
"We also wanted to support queer artists who lost a lot of work through COVID-19 and we wanted to get the health education messages out there.
"Each festival has something so unique and we wanted to showcase that across the whole event."
For more details on Pride-Solation visit www.thorneharbour.org/news-events/calendar-events/pride-solation or find them on Facebook.