The Royal High Jinx performed at Cobargo Folk Festival 2026. Photos: Sabine Friedrich.
At Cobargo Folk Festival five panellists with diverse backgrounds in the arts discussed how art, music and cultural festivals enable people to both safely dissent and come together to heal.
The discussion, part of the festival’s Ideas from the Edge series, was titled “Harmony in Discord – the role of music, art and culture in a fractured world”.
The panellists were Cobargo Folk Festival director Zena Armstrong, Sandra Renew who defined herself in the 1970s and 80s as a lesbian poet, Richard Petkovic who is renowned in the refugee and immigrant communities of western and southern Sydney for putting on large multicultural festivals, Bega Valley digital artist Scott Baker, and Kyarna, a Yuin singer/songwriter who moves audiences with her heartfelt songs shaped by love, loss and legacy.
Four Winds executive director Leigh Small moderated the topical discussion.
Ms Armstrong came up with the theme because of her experience of Cobargo and the festival after the Black Summer bushfires and COVID, and Cobargo’s move to renewable energy after suffering extensive grid power outages after the bushfires.
“Those experiences impacted Zena deeply and she has seen there is a role for the arts, music and culture to heal and bring people together in a fractured society,” Ms Small said.
Ms Small said trauma, be it on a local scale or global scale, has the same impact, just as the arts and music have the same healing impact.
Some of the many volunteers who help make Cobargo Folk Festival happen.
She said festivals like Cobargo Folk Festival were safe places to come together and be exposed to different things, including ones you might strongly disagree with or dislike. Festivals were healing places – good places to be when trauma and war were being unleashed.
Each of the panellists spoke about the healing impact of music and culture in their lives and the lives of their community.
Kyarna’s songs are very personal, uncomfortable and painful, but in her world culture and language must be shared to heal deep pain and loss.
Ms Renew said 15 years ago, people heckled her for her views and being a lesbian poet. Things have mellowed to the point that when she is running events poets sometimes contact her to check if their poetry could offend anyone.
Mr Petkovic had a similar experience of people becoming more open-minded. “As the population changes, other music is accepted,” he said.
Mr Baker is well known in the Bega Valley and beyond for his Bioluminescence projects with local youth. He encourages them to not think of themselves as consumers but as creative producers.
“Combining this with the idea that the raw source material for creative content can be found in their immediate environment, suddenly the mental definition of being a producer/artist/content creator is a reality,” he said. “The opportunity to do this at Cobargo Folk Festival also means that there is an audience for their art, and they’re supported and encouraged in sharing their creative voice.”
Early morning at Cobargo Folk Festival.
Ms Armstrong said the folk festival was a living lab developing young people’s skills, new artistic works and supporting artists at all stages of their careers. She likened it to a crucible where things get stirred up, reshaped and co-created. The festival shows that community is real, connectedness is tangible and truth telling holds us.
“When cynicism is the default, kindness is a radical act,” Ms Armstrong said. “When divisiveness is normalised, choosing to trust each other is an act of resistance.”
Ms Small compared the creatives of today with the bush poets of old.
“Now they are talking about their worlds of dissent, nature and connection to country, so we discussed whether the arts and festivals in particular are disrupting or healing,” she said.
“Festivals are places where assumptions can be disrupted and diverse ideas safely expressed, but ultimately the shared experience unites us.”
She reflected on her own experience of working regionally after leading the Sydney Film Festival that attracts audiences of 180,000.
Ms Small said events such as Candelo Village Festival, Cobargo Folk Festival and Sculpture Bermagui were more deeply healing and more deeply dissenting because the audiences needed to know the artist more because of the scale.
“You aren’t in an exclusive VIP section. The artists are there mixing with the audience and with other artists,” she said. “The physical island of the festival landscape over three days makes it much more intimate.”
