Spring Fling Opening Gala: Lightbulb Moments
Celebrate the opening of Spring Fling with a star-studded line-up of Australian writers, performers and musicians in an evening of transformative stories and songs.
About
Spring Fling celebrates the transformative power of storytelling and conversation through a short series of big ideas to reinvigorate our minds, reshape our perceptions and let our imaginations flourish.
To open the series, a star-studded line-up of Australian writers, musicians and performers will reflect on a personal ‘lightbulb moment’ – a defining shift that changed their mind, sparked a big idea or helped them blossom.
For this unique evening, multi-award-winning writer Maxine Beneba Clarke; poet and political activist Lionel Fogarty; disability advocate and Heartbreak High star Chloé Hayden; The Picture of Dorian Gray star, stage and screen actor Eryn Jean Norvill; and journalist and feminist trailblazer Anne Summers will take to the Melbourne Town Hall stage with musical performances from acclaimed singer/songwriter and nine-time ARIA Award winner Missy Higgins and your host, singer, writer and presenter Clare Bowditch to share stories of transformation, reckoning and innovation – and maybe inspire a lightbulb moment for you too.
Please note Nakkiah Lui is no longer appearing at this event.
Accessibility
Wheelchair accessible
Accessible toilets available
Auslan Interpreted
You can learn more about the Wheeler Centre’s accessibility policies here. Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.
About Spring Fling
Celebrating our return to the stage and the rejuvenation of the arts and culture communities, Spring Fling is a short series of big ideas offering a delectable picnic spread of events with leading thinkers, writers and creators from Australia and abroad.
Spring Fling is supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.
Featuring
Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the acclaimed memoir The Hate Race, the award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the poetry collections Carrying The World and How Decent Folk Behave, and many other books for adults and children. Her forthcoming poetry collection is It’s The S... Read more
Lionel Fogarty (b. 1958, Cherbourg, Australia) is a Murri man, born on Wakka Wakka land at Cherbourg mission. In his writing he demonstrates that he is a poet of language as much as of politics, repurposing both traditional poetics and the speech of his people to delineate current circumstances of o... Read more
Chloé Hayden is an award-winning actor and disability advocate, motivational speaker and social media influencer whose story of being ‘different, not less’ has attracted a worldwide following. She stars as Quinni in Heartbreak High, the Netflix remake of the iconic Australian series. ... Read more
Missy Higgins is one of our most beloved singer/songwriters and her acclaimed studio albums, The Sound of White, On a Clear Night, The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle, Oz and Solastalgia have sold more than two million copies. Classic songs like ‘Scar’, ‘The Special Two’, ‘Steer’, ‘Everyon... Read more
Eryn Jean Norvill is a graduate of VCA, she has also studied at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier in France and The Groundlings School in Los Angeles. She has worked extensively in Australian professional theatre for the last ten years. Selected credits include: Sydney Theatre Company: The Picture of Dori... Read more
Dr Anne Summers AO is a journalist, researcher, commentator and best-selling author of nine books, including the classic Damned Whores and God’s Police, first published in 1975, and still in print. Her most recent book Unfettered and Alive, a memoir, was published in 2018. In 2021 Anne was appoint... Read more
Clare Bowditch is a musician, broadcaster, sometimes actor, speaker, entrepreneur, and just recently became a top-ten, best-selling author. Somewhat of a slashie you might say. She has won the coveted ARIA Award for Best Female for her music, the Rolling Stone Woman of the Year Award for her contr... Read more
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