Once again Adelaide shone this past month showcasing 500 diverse acts and the theme of "Celebrating Love" for the Feast Festival 2007. It's a credit to the staff and volunteers involved in Feast and each year the festival gets better and better, and this year was no exception.

My Feast journey began at the crack of Dawn on the 20th Nov (Transgender Day of Remembrance). We jetted out of Sydney around 9:45pm and arrived mid afternoon to be greeted by the lovely Trevor at the airport before voting for the election. I had never voted in an airport before and really enjoyed not being hassled before voting with endless pamphlets etc.

The journey was a tough one, we were charged an arm an a leg for extra baggage by Virgin Blue and were already in debt before we had even left Sydney. We were taken to our hotel in the middle of Adelaide, quickly settled in and then set out to organize gear to the venue for our show later that night. From the onset the Feast people were amazing! They are just the most wonderful bunch of people who bend over backwards to help the artists that perform there.

Sadly tho our opening show there didn't go as planned and was a very disappointing after we played a killer show @ Slide only 2 nights beforehand. We had gear problems, P.A. problems and general feelings of tired lead to me having a meltdown and going back to my hotel room in tears. The show must always go on, so instead of sitting around moping I went back out to the venue and saw the end of Ikochi and chatted with punters before heading back to the hotel.

From then on our FEAST Experience got better and better. We had been performing with Ikochi in Sydney and Adelaide and being from Japan and not speaking good english it was quite hard to communicate at times. Thankfully they had an awesome interpreter named "Saki" and the gift she gave me on our first night in Adelaide was beyond my wildest dreams.

Both myself and lead singer from "Ikochi" are transsexual women performing in rock bands. Quite a rare thing to come across. After reading many interviews with "Chikako" I came to realize we are very much the same. Both of us were born male and had a love of rock,punk, metal music. both of us played this style of music as males, both of us left our music careers for a number of years to pursue transition and both of us made comebacks performing music now as women.

So over a bottle of Vodka I was able to sit down with her and the interpreter to discuss the similarities between us. Wow a very empowering night. The more we talked the more in common we had even both being Virgo. I didn't feel so alone as a trans woman performing rock, it's always great meeting somebody who has walked in your shoes. The night for me ended in much happyness and tears and it was so sad to say goodbye to my new friends from Japan.

Day 2 - Wed. Day off. This was a great chance for us all to sleep in and get plenty of rest for the coming shows @ Feast. We strolled around Adelaide mostly doing shopping and checking out what shows we were going to see whilst there. I'm in love with Adelaide. The footpaths are wide, the people are friendly and people actually line up single file at bus stops. I was amused by this often and even have photos of people queing at the bus stop. We dinned on Sushi and many other great foods and really began to feel the love of the festival.

Later that night I was asked to perform at one of the most unique events I've ever taken part in. Work-Shop is a living art feature in which everyday a writer is placed into a shop front along Hindley St with an old table and chair, candles and an Ibook. Sitting next to the Ibook was a mobile phone. The concept was for me to write a story over 2 hours on a subject pretty much drawn from a hat. I scored "The Love of Adventure". What better story for me to write about than the trip to Adelaide and shaky start to our Feast experience. In the adjacent shopfront was a projector which filled the entire front window with the words I was typing on my Ibook. Passers by could read my story and SMS the number on the window suggesting ideas for my story. I had a blast being a part of this. Had quite a few people sms ideas and many people reading along and communicating with me through the window. One gorgeous guy even gave me some candy. Yeh I know "Never take candy from strangers" but this guy was hot!

I was then picked up by Trevor from Feast and taken back to my hotel by about 10:30pm. As this was not really a paid gig I was offered some free seats to check out other artists on the Festival. So Thursday was going to be a great night of Feast artists. Upon getting back to the hotel I ordered a pizza and relaxed for the evening. As my pizza arrived and I went down to collect it I bumped into 2 crazy bald guys who I noticed from the Feast guide. Topping and Butch from UK. They yelled out "We'll hold the lift for you hun" but by the time I got my pizza they had gone LOL. Upon getting back to my room I looked them up and decided to go see their award winning show.

Gotta love the staff at Feast, getting free tix to shows doesn't mean just roll up and be entertained. NO! It means we had to sit front row which inevitably meant we became part of the act as all the shows we went to were comedy based.

We saw a beautiful lesbian theatre show called "Her Aching Heart". This was beyond beautiful, choc full of laughs and by the end my tear ducts had gone into overload. A fantastic show with beautifully written songs and brimming with originality. I still cant stop raving about this show and hope to catch up with the girls and boy at Midsumma in 08.

Lauren and Kali (drums & Guitar) then went on to see "The Wau Wau Sisters" and their amazing show of comedy, acrobatics and music. The girls once again ended up front row and were dragged into the show to help remove a bra. From their reports the show was brilliant and I'm quite upset to have missed it, but I had another show I wanted to check out. So Myself and Melissa (bass) then scooted across town to the Chaos Bar to see "Topping & Butch"

Yup once again front row became our destiny, so we grabbed a bottle of wine and settled in for what was one of the funniest shows ever! These 2 lovely boys have it all, looks, spunk, wit, plenty of toilet humor, songs and a knack of including people into the show. I laughed and screamed all the way through it and had a blast. Thier song "Fag Hag" to the music of "Downtown" was a scream and they covered so many world and Aussie issues it was hard to keep up with the jokes coming thick and fast. No wonder these boys have been a hit the world over. If you get a chance to see them do so as you wont be disappointed!

After the show we jumped in a cab with the boys from Topping and Butch and headed out to the infamous "Mars Bar". Ended up drinking till the wee hours at Adelaide's iconic venue which was quite barren for a thursday night but none the less a great night of pure eclectic entertainment and drinkies.

Friday - Day 4 - GenderFuck Ball 2007
The build up to this our last show was brill. We expected a big crowd but our expectations were blown away by the turn out of individuals who dressed up in the opposite gender for the night to really party hard. This event was run by a youth group and so well put together. Diverse, unique and full of stunning souls expressing themselves how they saw fit. Mostly the crowd were females. I had never seen so many women with mustaches since my sisters lebanese inlaws came to Australia a few years back. We played a great set! The entire place was dancing and jumping around. The back courtyard was a hive of activity between Feast staff and punters. Our drummer ran around the venue after the show getting everybody to sign her snare skin. So many great memories.

Then most of us went on to Mars Bar which was fully packed to the brim. so many sexy boys, girls and trans people. I was in heaven. We drank and drank and drank thinking we had a late check out in the morn as our plane ride home was 6:25pm.

Getting back to my hotel @ 8am I was shocked to find out there was no late check out.. Doh!! So all of us ended up dumping our gear with Feast and roaming the Adelaide streets in a zombie like manner trying to pass the time without passing out. Was pretty tough going but we are all survivors and got through it.

The Feast van picked us up and lead us to the Airport for our journey back to Sydney. Honestly I need to state here. This is my 2nd Feast appearance, the first time when I got back to Sydney I found it hard to slot back into Sydney life. The Adelaide glbt community is so close knit and undevicive to come back to Sydney where there is so much separatism still always takes a battering on me. This year was much the same with the current state of violence and venues closing here. I believe Adelaide have the best GLBT Festival in the country at present. Broad range of artists, very inclusive and a team working behind the scenes which is unmatched by no other. I'm very thankful to the Feast people for once again allowing me to perform my music and writing to such a captive and excited audience.

We really hope to be a part of Feast yet again in 2009 but now look forward to Melbourne's Midsumma in Jan and our birthday Mardi Gras in Sydney. What with a new Govt in power and Australian's buzzing with new hope of change. I feel many good things are on the horizon and am so proud to be accepted in OUR GLBTQIXYZ community for the people who make it up are truly amazing...

Peace n love
Jade