Deaf Festival Sydney is happening at Cathy Freeman Park, Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday 26th August, 10am – 4pm. The Deaf Festival Sydney is an annual inclusive, family-friendly event celebrating the diversity of Deaf and hard of hearing people and the community’s culture, language and history. The primary audience are Deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing people and their families. The secondary audience includes hearing people who engage with the Deaf community, e.g., Allies, Auslan students and anyone who would like to learn and understand more about the Deaf community, its language and culture.

The Festival has the goals of:

1. Create a safe for celebration, learning and inspiring deaf people, especially young deaf people, with a sense of pride in the Deaf Community, culture, and history, leading to greater optimism and sense of connection to a community.

2. Inspire the wider community to engage with the Deaf Community, get an understanding of Deaf Culture and Auslan to encourage greater inclusion for deaf people.

3. Increase awareness of community initiatives available for the Deaf community and the Deaf Ecosystem. The Deaf Ecosystem is a collection of information and resources presented in Auslan with the intention of providing the Deaf community with access to facts and information of interest.

We are looking for grants to support our KidZone area, having enough funds to provide activities and workshops provided for Deaf/all children are fun, inclusive, safe and creative to keep the children, and young families throughout the 6-hour event occupied. Such as art materials, face-painting, hair-styling, balloons and supporting Deaf artists. We aim to have a few workshops in the KidZone run by Deaf artists to support their businesses and inspire the young generation to be creative.