Zine Fair
The Top End zine scene is set for a revival at this year’s Darwin Fringe Festival – and anyone with ideas for a DIY mag is encouraged to join in.
By Kylie Stevenson
Fringe Festival associate producer and zine fiend Tamara Howie says a Zine Fair will celebrate the culture of zines and give people a chance to get creative and share their work.
“Darwin has been missing a zine scene for a while,” she says.
“There are people out there doing it on their own, but it’s nice to have a community and we hope the Zine Fair will promote that.”
Howie says zines cover everything from art to short stories and everything in between.
“They are really diverse – they can be visual or words or a combination of the two. They don’t need to have a narrative – they are unlimited except by your imagination.
“They’re accessible, budget-friendly and easy to do – you just need an idea.”
Those ideas can be brought along to the one-night-only workshop at the Northern Territory Library, where creators will be given the resources to cut, paste, write, draw and photocopy their zines for the fair.
Howie hopes other Fringe Festival workshops, including Write a Book in a Day and Tactile Short Stories, will also encourage more people to give zines a go.
The Zine Fair will bring it all together, showcasing what’s on offer in the Top End and giving creators and readers the opportunity to buy, trade and swap zines.
Howie has been hard at work on her own zine, which will pull together interesting quotes she has been collecting for years.
“We hope people will be inspired to keep making them and that this event will revive something in Darwin,” she says.
A copy of each of the zines created will be donated to the Northern Territory Library’s collection, ensuring the work will go down in NT history.
Zine Workshop | WED 11 JUL | 5-7.30PM | NORTHERN TERRITORY LIBRARY | FREE | darwinfringe.org.au
Zine Fair | SUN 15 JUL | 11AM-1PM | INTERSTITIAL SPACE, CIVIC PARK | FREE darwinfringe.org.au
