Rainbow Wave Festival, auspiced by headspace Bega is an annual rural pride event in the Bega Valley. The Rainbow Wave Committee, includes, GPH headspace Bega employees and community members in the Bega Valley.
Following a hugely successful debut event in 2019, the Rainbow Wave Committee were energised by the overwhelmingly positive response and wanted to keep the good times rollin’. Attendees loved the bright and jolly atmosphere, the family-friendly vibes and star-studded line-up. It was a unique experience that was achieved only by remaining truly locally-led and community-focused. We wanted to emulate this for 2020 but go even bigger. We had ambitious plans of a pride parade that would take the Sapphire Coast by storm, but sadly our hopes were dashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A smaller event in Littleton Gardens was planned in 2021, but as we all know this year also delivered some curveballs. Rainbow Wave, determined to keep the momentum alive and create an opportunity for the community to come together, organised an online event. ACON provided support for this online event and the community got together to enjoy all local drag performances, musicians, panel discussing being queer in the Bega Valley and much more! Laughs were shared, pets were shown off and a sense of community was felt throughout the event.
Rainbow Wave Festival 2022 was another huge success, led by young members of the Rainbow Youth Group with support from the committee. RWF went back to its original form at the Oaklands event centre and was attended by people of all ages. Rainbow Wave Festival will be back in 2024..... more details coming soon.....
All money raised through merchandise sales and donations goes towards the headspace Bega Rainbow Youth Group and future events.
For further information head to our social media pages on instagram @rainbowwavefestival and facebook RainbowWaveFestival.