DaDaFest International returns 8th-31st March 2025 to celebrate DaDa's 40th Anniversary and this time we are coming with ‘RAGE: A Quiet Riot’.
Rage is something many disabled artists and individuals within our community feels. There is a sense of exhaustion and hopelessness that we encounter in conversations often. There's a feeling of deep rage that what felt progressive and forward-focused in terms of rights and access and attitude decades ago is being eroded and we are being pitted against each other again. There is unspoken rage at the hidden hierarchy in wider disabled communities, often exacerbated by systems that reinforce how valuable or invaluable disabled people are by invoking a scoring scale to decide who needs what most.
After consulting with artists, DaDa heard loud and clear that our community feel that, while some progress has been made, too many decisions are still made without involving disabled people. This has left disabled artists and disabled communities raging that the gaps in society are widening and we are still so far from equity and representation at all levels in art, culture and heritage. Often neglected, ignored and discriminated against at the highest levels in the arts sector, community and government at cultural level.
“We need our disabled rage.
No more being accommodating as they take away right after right.
Let’s have assisted rage and tear up the page of ableism and turn it into confetti for the wedding of ourselves to our lives in a world that wants to strip us down until only our pain stays standing.”
DDFI40 will showcase work by disabled artists that captures all shapes and sides of rage. From the internal quiet frustrations and righteous rage, to overt injustice and activism, DDFI40 will explore disability rights, disability arts, access, ableism and ‘Rage’ in an explosion of creativity.
In 2025 and beyond, the festival will continue to provide a safe space for artists to share work and discuss relevant issues, to offer valuable networking opportunities for disabled artists across the arts sector in Liverpool and beyond and, importantly, to bring a high profile UK platform exclusively for new and existing work by disabled artists.
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DaDaFest: Creating Art, Challenging Attitudes, Changing Lives