James & Francesca, Tyagarah, 2007
Image: © Claire Leimbach

The Fatherhood Festival

The world’s first fatherhood festival was held in Bangalow, NSW, on Fathers’ Day weekend, 2004. The Fatherhood Festival is a unique, three-day festival, where we share stories, question our understanding of a fathers’ role and celebrate being or having a father, with our family and our community.

The Fatherhood Festival is a child of The Fatherhood Project, a small group of men and women who believed that fatherhood needed to be honoured. We realised that the best outcomes for our children are when fathers and mothers are actively engaged in their children’s lives. The barriers to actively engaged fatherhood are sometimes subtle, sometimes overt and they include: family and community attitudes, workplace attitudes, government attitudes and the attitudes of professionals in early childhood.

The Fatherhood Festival features great music, parenting talks, children’s shows, art exhibitions and individuals coming forward and contributing to the event: carpenters help dads and kids make toolboxes; chefs show us how to prepare kid-friendly, healthy meals; drummers drum, dancers dance and we go home feeling connected to each other honouring our role as fathers.

Colin George, The Fatherhood Project, Mullumbimby
www.fatherhood.net.au