Merri-bek Festivals Development Program

Knots of Becoming by Roots and Trace Ensemble, Fawkner Festa 2025. Photos by Simon Fazio.

Merri-bek Festivals Development Program 2025 Recipients

We’re excited to announce the recipients of the 2025 Merri-bek Festivals Development Program. Two outstanding creative projects have been selected to bring bold, engaging, and community-connected ideas to life across our city. 

These projects will be presented at Fawkner Festa 2025 and Glenroy Festival 2026. Please stay tuned for details and opportunities to get involved. Sign up to our Arts Merri-bek eNewsletter.

Knots of Becoming by Roots & Trace Ensemble 

Step into a poetic, hands-on ritual with Knots of Becoming, a sensorial live art experience blending performance, memory and connection. Inspired by the ancient Andean khipu, this participatory work invites you to co-create a shared story through gesture, sound and thread. Grounded in ancestral knowledge and collective reflection, it's a gentle call to reconnect with what matters.

Despite being faced with difficult weather, Roots & Trace Ensemble completed their moving performance of Knots of Becoming at this year’s Fawkner Festa, to an engaged and animated audience. 

They provided an insightful reflection on the experience:  

‘Developing Knots of Becoming through the Merri-bek Festivals Development Program has been a nurturing and inspiring journey. We deeply value how this Program opens space for artists to explore new creative languages and offers freedom for multicultural communities to express their unique artistic visions. For us, this marks the beginning; a seed from which we hope to grow a larger, more developed work to share across festivals locally, interstate and beyond. Our heartfelt thanks to Arts Merri-bek and our community for giving our work the room to grow and shine.’

– Roots & Trace Ensemble 

Fungal Forest by Sanctum Studio

Welcome to Fungal Forest, a magical world of giant inflatable mushrooms, mysterious sounds and fungal imagination.  

Wander through towering toadstools and textured coral fungi, guided by the voices of local children. At its centre, you’ll find the Mother Scoby, where Dr. Fungus invites you to get crafty in a mushroom-themed craft-a-noon for little fungi. 

Contact the Festivals Team

Phone: +61 3 9240 1208.
Email:  festivals@merri-bek.vic.gov.au