For many years ALPA has worked with the East Arnhem Regional Council (EARC) and Arts NT to run community festivals at Ramingining and Milingimbi. However, earlier this year, after our grant applications were unsuccessful, ALPA's CDP agreed to contribute funding to the festivals as community events that could provide activities and training.

EARC also continued its financial and logistic support, and ALPA's Remote School Attendance Strategy program was able to engage Foldback to run drumming, circus and hip hop workshops at the schools and sport and rec programs so that young people could participate in the festival.

These Festivals were again a great success and were run on consecutive weeks to reduce the impact of community members did not travel between festivals, which in turn reduced the impact on school and CDP attendance. These festivals are important to our community members, they are a yearly highlight for many performers, and as the 2020 festivals had to be cancelled, there was a strong desire to run these events.

Producing the festivals was a large enterprise. The festivals featured two nights of concerts on Friday and Saturday nights. Yolngu Radio provided both broadcastings of the events and created radio content by interviewing many local workers.

The festival also included large scale catering, music, circus and dance workshops and competitions for young people, cultural activities including spear making and yidaki competitions, lantern-making workshops, training opportunities for CDP participants and employment for the two days of the festival for those who completed the training.

Many local musicians and artists were employed to perform during the festival. ARDS and Yolngu Radio provided training and employed local workers in radio production, stage management, sound production and event management. The communities were able to celebrate local culture and to role model to the younger people their involvement and achievements. Also, the festivals invited Miwatj to help MC the events and provided an important platform for public health and vaccine messages throughout the concerts and accompanying activities.

ALPA would like to express our many thanks to our community partners, including the East Arnhem Regional Council, who provided funding but enormous on the ground support, Miwatj who provide funding and huge efforts in public health messaging and activities, the schools that hosted many of the workshops, Yalu at Galiwinku, Bulungkuu and ARDS which delivered the on the festivals with ground event management, sound, bands, and working with leaders to gain cultural consents for our programs, and ALPAs CDP program who provided the majority of the funding, logistical support and training opportunities for our participants to get training and help run these amazing cultural regeneration events.

The festivals in 2021 were a great success and we are already seeking feedback and support to make them even better in 2022.