Heartland is a concert that will bring together the sounds of the Horn of Africa in one mighty blast at the Big West Festival’s Big Backyard.

4 artists, 4 communities, 4 installations. This unique project seems professional artists work with a selection of communities in the west to explore and interpret notions of home and homeliness.

Cultures will collide in true Footscray fashion in your Big Backyard. This free community event celebrates the rich culture of the west, its artists, performers and musicians who make this side of Melbourne their home

Bring your knitted legwarmers, limber up and celebrate the casting off of the knitted bridge!

Big West will be colouring your world in this large-scale work that sees US sculptor Dave Cole 'knit' a major landmark of Footscray.

The heat is on with the return of Tin Chef! The knives are out in the west’s irreverent and colourful cooking contest staged at the Footscray Market.

19 Trains is a story of passion and love, of blood, shit and tears. Of how sometimes our fear of death means we never see the power of life.

Art-Vend is a unique exhibition in which paintings, prints, drawings, poems and stories will be on sale from a vending machine at Footscray Station during the Big West Festival

Back of Burke shares stories about being the black sheep within an eccentric suburban family, led by a brilliant lunatic – my father

Sit back in the cozy surroundings of The Dog Theatre and let the afternoon unfold as the award-winning Beautiful Rubble invite percussionist Leah Scholes, to join them in performing an incomparable set list.

Cabaret performer Benn Bennett returns to Melbourne after a series of live musical performances in Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Berlin.

Presented by Company White Wolf, Born West paints an intimate portrait of life growing up in the western suburbs. Using dynamic physical, transformative and image-based theatre, Company White Wolf will take you on a physical and visceral journey of the senses.

Comm Inc is a project by local artist Ilona Nelson that highlights the importance of communication within our lives and community.

Digital Pill is a video blog about the characters in the Melbourne music scene...

Dinner in a Dry Dam is a song cycle supper hosted by a woman with song in her soul and a gun at her side.

Every Angel Is Terrible explores stories in which the equation comes out differently, and the child’s life is the cost of the transaction.

Affordable local art inspired by Melbourne’s inner west.

Founder has many meanings – a person who starts something, an ancestor, a metal worker, or a beginner...

Western Edge Youth Arts offers you the chance to choose your own party adventure and frolic into the night.

HerStory takes the audience on an exhilarating journey through the history of the Women’s Circus by weaving together and reinterpreting key moments from 18 years of performances

Over centuries, food and artists have had a close association and, for this reason, Raw Materials – The Studio have joined with 18 local artists to invite you to their Gourmet Art Banquet.

In this world premiere for Big West, percussionist Eugene Ughetti performs a series of works that cross the boundaries of music and choreography, challenging us to rethink how we see, hear and move.

Jive Talk is a space for people to meet, listen, engage and dream about a better world through social conversation.

“My tales, like those of The Thousand and One Nights, are intended not to persuade readers, but to entertain and touch them.” Jorge Luis Borges

Presented by Digital Pill. Take the passion and poetry of Brazilian guitar, add some dynamism and fire with West African percussion and stir in soaring and intricate melodies on saxes and flutes

An online project by Miza Moreau of Boombarr Studio that investigates the relationship between cultural diversity, immigration and landscapes.

Mini Art is all about the detail. No work is larger than 40cm and all are for sale, perfect for that small nook in your home.

Moving Image will feature experimental digital media artwork inspired by the western suburbs and screened across multiple sites throughout the festival.

As part of Big West, director and writer Matt Scholten will be creating Mr Football, based on the remarkable life and legacy of EJ “Ted” Whitten, the legendary Footscray footballer.

This is a rare chance to see Fiona Scott-Norman's The Needle And The Damage Done, a joyous romp through a Top 10 of the worst records ever released

Young people, their families and friends in Brimbank are invited to join us in celebrating the diversity and harmony within our community.

Presented by Footscray Community Arts Centre in association with Big West Festival

Every human being has one memory from their past, from childhood to old age, that can shape them forever...

Artists from across the western region are opening their doors for you to take a look behind the scenes at where the art is made, in the artists’ home away from home, their studio.

Parking is a series of artist-created car covers will appear, disappear and reappear over parked cars across the west.

“ …Listen. It’s night. Of all souls. Here live those not yet in heaven nor sent to hell. All souls they are. And this night’s named for them…”

The Anglican Parish of Footscray has several choirs reflecting our dynamic community – Tongan, Indian, Sudanese, Anglo-Australian and the Chinese Church choir.

For the past four years, shop windows in Seddon have come alive with photos of the local neighbourhood.

The inaugural Snuff Party featuring the Town Bikes, Suitcase Royale, the Saddest Couple In The World and, of course, the Snuff Puppets themselves.

Have ever wanted your own private training intensive on performance practice? Have you ever wanted someone to tell you what to do in every circumstance? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get inside a cow suit?

By Simon Tengende. Sustained is a play about lives lived and experienced, loss and finding each other in difficult circumstances.

It’s the west’s freshest youth festival, featuring three stages of live music and arts.

One girl, five personae, some rhythm, no method.

Come and experience an evening of strange and beautiful musical wonder, on the last night of the Big West Festival.

Benn Bennett offers you the chance to save the world from your bad writing...

Presented by Victoria University. Celebrating the joyous, sexy, sunny and unpredictable nature of life.

Join us on a journey through the worlds of seven Vietnamese Australian artists and their families.

The ravages of war brought Vietnam to a standstill post-1975. A country coming to terms with modernity, there was scarcely food on the table let alone film stock to feed the soul.

This exhibition dissects the ideas and politics behind the term un-Australian.

Media artist Tamsin Sharp will make a video artwork inspired by the childhood game of Chinese Whispers.

This event is a great opportunity to meet the filmmakers and learn about their craft, as each director will introduce their films and a short Q & A will follow after each screening.

During this year’s Big West, Westword brings two extraordinary poets: Allison Croggan, famous for her Pelinor series, fantasy novels and some fine published poetry, and Tom Kent, better known locally as the Barefoot Poet.

Free afternoon and evening demos of the home arts.

That’s a workshop in an actual workshop, designed for women interested in handling big tools at Big Fish (where big things are made).

Along the banks of the Maribyrnong River, five etched and painted volcanic rocks stand around a fireplace...

Local artists Pip Kelly and Ezeldin Deng have been workshopping with an inspiring group of young women from The River Nile Learning Centre...