Department of Health
If you put your hand inside a giant clam at the upcoming Darwin Fringe Festival you won't get a pearl but you will get a different type of surprise.
In a partnership with the Darwin Fringe Festival and the Top End Health Service's Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus unit, Territory artists are creating new artworks to dispense safe sex products like condoms at festival locations.
This follows on from a successful pilot project which ran during the 2019 Darwin Fringe Festival. Creative condom dispensers designed by Territory artists included Clam-ydia, tacos and a bee-HIV-e.
Sexual Health Physician Dr Manoji Gunathilake said the Darwin Fringe Festival condom project aimed to promote safe sexual health and conversation around always using condoms.
"The creative dispensers stimulated conversation between festival audiences with an educational component on safer sex products which we hope will continue at this year's Darwin Fringe Festival," Dr Gunathilake said.
"We received a lot of positive feedback from audience and community members on the dispensers two years ago and see this as a creative way to get condoms and other safe sex products out there as well as the important messages that go with them."
During the 2019 festival, 3300 condoms and 1200 lubricant packets were distributed.
Darwin Fringe Festival Director, Hannah Illingworth, said the partnership provided an opportunity to engage independent artists and let them try new things with their skills.
"They were able to push their own boundaries of creativity and technique whilst solving an important problem. Seeing patrons interact with the works was awesome and we loved hearing all of the conversation bubbling around our main venues," she said.
"Our aim is to make sure there is a platform for creatives across all art forms and this project made sure that visual artists can be paid to tackle new issues of communication and functionality. I couldn't think of a better way to combine our shared values and mission."
Expressions of interest for artists to create the condom dispensers open today and close at midnight on Sunday March 14.
The dispensers will be present at Fringe venues from July 2-11.
