Deaf Festival Sydney- Australia’s Largest Deaf Celebration Returned in 2025
30 August 2025.
The nation’s largest celebration of Deaf culture, history, and community took center stage again this year. Deaf Festival Sydney 2025 was held at Cathy Freeman Park, Sydney Olympic Park, on Saturday, August 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and was free to attend.
Open to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, Deaf Festival Sydney featured an exciting lineup of Deaf performers, Deaf businesses, and Deaf-led workshops. The event showcased the rich talents of the community across various artistic disciplines.
This was a proudly bilingual event, with interpreting and captioning provided across the main stage, workshops, and kids’ zone. Volunteer communication assistants were also on the ground to facilitate conversations between Auslan and English. Everyone was welcome to enjoy this celebration of culture, language, and inclusivity, whether it was their first time or they were a familiar face.
Deaf Connect Chief Executive Officer, Brett Casey, stated that Deaf Connect was proud to have supported this initiative, creating Deaf Space and uniting Deaf people from across the nation and abroad.
“Deaf Connect has a longstanding history with Deaf Festival in New South Wales, and it was a privilege to keep supporting this ongoing celebration of Deaf pride and community spirit as the Platinum Sponsor for the fourth consecutive year,” Mr. Casey said.
“The 2025 event promised an outstanding program, with performances by prominent Australian and international artists. Whether people came with their family or friends or wanted to build on their connections in the community, Deaf Festival Sydney had resources and services that empowered people at every stage of life.”
The Deaf Festival Sydney Organizing Committee highlighted the exceptional talent in this year’s lineup of performers and stallholders.
“We were thrilled to bring back this incredible showcase of Deaf talent and create a space where Deaf Australians could connect with culture, services, language, and creativity.
“The first Deaf Festival Sydney was held in 1992, in Darling Harbour. Over 30 years later, the festival has continued to grow each year, attracting almost 3,900 people in 2024—20 percent of whom came from outside Sydney, from interstate and overseas,” the Committee said.
This year’s festival headliners included a captivating show by Deaf performer Martha Rundell, as well as international acts by Deaf artists including Spanish performer Javier Guisado Martín, and Swedish stand-up comedian Florian Tirnovan.
Young people and families were engaged by an Auslan Storytime session courtesy of the City of Ryde Council, Art Sessions with talented artists Sue Jo Wright and Gonketa, and many more.
Deaf Festival Sydney was proudly supported by Deaf Connect, Convo, Concentrix, NextSense, PAH!, Word of Mouth Technology, Hearing Australia, Signpedia, Full Life, and Communication eXtra.
For event information, people visited the Deaf Festival Sydney website here:
ABOUT DEAF CONNECT
Deaf Connect is a whole-of-life service provider and social impact organization for Deaf, Deafblind, and hard of hearing Australians. The organization stands with the Deaf community to build capacity and influence social change while paying respect to history, culture, and language.
Deaf Connect is the largest employer of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Australia, a registered provider under the National Disability Insurance Scheme and an approved provider of in-home care for seniors. Deaf Connect is also the country’s biggest Auslan interpreting agency and provides training in sign language through its RTO (RTO Provider Number 41192).
