hepconcert
My parents were into vaccinations. I’m up to date with every shot I “should’ve” had since my birth. And until I heard about the Hepconcert taking place in Sydney on October 9, I hadn’t thought about hepatitis B or C since I got my “Hep B? Not me!” vaccine in high school.
And yet, almost 400,000 people in Australia are affected by either Hepatitis B or C, but it’s somehow managed to slip under our radar nonetheless.
Stephen Tulett hopes to change that.
After running into an old friend of his who was suffering from hepatitis C and who asked Tulett to be involved in an event in Adelaide that was aiming to raise awareness and funds around the disease, Tulett (who was unavailable for the Adelaide event) instead decided to pull together his music industry contacts and has organised the HEPConcert to take place this weekend. The event includes a wonderful lineup of musicians including Anthony Ackroyd, Beccy Cole, and soul/jazz singer, Julia Clarke, who had a chat to lip about the event and the cause.
‘ I think when somebody’s got a lot of passion and really tries to pull the music community together, it’s always worth it to get involved with them and give a bit of support,’ she says of her own decision to perform. ‘When I first heard about it, I wasn’t aware that there had already been a fundraising and awareness concert that had happened in Adelaide so obviously there’s a bit of a groundswell for the music community to get involved in and generally that kind of ongoing support is what will raise more awareness than doing it on a one off basis. It’s something that I’d be happy to get involved in again in the future.’
Music has often been used as a platform to raise awareness, probably because, as Clarke states, ‘It’s an enjoyable thing.
‘It’s not a situation where people might have to come along and learn some science behind it…while that’s still important, I think everybody likes to have fun so when you’re trying to raise awareness, doing it in the context of something like this is always hopeful.
‘I’m really looking forward to it.’
Don’t miss the HEPConcert this weekend at the Gaelic Club in Sydney!
