BY EMILIO LANERA

Radio Monash will host an online musical festival from midday, showcasing the talents of Monash University students both past and present.

Inspired by the Isol-Aid concerts, which have been taking place every weekend during the pandemic, Radfest will be streamed from Radio Monash’s Instagram account today and May 19 from midday.

Both days are free to view but attendees can donate to Radio Monash’s fundraiser for Support Act, an Australian charity that provides crisis relief services to artists, crew, and music workers.

Radio Monash’s director of journalism Ivy Trim said Radfest will showcase the talents of musicians within the Monash community.

“We do have quite a few artists performing who already have followings...but we’ve also got a bunch of people, who have never necessarily played a gig,” she said.

“So this concert is like a soft launch for their performing careers.”

Former Sorbonne-nouvelle University student Maddy Street will be performing at Radfest from her childhood bedroom in Normandy, France.

Ms Street graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts and Literature major but spent her final two semesters on exchange at Monash University.

“I was actually planning to move back to Melbourne in September this year to pursue my music career, but obviously that got put on hold because of COVID-19,” she said.

“I met some fantastic people at Monash to make music with… I met two producers who were also exchange students from America and they produced two tracks that will be on my new EP.”

Ms Street released her debut EP, Medusa, in 2018 and will be releasing another this year on June 11 titled Blue.

Ms Street said she is excited to perform at a gig like Radfest given the current situation.

“It is good we have this platform like social media so we can still perform; it’s not the same as performing live but it’s still a great way to get your music out there,” she said.

“I usually perform in English but one of my songs I am performing [at Radfest] has part French in it so hopefully I’ll expose some Australians to a tiny bit of French music.”

Second year Monash University Commerce and International Relations student Liam Hynes will also be performing at Radfest and said he plans to perform original songs.

“I’ve been writing a lot of music during isolation and I have plans to put some stuff out and see how people respond,” he said.

“There’s not much presence of my music anywhere...I did do a few open mic gigs at the start of the year but other than that I haven’t done much with my music since I left high school.”

Mr Hynes said he hopes to connect with other artists through Radfest and possibly reach out to work with them.

Readers can watch Radfest by tuning into Radio Monash's livestream at midday on its Instagram page.