Wet and Wild

Saturday, April 21, 1990
The Concert Hall

The 1980s was a decade of neoliberal re-organization that emphasised individual responsibility, saw the privatisation of public goods and services, and encouraged interpersonal competition over collective good. These broad social shifts meant that community work in this era was increasingly difficult but increasingly necessary. 

Within this broader neoliberal context, DJ Ron Merko explains, the work of the GCDC was unique. “There was nothing else like it,” he argues, even in other countries; “anything else that I’d come across in travels, it was, somebody was doing it for profit, they put it on and oftentimes they were large elaborate events but it was the uniqueness of the GCDC being a community event. The funds that were raised by the event went back as money that provided income so that member groups could be able to do their work. That was truly unique.”