Blak n Blues: Uncle Glenn Loughrey & Fiona Boyes at Melbourne Fringe Festival

Melbourne Fringe Festival season!

BLAK N BLUES is a conversation in Blues music, art and poetry. Created by Wiradjuri elder Uncle Glenn Loughrey and internationally awarded blues guitarist Fiona Boyes, it brings together two enduring oral traditions - First Nations storytelling and the deep Blues.

Uncle Glenn Loughrey is an artist, public speaker, published author and poet. He won the 2026 Mandorla Art Award and has been recognised as a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize, Doug Moran Portrait Prize, and the Blake Art Prize, among others. His works explore racism, indigenous identity and spirituality, colonialism, and ecology.

Fiona Boyes plays deep Blues, reflecting influences from a wide range of regional styles, drawing inspiration from the classic sounds of New Orleans, Chicago, and Mississippi. She is the 1st Aussie and 1st woman to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. As an 8 times finalist in the US Blues Music Awards (the only Australian ever nominated) and inductee in the Vic Blues Hall of Fame she is rightly known as Australia’s Queen of the Blues.

As ‘Blak n Blues’ unfolds on stage, Fiona plays one of her original songs. Uncle Glenn picks up on the topic or theme and responds with a yarn and poem of his own, bringing different insights. The Blues take on a new form – a yarning circle with guitars. The resulting conversation is both deeply personal, universal, and often very funny.

‘The pairing of blues and indigenous poetry works like a spiritual romance… You’re not just entertained; you’re asked to listen, learn, and witness the collision of two distinct but echoing oral traditions.’ – Mary Sinanidis, ‘On the House’ Feb, 2026. **** 4 stars