Impossible Orchestra event wins award at Cannes festival

The Impossible Orchestra event, part of the Gillard Government’s national $1.6 million Care Aware Campaign, has taken out a top gong at a prestigious communications festival in Cannes.

Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers Amanda Rishworth congratulated McCann Melbourne, the creative team behind the event’s success, on winning a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week.

The festival is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications, with more than 35,000 entries from all over the world showcased and judged at the festival.

“The Impossible Orchestra was a seemingly impossible event, with the orchestra performing at a free 24-hour concert in Melbourne in October last year to raise awareness of the round-the-clock role of Australia’s 2.6 million unpaid carers,” Ms Rishworth said.

“Led by McCann Melbourne, the event was a roaring success, with 270 musicians, celebrity hosts, and the community coming together in an incredible show of unity to support carers.

“The Australian Government is proud to have supported this important initiative.

“Our Care Aware Campaign aims to build recognition and appreciation of the nation’s carers who care for loved ones who may have disabilities, medical conditions, mental illness, alcohol and drug issues, or who may be frail or elderly.

“The campaign also encourages hidden carers, such as those who see themselves first as parents, partners, a child or young person, to recognise themselves as carers.

“I want to thank the creative agency McCann Worldgroup as well as the Reference Group it established to assist with the campaign’s development comprising representatives from Carers Australia, Carers New South Wales, Headspace, the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council, COTA, the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and the First Peoples Disability Network.”

The Care Aware campaign is an initiative under the Gillard Government’s $60 million National Carer Strategy, a 10-year reform plan which takes a national approach for the first time to better respond to the needs of carers, so that carers have the same rights, choices and opportunities as other Australians.

For more information, go to www.careaware.com.au.