Mandi is a creative program director and cultural advocate with two decades of experience leading festival programs and creative industry sector development in Queensland, Tasmania, the UK and South Africa.

After cutting her teeth in the early 2000s as a Zedliner and graveyard announcer at 4ZZZ FM, Mandi’s passion for music, arts and social issues saw her find a home in festival management at Woodford Folk Festival. She progressed into creative programming and commercial development at the festival, before taking opportunities to work internationally with Glastonbury Festival, then relocating to Tasmania where she became immersed in the arts and cultural scene as the state’s Northern Arts Officer. She returned to Woodfordia in 2012 with a mission to develop and lead The Planting Festival. Mandi also programmed Contemporary music, Speakers and Ideas and multi-arts and media programs for Woodford Folk Festival until 2018.

Throughout her career, Mandi has continued to broaden her focus towards policy, strategy and sector development in government and industry roles, traversing economic and regional development and education. Mandi has led sector development and public programming for cultural institutions such as Arts Tasmania, AbAF, State Library of Queensland and the Creative Arts Alliance. As a trusted independent project consultant, she has worked with several local governments, universities and events across Australia. She is currently a director of the board for Green Music Australia.

As a creative, Mandi makes original shows and experiences for festival and cultural institution audiences with credits including Festival of Fortune (later Game Show Off!), The Lettering House, A Village Called …, Village Games, Jugger Siege, The Fix Australia Think Tank (with Charles Firth), Dangerous Fridays, ABC Live Podcast series, Nests and Monster Siege.

Mandi is inspired by the profound impact that music can have on issues of environmental and social justice and the generations of artists who have used their platforms to create change. She has recently undertaken post-graduate studies in international development, with a focus on the value of culture, arts and music. To her role at QMusic, Mandi brings this passion and her experience to create as many opportunities for artists and the sector as possible through BIGSOUND and QMusic, truly believing that music can create the ‘good change’ we want to see in the world.