Artist and environmental activist Toni Childs to perform in Albury, October 6

"So all the fan favourites in the first hour and then the second hour is a journey with all the new stuff," the award-winning artist and environmental activist told The Border Mail.

This "new stuff" will offer a glimpse into three big projects that will keep her busy long after the current retrospective concert tour ends with her performance at Albury Entertainment Centre.

Caring for our world is a common theme of her initiatives, It's All A Beautiful Noise (focusing on pollinators), Reef 360 (Great Barrier Reef) and Citizens of the Planet.

But such a serious topic doesn't mean her performances are solemn.

"What I've realised and I think I've realised it more from after the pandemic is that I'm a love pollinator, that's one of my superhero powers," Childs said with a laugh.

"I just kind of am an antidote to micro anxiety moments that we have in a day and it's a bit of a reset, so I think people leave feeling super loved up.

"As adults, we're not playing much, we're working, we're surviving, we're kind of bringing ourselves, particularly, out of this COVID time.

"We're not really playing and I feel like I'm filling that gap and also doing things that feel like micro choices that we can make in our daily lives that add up to something really powerful."

During her last visit to the Border in 2019, Childs met with beekeepers to talk about pollinators and It's All A Beautiful Noise but the creative project, like so many things, stalled during the COVID pandemic.

"It was a contraction for all of us, and now we're all popping our head out and feeling a bit more trusting that it's going to be OK," she said.

After living in this country for a decade, Childs became an Australian citizen in 2022, receiving confirmation in an immigration email that she held off reading at first.

"I opened it up and then I burst into tears," she said.

Now feeling "pretty cruisey with life", the performer is pleased by the audience response to her retrospective tour.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and I feel so grateful that my music has stood the test of time," Childs said.

"And now it's the next 10 years of bringing some new music and some new fun."

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