A Central Australian festival idea that’s not a drag

A FABULOUS festival celebrating drag queens and Alice Springs’ thriving LGTBQIA+ community will be worth up to $20.3 million to Central Australia by 2034, shows a conservative business plan shown to the NT News

Headline acts for the FABalice festival, Miss Ellaneous and Marzi Panne from Darwin pose in front of the Alice Springs sign in the Central Desert. Picture: Chloe Erlich/FABalice

A FABULOUS festival celebrating drag queens and Alice Springs’ thriving LGTBQIA+ community will be worth up to $20.3 million in Central Australia by 2034, a conservative business plan revealed to the NT News showed.

Alice Springs’ first annual FABalice Festival will run from March 8-10 this year and it is estimated it will make between $630,00 and $920,00 in 2019 – a figure projected to grow to at least $1.4 million in 2020.

Event co-ordinator Nicole Jervis said it was an important event for both Alice Springs and the Territory.

“The Northern Territory is known for such blokey adventure tourism,” she said. “We want visibility and a safe space for LGTBQIA+ people in rural and remote Australia.”

Ms Jervis said the NT had many great events – but it had nothing like FABalice.

“Alice Springs, in the 2016 Census we had some of the highest lesbian relationships reported in the country – the lesbian population in Alice is huge, so a festival shows this is what the community is made of, and celebrates it,” she said.

The 2019 event includes continuous drag performances, DJs, a march through Alice Springs’ town centre, chalk drawings and internationally renowned queens.

Ms Jervis hoped the 2019 event would grow bigger and more fabulous every year.

On February 1, Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryan will be in Sydney to officially launch the festival.

“We’re bringing the rainbow celebrations from the city to the bush,” he said.

“Alice Springs makes a huge effort around events.

“If we look at the history of events in Alice Springs, they just continue to grow.”

Mr Ryan hoped the FABalice Festival would develop in the same spirit as the Henley-on-Todd Regatta “boat” race, the Camel Cup and the Alice Springs Beanie Festival.

“We’ve always been terrific about generating our own fun,” he said. “We’re very good at making events iconic and doing it every year.”

Mr Ryan said the “heart” of Central Australia was very large – which made it a great place to host the positive community event.

“If you come to the centre of Australia, you’ll feel the love from everywhere,” he said.

To buy tickets or find out more, visit fabalice.com.