Hotel group pulls out of Adelaide gay Feast Festival

Woolworths-owned hotel group ALH has withdrawn its sponsorship of Adelaide gay and lesbian Feast Festival.

Woolworths-owned hotel group ALH has withdrawn its sponsorship of Adelaide gay and lesbian Feast Festival only days before the event’s opening party to be headlined by singer Dannii Minogue on Saturday.

The deal, which is believed to have included supply of alcohol and bar staff from the group’s Ramsgate Hotel at several Feast venues, is understood to have been worth more than $40,000.

ALH Group South Australian manager Andrew Gunn said it had withdrawn support because it was “commercially unviable”.

It comes after weeks of management and staffing problems at the debt-laden festival.

The festival’s board suspended general manager Cassandra ­Liebeknecht on full pay last month over issues of mismanagement and is two weeks beyond a deadline for her to answer allegations.

Ms Liebeknecht’s suspension prompted the immediate resignation of four of Feast’s 10-member board and further claims that Ms Liebeknecht had been targeted for her heterosexuality.

The festival appears to have purged all heterosexual workers and board members, with former office manager Tegan Woodham saying in a resignation letter that she “did not feel safe” without the support of the remainder of the board and had felt “belittled and patronised” by a board member in contrast to behaviour towards homosexual staff.

Financial records show Feast had an accumulated debt of $82,841 in the year to December.