Frolic Cabaret will heat up Winter Fest

OVER two Saturday evenings this month, Ballarat Winter Festival and Ballarat Frolic Festival will unite to present exciting cabaret showcases.

With burlesque, singing, drag and more, focussing on the avant-garde, anything is possible, and the two nights will not be the same.

Ballarat Frolic Festival’s Jay Morrison said the showcases have been curated by their host, Nellie Minelli, and will be simply fabulous and very inclusive.

“We ran these last year for the first time and we’re bringing them back because they were so successful. We ended up filling the space so much, people were sitting on the floor, and we reached capacity,” he said.

“There’s a lot of local cabaret artists and performers who don’t get as much exposure as they deserve. There is a bit of a gap here, we’ve identified. There used to be the Cabaret Festival in town, that closed and left.”

In 2018, more new and experienced performers expressed their interest in working with Ballarat Frolic Festival, now in its third year. Mr Morrison knew it was time to find new avenues for this talent to be seen and heard throughout the year.

“We’re a real community organisation. This event is about making sure there’s an LGBTI presence during regular festival events during the year that Ballarat has, like the Ballarat Winter Festival,” he said.

“We’re all about making sure that everybody is included, and that includes everybody age wise. Some people think that we’re just for young people, we’re not.

“A cabaret event like this is for anybody over the age of 18. This festival is for you, it’s for everybody. It’s not just a bunch of young people, we’re for the whole community,” Mr Morrison said.

For young, fresh Drag artist, HollyPop, the Winter Festival brings an opportunity to get some more stage time.

“Drag is still very new to me and having the opportunity to polish my drag craft in front of audiences is invaluable,” she said.

“In this year’s cabaret I’m intending to really showcase my talent and experience to give everyone a fabulous and fun show.”

Ballarat Frolic Festival will flirt with Ballarat Winter Festival on Saturday, 6 July and Saturday, 13 July at The Printers Room from 7pm to 11pm.

Ticket prices are between $10 and $20, and all minors must be accompanied by an adult. More information is available at frolicfestival.org/events.

The full week-long Ballarat Frolic Festival program is coming up in November. The festival is a not-for-profit, volunteer run event promoting LGBTIQA+ regional arts and culture. The group pays their performers.

During Ballarat Heritage Weekend, 700 local people experienced the Ballarat Frolic Festival team’s queer history exhibition.