Annual Beannie Festival that brought wild and colourful designs to central Australia its last legs

ABC NEWS (Australia)

One of Australia’s most unique festivals is underway this weekend in central Australia where almost 7000 wild and colourful handmade beanies are on display. The annual Alice Springs beanie festival has been running for almost three decades with each year delivering more quirky and surprising designs. But with organisers unable to find the next generation of volunteers the festival is on its last legs.

Transcript

00:00I'm here at the 29th annual Beanie Festival here in Alice Springs in Central Australia where

00:08thousands of people are expected to come through the door this weekend and there are just some

00:13crazy and absolutely amazing beanies here including one that I'm wearing right now which

00:18is definitely wearable on the streets and some that are a little bit wackier like this one

00:23there's just an amazing array but I'm here with the organizer Joe Nixon who's been here

00:29from day one Joe can you tell us a little bit about the festival well the festival's grown from a

00:35small beanie party of a hundred beanies from a remote community called Yundamu to 6811 beanies

00:42here in 2025 the numbers have grown we've got 650 beanie makers from around the world who send

00:49beanies into Alice Springs and people just congregate into Alice Springs from everywhere around the globe

00:54to be a part of the Beanie Festival it's just huge and so we've heard that unfortunately

00:59this will be the second last Beanie Festival to be held here in Alice Springs can you tell us a

01:04little bit about why well we've just become victims of our own success really we've got too many beanie

01:09makers too many beanies too many people to fit in the doors we just can't fit it all together anymore

01:14there's just you know it's just no more space there's just no more emotional energy to to hold

01:20the Beanie Festival together so maybe a group of young volunteers will come through and you know take

01:26it to the next generation but at the moment we're going to have to close the doors in 2026

01:31i'm sorry to hear that this year just like every year there's some absolutely wild designs including

01:38one that's been made by a local eye specialist here in Alice Springs that he made completely from his own

01:44dog hair he collected the hair for almost five years and spun it into an owl there's another one that

01:51depicts a massive hot air balloon that someone can wear as art on their head so it's really hoping

01:57that someone does come along and pick up this festival so future generations really can take part

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