Alice Springs Beanie Festival Explained

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival (also called simply the Beanie Festival) is an annual, community based, four-day festival celebrating beanies in all their forms.[1]

The festival is held in June each year at the Araluen Cultural Precinct in Alice Springs.[2]

Overview

Parts of the festival include:

The Beanie Festival attracts thousands of tourists to Alice Springs each year.[9]

History

The Beanie Festival was started in 1997, on a much smaller scale, with a 'beanie party' designed to create a unique social-enterprise and it was the idea of Adi Dunlop. The festival was inspired by the cold desert winters and existing popularity of beanies with Central Australian Aboriginal people who were already creating colourful and individual handmade creations. Beanies were often decorated with seeds, various fibres and other embellishments.[10]

Beanies were also picked as a perfect social-enterprise as they are ideal for the tourist market, being light and inexpensive.

The 2020 festival, set for June, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. The Festival was next held on 25-28 June 2021.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: What we do . Alice Springs Beanie Festival . en-Au . 2019-11-25.
  2. Web site: The Alice Springs Beanie Festival . www.discovercentralaustralia.com . en-gb . 2019-11-25.
  3. Web site: Alice Springs Beanie Festival. 2017-06-18. Off The Leash. en. 2019-11-25.
  4. Web site: Information for all Beanie Makers. Alice Springs Beanie Festival. en-AU. 2019-11-25.
  5. Web site: The Alice Springs Beanie Festival. www.discovercentralaustralia.com. en-gb. 2019-11-25.
  6. Web site: About Us Central Craft. centralcraft.org.au. 2019-11-25.
  7. Web site: Why I Love the Alice Springs Beanie Festival. Amanda. 2014-06-23. Travel Outback Australia. en-AU. 2019-11-25.
  8. Web site: Workshops and Festival Program. Alice Springs Beanie Festival. en-AU. 2019-11-25.
  9. Web site: Thousands head out to Alice Springs Beanie Festival. Krishnan. ABC News: Shuba. 2016-06-24. ABC News. en-AU. 2019-11-25.
  10. Web site: Our Story. Alice Springs Beanie Festival. en-AU. 2019-11-25.
  11. Web site: News . Alice Springs Beanie Festival . 5 July 2021 . en-AU.