Regional LGBTQ+ festivals call for help as sponsors including Coles pull support

Queer festival organisers say their events are at risk of vanishing as major sponsors withdraw their support.

Many festivals are supported by sponsorships and grants on a year-to-year basis, but are now finding those dollars are drying up due to a range of economic factors.

Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras president Holly Conroy said major sponsor Coles was no longer going to provide its annual $15,000 to that festival.

"If there's no sponsorships, and we can't get businesses to come on board, then we may see the last of Wagga Mardi Gras," she said.

The festival is due to be held again in April next year.

In a statement, Coles said it withdrew support for Wagga Mardi Gras "to ensure that we are sharing the support that we can provide to other communities".

"We support and celebrate a variety of regional and metropolitan based community-led pride events," the statement said.

Another previous sponsor, Charles Sturt University, said in a statement that its budget for 2025 was still being finalised and a decision was "yet to be made" about continuing its platinum sponsorship of $27,500 a year to the Wagga Mardi Gras.

Ms Conroy said losing regional queer festivals would impact more than just the entertainment value and revenue they brought to communities.

Bringing support and smiles

It is a similar story for Rainbow on the Plains, a queer festival held at Hay in south-western NSW over the weekend, which has also seen sponsors pull out.

President Will Miller said queer festivals were an important way to bring support services to regional areas.

"If we don't have the festival, we don't know where to refer people," he said.

"If you don't have the exposure and the awareness, you don't have the connections and then you don't know how to identify in a community.

The Drag'd Out festival at Beechworth, in Victoria's high country, has scaled back its festival from three days to one afternoon, after major sponsor Billson's went into administration.

Billson's had previously provided $10,000 a year in sponsorship.

President Andrew Madden said it meant fewer opportunities for the community to learn about queer culture.

"We're at risk of losing visibility," he said.

"What we're trying to celebrate is a different part of humanity we don't often see."

The administrators for Billson's, McGrathNicol have been contacted for comment.

Be what you can see

Queer festivals have helped people like Jacquie Kennedy feel more connected to her community.

As a gay woman from Hay, she said queer festivals helped her come out later in life, at age 40.

"Once I did it, I was like 'What's all the drama?'" she said.

ACON Health NSW region outreach manager Gavin Prendergast said festivals were a lifeline for the community to learn what was on offer to help them.

"It's vital people who don't live in the 'gay ghettos' or big regional centres get to live a fulfilled, great, happy rainbow life," he said.

"Being at an event is so important for us because it shows community that we're there, we want to see them thriving and living the best life possible."