Feel a little faint for Burlesque star Anna Phalaxis!

What are the first signs of Anna Phalaxis? A weak or rapid pulse! Be prepared to feel a little faint when Anna takes the stage.

Anna Phalaxis is a teasing troublemaker of epic proportions. Feisty, flirty and fun, she’s new to the world of burlesque, and is quickly making her mark as a fierce and popular entertainer having performed at White Night Ballarat and the Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival.

Find Anna on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/annaphalaxisofficial/

Make sure you get your tickets to Frolic Cabaret here: https://www.trybooking.com/BCHAZ

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/307337840206600/

More info on Frolic Cabaret here: https://frolicfestival.org/events/

Rap up Frolic Cabaret with Lil Jul

And now for something completely different – local rapper Lil’ Jul will be doing a couple of short pieces as part of Frolic Cabaret at Winterfest.

As a song writer Lil Jul practices mindfulness through acknowledging the good and bad in writing, sometimes with playful language.  First drawn to the art of writing and poetry, eventually the young writer decided to give his writing a voice.

Projecting his feelings and experience on paper and eventually to music, Lil Jul aims to illustrate the imagery of song by words and deliver his bars in full authenticity, telling tales of melancholy but also self-discovery.

Make sure you get your tickets to Frolic Cabaret here: https://www.trybooking.com/BCHAZ

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/307337840206600/

More info on Frolic Cabaret here: https://frolicfestival.org/events/

Holly will make you HollyPOP!

Enjoy our second Frolic Cabaret bio – introducing HollyPop!

HollyPop is Ballarat’s newest Drag Queen having only started drag in August of last year.

Holly is a live singing and dancing sensation with a history of Musical Theatre and Commercial Dance. Eager to see what’s in store for her, Holly is always experimenting with drag and trying new things to discover what she can do. Keep an eye out for Holly as she dreams of bringing a new side of performance to Ballarat and the greater queer community of Victoria.

Having moved from Brisbane to Ballarat to study Musical Theatre, Nathan is ready to show what he can do. As a queer artist Nathan is always seeking to push the limits of performing and is excited to be involved with Frolic Festival for a second year.

In his final year of his Musical Theatre bachelor at Federation University he is itching to get out into the world and see what’s next. Interested in writing and creating his own work among the queer community Nathan enjoys exploring all elements of performing including drag.

Keep an eye out for a cheeky blonde with similar bone structure – she’s sure to POP up somewhere!

Make sure you get your tickets to Frolic Cabaret here: https://www.trybooking.com/BCHAZ

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/307337840206600/

More info on Frolic Cabaret here: https://frolicfestival.org/events/

Meet Nellie Minelli, our Frolic Cabaret Host

Over the next couple of weeks we’re teasing you with biographies from our upcoming Ballarat Winterfest Frolic Cabaret performers – enjoy!

Nellie Minnelli. Host of Frolic Cabaret.

Meet the host of our Frolic Cabaret nights coming up as part of Ballarat Winterfest.

Producer, artistic director, mother-hen, queer person, driving force, notorious bohemian.

With a theatrical career spanning 30 years, incorporating classical ballet, pantomime, cabaret, musical theatre, burlesque, vaudeville, music-hall and comic writing, Nellie is relishing the opportunity to host evenings that encourage young, up and coming performers.

She became a trailblazer by starting the first and only burlesque and vaudeville school in regional Victoria and is currently at the helm of vaudeville-burlesque troupe: ‘Empire of Sin’, who perform regularly around Victoria.

Nellie has worked with some of Australia’s leading directors, choreographers, vocal coaches and performers and has performed in intimate venues and to audiences of thousands.

After a lifetime dedicated to the theatre, she believes that live entertainment is needed now more than ever.

You can find Miss Nellie on FB here: www.facebook.com/nellieburlyq/ or online here: www.missnellie.com

Make sure you get your tickets to Frolic Cabaret here: https://www.trybooking.com/BCHAZ

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/307337840206600/

More info on Frolic Cabaret here: https://frolicfestival.org/events/

Meet Sarah, one of our Frolic Volunteers

Volunteers are so important to our festival. Without our Frolic volunteers, we have no festival. But who are our volunteers? What do they do? Well, meet Sarah, one of our Ballarat volunteers in our first Frolic profile.

Sarah helps out with our sponsorship, marketing and promotions working group, has performed at our events in the past (will do so again in 2019!), and is an all-round legend.

Preferred first name: Sarah
Pronouns: she/her
How do you identify? Lesbian
Describe yourself in 25 words or less: I’m a music teacher and singer. I love travel (and coming home again), food, reading (especially historical queer fiction), cocktails and cats.
How did you become involved in Frolic? Some friends (who happen to be committee members) talked me into it.
What attracted you to becoming involved? Free tickets and flattery.
What do you love about Frolic? The variety of events on offer. The focus on community building.
What do you hope for Frolic’s future? That it continues to provide opportunities for the LGBTIQA+ peeps in the Ballarat region to form connections and grow a strong community.
Favourite past event and why: Bush Dance 2017. Catching the bus out to Donegan’s Farm was a bit of an adventure. I felt warmly welcomed by Frolic Festival volunteers. The dances were really fun and I met some awesome people who I ended up becoming great friends with.
What are you looking forward to most at this year’s festival? Our first ever Carnival Day.
Pitch a fantasy event for Frolic in the future: A treasure hunt.
Outside of Frolic, what are you most passionate about? Giving kids opportunities to learn music.
Tell us about your relationship with Ballarat: Moved here from Melbourne in 2004 for cheaper property. Stayed because Ballarat keeps getting better.
What do you love about Ballarat? It’s small enough that it’s an easy place to live, but big enough to keep me entertained. The food scene keeps getting better and better and there are more festivals popping up every year. I love that I never have to travel for more than 10 minutes to catch up with friends.

**

Thanks so much Sarah for sharing your story! Part of connecting the community is getting to know and celebrating its individual members and we’re so happy you were the first cab off the rank. We’ll continue to share the stories of our Frolic Ballarat volunteers in further updates!

Have you ever thought about getting involved in Frolic Festival as a volunteer? More info here: https://frolicfestival.org/volunteer/

Chorus rocks the Mining Exchange!

From goosebumps to clapping and cheering, there was a real buzz in the air last night at the Ballarat Mining Exchange. 

180 people filled the Mining Exchange to hear the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus and special guests shOUT Youth Chorus sing some classic Bowie and Lennox tunes. 

Highlights were Bowie and Freddie Mercury classic ‘Under Pressure’, Bowie’s haunting ‘Life on Mars’, Annie Lennox’s emotional ‘Why’, and the surprise fans making an appearance during the energetic encore, ‘Walking on Broken Glass’. Yes, perfectly timed colorful fans held by the performers seemed to burst out of nowhere to rapturous applause from the crowd!

So, who wants the Chorus to return?!

It really was wonderful to have the Chorus performing in Ballarat – thanks for the shout outs to Frolic Festival! It was lovely working with you! xx 

Music truly connects the whole LGBTIQA+ community – add a little theatre and pizazz and we really show up in numbers! 

And that’s why we’re excited to have the Frolic Cabaret Nights coming up VERY soon as part of Ballarat Winterfest. We can’t wait to have everyone join us for that too!

The Frolic Cabaret is across two nights – each night will feature different performers and performances. Some artist bios will be teased soon – get excited!

Tickets have started selling so we encourage you to get yours now so you don’t miss out – there is limited capacity! The Printers Room is a cosy venue!

More info here: https://frolicfestival.org/events/

Tickets here: https://www.trybooking.com/BCHAZ

Calling all artists! …Hello? …Are you there?

Frolic Festival Art Show 2019 – artist call for Perception vs Reality

The Frolic Festival Art Show is back in November 2019, bigger and better than ever!

If you are LGBTIQA+ (or make LGBTIQA+ art) and have a connection to Ballarat or surrounds we would like to invite you to submit work. We want this to be a true Ballarat art show.

This year we hope artists will enjoy exploring their own response to the (optional) theme Perception vs Reality. The exhibition will run from 7-13 November 2019, and Frolic will once again be awarding People’s Choice and Committee’s Choice prizes.

Let’s celebrate our creativity, our diversity, and our pride!

Email art@frolicfestival.org for an application form, terms and conditions of entry, or to ask any questions.

Deadline for applications is Friday, 20 September 2019

Save the date for Frolic www.frolicfestival.org/events

Rolling out the red carpet

The Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus will be in town THIS Saturday for REBEL REBEL so you only have a couple of days left to get your tickets. Don’t miss out!

Get them here before it’s too late: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=501250

We’re really looking forward to it and will see you there!

We want to partner with you!

We’re about bringing the community together, having fun, being visible, and showing pride through arts and culture events.

We try to cater to the whole community. But have we missed something? Maybe something you’d like to make sure is part of the 2019 Frolic Festival program?!

It could be that you’re a local business and want to run a special event under the Frolic umbrella; or you could be a local community or volunteer organisation that wants to reach a new audience with some events or workshops (maybe a knitting circle? a dance class? a rugby game?!). The sky is the limit.

We’re already working with three different local LGBTIQA+ friendly organisations to run events during Frolic Festival and now we’re throwing open the doors to all friendly faces and ideas.

If you want to partner with Frolic contact us at info@frolicfestival.org with the subject line: ‘Partnering with Frolic’. Give us as much info as possible about you and your idea, and we’ll be in touch ASAP.

Your idea might be perfect or a little too wild, it could be for this year or next year, but unless you chat to us we won’t hear about it. We’re aiming to finalise the 2019 program by August so don’t delay!

 

Frolic Festival is Ballarat’s only lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual, queer, and asexual (LGBTIQA+) arts and culture festival. We’re growing bigger every year and this November will be our third year. Head here for more info about us: https://frolicfestival.org/about-us/ 

 

And the winners are…

In case you missed it, we live streamed the draw of our Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus REBEL REBEL winners in a dorky video on Facebook. It’s already racked up over 1500 views! Wow!

We’ve tried to notify the winners but only one has responded so far! That means one of them has missed the video completely – is it you?

Click the video here to find out if you won:

Also, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t win – tickets are still available! Come meet some new Frolic friends, be entertained, and show our Melbourne visitors just how welcoming we are and how strong the LGBTIQA+ community in Ballarat is.

For more event info and find out how to get tickets click here!