Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation has confirmed the iconic Laura Quinkan Dance Festival will not go ahead this year, sparking confusion and questions from disappointed performers from across Cap York. Photo: Supplied.
Performers may have shared their stories and culture in the dust of Laura’s ancient bora ring for the last time after organisers decided to scrap the 2025 Laura Quinkan Dance Festival without any consultation.
The biennial celebration of traditional dance was due to be held later this year and attract thousands of patrons from across Australia, but Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation (AGAC) has confirmed the festival will not be going ahead.
AGAC chief executive officer August Stevens told Cape York Weekly via text message on 23 January the popular event had been cancelled after being asked about its status, however, when presented with follow-up questions about the decision, he said he had “retired from the position of CEO” and referred this masthead to AGAC chairman John Ross.
“[T]he festival is not happening and had been shelved for the time being,” Mr Stevens said in his text message.
“I am no longer the spokesperson for Ang-Gnarra corporation (sic) as I have retired from the position of CEO.”
Despite Mr Stevens’ assertion he was no longer in AGAC’s top job, the organisation’s website and the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations – which oversees the governance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations – still show him as holding the position.
Mr Ross did not respond to multiple phone and email requests for an interview, but Cape York Weekly has confirmed through another AGAC source there will be no festival in 2025.
Rumours of the festival’s demise have been met with disappointment and claims of a lack of transparency by the organiser, with one stakeholder, who spoke to Cape York Weekly on the condition of anonymity after co-ordinating their community’s performers to attend the 2023 event, saying the lack of communication was “an insult to everyone who makes an effort to dance at Laura”.
“We’d heard a few rumours before Christmas it wasn’t going to go ahead, but there’s been nothing official and nothing to tell dance groups who have performed every two years they (AGAC) were ditching it,” they said angrily.
“There’s a huge effort involved with organising dancers, getting the performances polished and then transporting a big group of people to the festival from hundreds of kilometres away or more.
“If they’re scrapping it without telling us, it’s an insult to everyone who makes an effort to dance at Laura; it’ll hurt the Cape and the reputation of what has been an iconic Indigenous festival.”
Dev Lengjel, who helped take Bamaga dance team Gubamarkai to the iconic event in 2023, said a phone call from Cape York Weekly was the first he had heard of the festival’s cancellation.
However, as the Northern Peninsula Area Cultural Festival co-ordinator, he offered an understanding perspective of the work and funds needed to put on an event as big as the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival.
“I could only say that there are always reasons beyond our control for things not to happen, and it’s sad that such an iconic event is not going ahead, but wishing everybody the best to move forward,” he said.
“As outsiders, we can only be supportive of them not going ahead because there must be some pretty good reasons.”
In May 2024, Mr Stevens told Cape York Weekly the event was in danger of becoming a “memory” after stating “the cost to produce and operate the event is an enormous sum, more than $600,000”.
He added the festival broke even in 2021 and cost AGAC “$60,000 out of its own business finances” in 2023, however, no publicly available audited financial statements are available to support the veracity of his claims.
In 2023, festival patrons paid between $160 for a three-day adult pass and $480 for a three-day family pass and four nights camping, but according to Mr Stevens, the sales were not high enough to keep the festival alive.
“As a business, our corporation can no longer afford to operate or produce this iconic Indigenous event just to break even or [go] into debt,” he said last year.
“Funding has been a constant issue over time; this has required grant applications to the Queensland Government departments for financial support to produce the event each two years.
“The applications for funding involve a myriad of hurdles to clear and a time lapse to await an outcome of approve or not approve.”
Mr Stevens’ criticism of the funding process is at odds with an assessment by Arts Queensland, which has funded the festival through its Backing Indigenous Arts multiyear funding stream since 2011, with the government department telling Cape York Weekly it had been given no indication the event would not be going ahead this year.
“Historically, the Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation received $70,000 for each festival,” an Arts Queensland spokesperson said.
“This year, the Corporation will also receive a 10 per cent uplift of $7,000 to support its delivery of the 2025 event, recognising the increasing costs of delivering the festival.
“Funding of $70,000 for each festival beyond 2025 has also been confirmed within Arts Queensland’s annual base funding allocations.”
The biennial event has been an opportunity for dancers across the Cape to showcase their talents and culture since the 1980s, but stakeholders have said there was no consultation or notification about the festival’s cancellation this year. Photo: Suppled.
