Kuku-Yalanji man and Traditional Owner Nash Snider said his family was devasted to hear the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival would not be going ahead in 2025. Photo: Supplied.
Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation (AGAC) has confirmed the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival is not done and dusted, and will return in 2026 in a “more grassroots version”, according to one of the new managers brought in amid internal operational concerns.
On 28 January, Cape York Weekly broke the news the iconic festival would not go ahead in 2025 due to funding issues and a staggering price tag of $600,000 to run.
Former AGAC chief executive officer August Stevens said last week he had “retired from the position of CEO” and cast doubt over the festival’s future, however, the organisation has since confirmed he was removed from his position last month.
Olkola Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer Debbie Ross, who is part of a new management team co-ordinated by United UpRise brought in to steady the ship of the Laura-based AGAC, said Mr Stevens was not in a position to talk about the festival.
“August is just talking out of his arse,” Ms Ross said angrily.
“[He] is just trying to stir shit.
“[If] if he had done his job, we wouldn’t have had to pick up the mess that he’s left, and the dance festival would be going ahead.”
Mr Stevens did not respond to requests from Cape York Weekly for an interview to discuss the claims.
Ms Ross said the new management group believed a culture of outsourcing had led to skyrocketing costs to hold the biennial event, and said the festival would take on a more scaled-back form when it returned in 2026.
“It was never going to be canned,” she said.
“I think it’s because everything was outsourced, so instead of using a lot of the local talent and local workers and preplanning … if you try and rush everything through in three or four months, of course your costs are going to skyrocket.
“We need to go back and do a cost analysis of why it cost so much, because that ($600,000) is extraordinarily high.”
Kuku-Yalanji man and Traditional Owner Nash Snider, whose family has previously been involved with opening and performing at the festival, said they had been devastated at the news the 2025 festival would not be going ahead, and criticised AGAC for a lack of consultation.
“We are incredibly disappointed, especially since we were not consulted or advised of the decision; our family was preparing to start rehearsals when we heard the news,” he said.
“For us, and many other families and clans across Cape York, the festival is more than an event, it’s a chance to return to Country, practice culture, and pass traditions to our young people.
“As people removed from our homelands, this is one of the few opportunities we have to reconnect with each other and on our traditional lands; the loss of this year’s festival is deeply felt.”
A spokesperson for Arts Queensland, which provides funding for the festival through its Backing Indigenous Arts program, confirmed the $77,000 allocated for this year’s festival had not yet been released, and added it was working with AGAC regarding the event’s future.
“No funding had been released for the now-postponed 2025 festival; funding is available for future events, but none of these funds have been contracted or provided to the Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation,” they said.
“Arts Queensland is continuing discussions with the organisers of Laura Quinkan Dance Festival regarding the event’s future.”
Ms Ross said festivalgoers would notice a distinctive local focus when performers take to the bora ring for the new-look event in 2026.
“What we’re looking at now is trying to make it more financially viable, but also keeping the essence of what it’s supposed to be, which is traditional dances and competing against each other,” she said.
“We’re working on the dance grounds now; we’ve employed a [local] crew to go out and actually start working and maintaining it, so that it’s not such a huge job when we actually go to have the festival.
“[We’re] making sure that the locals have input into it and it’s owned by the locals; this festival has always been about locals, so that’s what we want to bring it back to.”
Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation says the much-loved festival will return in 2026 after a cost analysis has been undertaken. Photo: Supplied.
