Final Alice Springs Beanie Festival brings joy to nearly sellout crowds

The 30th and final Alice Springs Beanie Festival has been a sellout, with almost 8,000 handmade creations snapped up by visitors to the colourful event.

Event organiser and chief beanieologist Jo Nixon said the festival had set a new record, selling $400,000 worth of beanies in three days.

Over its three decades, the quirky event has brought in more than $4 million in sales profits — 30 per cent of which has been reinvested into funding creative workshops in remote communities across the territory.

Ms Nixon said she was “really proud” of the festival and all it achieved over its years.

“It makes my heart sing to just see the joy that me and all the volunteers have brought to people,” she said.

This year’s festival was declared the final one due to aging volunteers and the size of the event becoming too big for the current venue.

“We just didn’t want it to get tired and people start having a bad time because these queues are too long,” Ms Nixon said.

“I’m so happy we’re ending on a high note.”

Beanies bring opportunity and warmth

It was through the community workshops that Julie Kitson — who lives in Willowra, a remote Aboriginal community about 340 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs — was introduced to the new art form 13 years ago.

“I learnt to do a needle felting when the beanie festival went out to Willowra to run the workshop, and then I came to Alice Springs when the beanie big event was happening here,” Ms Kitson said.

Since then, Ms Kitson has become a master of the craft and now teaches others how to create beanies both in Alice Springs and in other remote communities.

“We have a long table, and everyone comes along from here and interstate, we teach them and guide them on how to use the needle to felt a wool onto fabric,” she said.

“Also, I’ve been going out with other staff members to run the workshop in the community, one week in each community.

“I’ve been to Titjikala, Santa Teresa, Yuendumu, Willowra, and Tennant Creek.”

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Ms Kitson said she cried when she heard this year would be the last beanie festival.

“I cried because this is my most beautiful work that I’ve been doing,” she says.

Maggie Pereyra, who has been taking part in the festival for nine years, agreed it was sad to see the festival come to an end.

Ms Pereyra won this year’s Our Favourite Animal Prize for her beanie featuring two black red-tailed cockatoos, titled ‘Jamie and Lou’.

“I named it Jamie and Lou after my friends who had just gotten married … it reminded me of them, the black cockatoos, how they like mate for life,” she said.

Ms Pereyra said the beanie was largely made from felt, with a foam base inside the birds to give them their shape. The birds’ more structured features — the beak and feet — have been made from polymer clay.

“It took me, you could say, like a week working on it eight hours a day, perhaps,” she said.

At the centre of Ms Pereyra’s winning beanie is a felted heart which her friends gifted to guests at their wedding — a perfect final touch to a beanie all about love and gratitude.