Alice Springs Beanie Festival

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival (Beanie Festival) is a community arts event that provides opportunities for artists from remote Indigenous communities and the wider community to make, exhibit and sell beanies. Through workshops, a competitive exhibition, a touring exhibition and participation in national events, the Beanie Festival celebrates the humble beanie, the creativity and storytelling of Indigenous artists and Beanie Makers from across the country and the globe. We are an annual event since 1997 and plan to continue well into the future. Over 500 beanie makers from around the world create and are involved in the Festival, 150 volunteers attend to run the festivities and over 7000 visitors participate in events over the weekend.
Beanie Festival, 25 June – 28 June 2021: Hosted at the Araluen Arts Centre: 4-days of 30 workshops, entertainment, exhibitions and displays with over 6800 unique handcrafted beanies on sale. A major Alice Springs annual event with remote Indigenous women attending the festival and working with the Alice Springs community and tourists teaching them to make beanies and providing a lovely cross-cultural experience. There is also kangaroo tail and damper cooked by the Indigenous women for the tourists to experience.
National Beanie Exhibition: Begins opening night of the Beanie Festival at Araluen Galleries and runs for 3 weeks exhibiting, for sale, the best of the best Beanies of 2021.
Remote Indigenous Workshops: In 2021, across 5 remote Communities, over 50 participants attended workshops with more than 200 Mukata (Beanies) being exhibited and sold at the 2021 Beanie Festival (demand always exceeds our capacity to supply)
Tourism Bonanza: Over 7,000 visitors attend the 4-day festival event and 3-week exhibition. 50% of attendees are interstate or international visitors to the NT.