The Local’s Tony Sawrey recently enjoyed a leisurely and lavender-hazed afternoon-evening capturing a bit of the atmosphere of Lavandaze, always a favourite part of the ChillOut Festival program.

Held at beautiful Lavandula at Daylesford, Lavandaze is an ever-growing gathering of all the tribes of our rainbow to take part in a ritual of dance and love.

It delivered a journey from a hot and sunny day into night with the transformation of the beautiful historical property into a wonderland of technicolor to enhance an evening of excitement and adventure.

Held on Sunday March 9 Lavandaze was, as ever, a very popular inclusion on the ChillOut Festival wider program and Tony was kind enough to share some of his happy snaps…

Images: Tony Sawrey

ChillOut favourite Marcia Hines shared her sound check time with Sunbury and Cobaw Community Health’s Country LGBTIQA+Inclusion Program’s Birds of a Feather members at Victoria Park’s Big Top on Friday, March 7.

Birds of a Feather gatherings are held every three months at venues across the Macedon Ranges and Central Victoria.

The events, usually held over lunchtime, offer an opportunity for adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex to come together in a safe and affirming space, hear from a range of interesting guests and feel a sense of belonging.

Friday’s event also included a round of applause for Daylesford’s Danny Moynihan who was introduced as “one of ChillOut’s most fabulous volunteers”.

Danny had a copy of one of Marcia’s albums he was hoping she would sign, gifted to him by his late, great, wife Roz. (Which Marcia signed…)

Anyone keen to attend a Birds of a Feather event should call Mez on 5421 1666 or email mez.lanigan@scchc.org.au.

Check out the video here: www.tlnews.com.au/marcia-hines-chillout-sound-check

Words: Donna Kelly | Images: Kyle Barnes

It’s almost here. ChillOut is only days away with the theme of Rainbow Circus Spectacular. And national treasure Marcia Hines will be there – delivering a huge set of disco mega hits on Friday, March 7 under the Big Top at Victoria Park. 

Marcia said she was thrilled to visit ChillOut Festival for the first time. 

“My favourite performances have always been for the LGBTIQA+ community. I am taking leave from filming Australian Idol especially to travel to Daylesford for my first appearance at the ChillOut Festival. 

“I am so excited to visit such a beautiful part of Victoria but mostly to perform for my most treasured audience. I can’t wait for ChillOut.” 

All the festival favourites are back, including Bush Dance, Pool Party, Carnival Day, Street Parade, Poof Doof After Party and a host of other events will roll into venues across Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. 

There will also be social sports, comedy, art, and family-friendly fun including the All Ages Youth Muster In The Park. 

“The Youth Muster is an extremely important feature on the ChillOut events calendar,” ChillOut president Matt Clarke said. 

“Generally, regional youth are isolated from many activities and experiences purely because of location. 

“Travelling to any event in a capital city is costly. Event ticket costs, transport, and accommodation all become quite stressful and are often the final factor in whether they attend. 

“Being a young queer person in regional Victoria adds further layers of complexity, as often being out or proud of who they are can come with bullying and violence.” 

ChillOut Festival 2025 kicks off with a free community event under the ChillOut Big Top at Victoria Park on Thursday, March 6 from 6pm to 8pm, hosted by ChillOut favourites Dean Arcuri and Spankie Jackson. 

The Big Top Burlesque, pictured above, is also bound to be a crowd favourite. For all information and tickets head to www.chilloutfestival.au.

And check out the timetable on pages 10 and 11. The Local is proud to be ChillOut’s media partner for 11 years 

ChillOut president Matt Clarke was born and raised in regional Victoria in the small town of Wycheproof.

The youngest of six kids, life was all about “heavy” farming, agriculture and local sport. “And then you finish school and move away and come up with whatever you’re going to do for the rest of your life,” he said. 

“I was a bit lost when I left school, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I could have been a lot of things. I wanted to be a vet, I wanted to be a paramedic. I wanted to be a heap of things. But I had a really underlying passion for horses and the equines.” 

Not into doing things by halves, Matt headed to a big harness racing stable in Great Western, Victoria and spent the next 15 years there, on and off, training horses and competing all over Australia and New Zealand. 

It was a hard life, but one he loved, with the only downside the region and industry not offering the chance to open up as “a proud gay person, or lesbian or trans”. 

“That just wasn’t something that would happen. I mean, I was never scared to come out and I had to my family, it was just the environment you were in. It was a challenging space. But, you know, if people believed or had an idea that I may have been gay, that’s fine, and if someone was to ever ask me, I would have talked about it.

“But in such a small community people just had their own views and mindsets, and that is just how it was.” 

After a while Matt, doing that full-on thing again, moved to Ballarat for “the love of my life – but that didn’t work out”. 

He puts the end of the relationship down to a few things including having his mum pass away from a quick and sad death from melanoma. 

“That was really challenging. I was extremely close to my mum. So I guess that played on a lot of the emotions and the challenges of a relationship.” 

Matt said he remained in Ballarat but was lonely and without a tribe. 

“I’d been to ChillOut a number of times, viewed the parade, been to Carnival Day and just immersed myself in that from a distance. And then there was a call-out for a meet and greet for potential committee members. 

“It was a workshop day where you were asked to talk about yourself, like is there something that is going to let us know a little bit about yourself. I got up and I explained to the group about two tattoos that I had put there after my mum had died.

“One thing she always said to me was that she didn’t want me to have a challenging and difficult life as a gay person and before she died she told me to be strong and she told me to be happy. 

“The first tattoo on my left arm is a symbol of strength. And then the second tattoo on my right arm is a symbol of happiness. I look at them every day and they remind me of those powerful words. I shared that story to a group of strangers and just burst into tears.” 

Matt learned more about ChillOut and its history and “a little bit of a fire was lit”. Next thing he was on the committee and then the president. 

“It’s been great. A really satisfying journey on a personal level of growth and development and connection.

“It’s also seeing the festival continue to evolve, also in terms of engagement from community stakeholders and sponsors.

“We’re up to our 28th consecutive festival and rolling into our 30th anniversary, which is really exciting.” 

Matt joined the committee in the first year of Covid. A challenging space, he says.

“We all had to learn about Skype and Teams and FaceTime calls and how do we communicate. And then the ever-evolving process of, are we allowed to be together? What do the spaces look like? 

“The festival did go ahead in a live space, down at the amphitheatre at Hepburn Springs with big circles drawn on the grass and people having to sit within their circle. They essentially had to be self-contained.

“And the flagship event of the weekend, the parade, took a whole new turn. It was done virtually and we asked our supporters to record a clip of themselves in full gear or costume and we blended them into a streamed parade. And we took that as a tick, it was a festival.” 

Matt said this year’s ChillOut would offer many of the loved activities like the Bush Dance, the Grand Parade, Carnival Day, the Youth Muster and the Friday night opening which will be held in the Big Top at Victoria Park instead of the currently under renovation Town Hall. 

The theme for the weekend is Circus, which gives people plenty of scope for fun outfits which relive the fun times of country carnivals and circuses. 

Matt said his many skills from the equine industry and also in sales and management had given him a great skillset for ChillOut and he was loving the role.  

“One of the things that we love is seeing all of the businesses get involved in the festival. I mean, there are many queer-owned businesses in Daylesford and those that aren’t are just as welcoming to a queer community in regional Victoria.

“When the committee members go down and line the streets with our bunting, many of the businesses ask if they can get more – because they love the festival.”

The ChillOut Grand Parade is becoming a bit of a circus but the Sunday, March 9 event in Vincent Street, Daylesford is shaping up to be a real crowd pleaser. 

The Amazing Mill Market director, and avid collector of weird and wacky stuff,rMark Ward is bringing in a new member of his family, and introducing her to the crowds on the day. 

Tipping the scales at 300 kilograms, but no fat shaming please, Elle is a fully motorised elephant. 

She was built in Disneyland for Myer Adelaide to attract more children to the store. But plans do sometimes go awry. 

Rather than attract more customers, Elle was so life-like she actually scared the kids away. And was quietly retired from her department store position. 

Luckily, Mark saw her merits, paid thousands for his new pet, and proudly drove her from Adelaide to Geelong in the back of his ute – gaining attention from numerous newspapers and even a police escort for part of the way. 

“Elle looks so alive, she blinks her eyes, moves her tail and flaps her ears. That was the best drive I have ever done.” 

Elle will be ridden down Vincent Street, decked out in circus gear, in keeping with ChillOut’s Big Top theme, and hopefully will not scare any children. 

Meanwhile, over at The Local, plans are underway for a clown car – complete with journalists and photographers. 

Editor Donna Kelly said TL HQ was generally “a bit of a three-ringed circus so it’s not too much of a stretch to put together the clown car float”. 

The Local is a media partner with ChillOut – a partnership which started in 2014. See you over the weekend! 

Words: Kyle Barnes

By the time you read this the feathers will have settled, the pink boas put away to live another day and the glitter swept from the floor.

My prudish inner self does have to ask about the dudes dressed as dogs in the parade though, I think they were maybe just a couple of chums who got mixed up in the ChillOut vibe. And after all each to their own, right?

I have seen those guys before in other ChillOut parades but have never gotten as close, almost close enough to get bitten. For now I’ll park that image way down the back of my mind where the elephants go to die.

Speaking of vibes and jarring segues, there is definitely an autumn vibe in the air, granted it’s still a bit hot to pay it too much attention, but the apples are definitely ripening on the tree.

Shortly the mushrooms will be out, and the foragers foraging, but not me. After last year’s deadly Leongatha lunch the only place I will be prospecting for non hallucinogenic fungi is Tonnas – where there is a fabulous range all sorted for you and grown in places with humidity control, not in the wild.

A lot of our local eateries like to put these naturally unearthed meals on the menu, which up until last year seemed like a fabulous nostalgic notion of nosh, but it’s no thanks from me.

I like my grub to be rummaged up the old-fashioned way, straight from a quality controlled factory just the way the good Lord intended. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the nudity of food and I love the thought of kindly killed meats and naturally grown fruit and vegetables from the paddock to the plate.

However, when it comes to the subject of fungus the deadly ones look a little too similar to the yummy ones and there are not many people that I would trust to know the difference. Except for maybe our own Central Highlands fungi fanatic Alison Pouliot, who is not always on hand to pick my mushies.

But back to my autumn vibe. Some of the leaves have already started to turn on our trees and the harvest has started to make an appearance at our local markets.

I give the bird and spit in the general direction of Christmas and call this bit “the most wonderful time of the year”. In another month or so we will be able to burn our wood piles down the back of the yard while swilling red wine and gobbling down the last of the harvest offerings.

But for now, we are still in the thick of festival season, a plethora of culinary cuisine awaits our attentions and the days are still long.

Autumn vibe rant over…

It’s been a sparkling ChillOut festival in Daylesford over the March Labour Day long weekend. On Sunday morning the parade, filled Daylesford’s main drag with radiant, positive vibes. Images below: Eve Lamb

Throughout the weekend, at myriad feature events including opening night, bush dance and carnival, some pretty amazing boots and bling shone as they received a serious workout in keeping with this year’s festival theme. Images below by Michelle Donnelly Photography

ChillOut Festival, Australia’s premier regional LGBTIQ+ arts and cultural festival, is back in 2024.

From Thursday, March 7 to Monday, March 11, 2024, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs will once again turn into a rainbow wonderland for the “Boots & Bling” themed weekend.

Courtney Act will headline the festival with multiple performances and appearances across the weekend.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to finally set foot in Daylesford for ChillOut 2024. After hearing countless fabulous stories about this gem of a town and its vibrant community, I’m ready to sprinkle a little Courtney Act sparkle on the festivities.”

Festival favourites such as the fabulously camp Bush Dance (Saturday night)
and Street Parade (Sunday) will return, along with new events such as 100% Dance,
which will get the party started at Daylesford Town Hall on the Friday night. Poof
Doof is returning once again to host the official ChillOut after party (Sunday night).

Featuring over 50 events, ChillOut Festival is Australia’s premier and longestrunning regional queer festival, attracting nearly 30,000 visitors who fill the accommodations and restaurants in the region.

Macedon MP Mary-Anne Thomas said 2024’s ChillOut would be a fantastic event that benefits locals and visitors alike.

“Daylesford is well known as the queer capital of regional Australia, and every
year the local community embraces the transformation into a vibrant celebration of
diversity for four unforgettable days.

“ChillOut Festival is where country pride meets great music, performances, and
non-stop fun.“

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos said: “The Victorian Government is a proud supporter of ChillOut Festival – a fantastic regional event that celebrates the diversity of every individual in attendance. ChillOut Festival brings people together from all over the country, which fosters a sense of inclusion while also providing a boost to local businesses and jobs.”

Festival Programming committee member, Jacqui Walter said now was the time to secure tickets to the events, which sell out quickly. Link: www.chilloutfestival.com.au

Daylesford’s annual Chillout Festival has received $50,000 in funding from the state government’s Regional Events Fund to help stage next year’s event.
ChillOut Festival is Australia’s premier regional LGBTIQ+ arts and cultural festival, held annually in the villages of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. ChillOut Festival 2024 will be the 27th iteration of the festival, making it Australia’s oldest and longest running regional queer festival, now attracting 28,000+ visitors and filling accommodation and restaurants in the region.
To be held from Thursday 7th March – Monday 11th March 2024 (Labour Day Weekend), the festival is made up of over 55 diverse activities and events, including visual arts, live music, comedy, cabaret, parties, sport, social events, and public forums. This includes ticketed and free events from a range of LGBTQIA+ artists and performers. Chillout has continued to raise the profile of the Hepburn Shire as a visitor destination.
The Government is backing a jam-packed calendar of crowd-pleasing public events in regional and rural areas in 2023.
The $20 million Regional Events Fund is a critical component of the $633 million Visitor Economy Recovery and Reform Plan and supports festivals, sports events, creative exhibitions and other cultural celebrations.
The Regional Events Fund drives economic benefits to Victoria by increasing visitor numbers and length of stay, thereby boosting spending in regional areas and supporting local jobs.
Since 2016, the Government’s Regional Events Fund has funded more than 300 events across the state.
Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas: “We are proud to support Australia’s premier regional LGBTIQ+ arts and cultural festival because it encourages people to visit regional destinations and enjoy the wide range of experiences on offer.”

SOME fresh faces and feel-good favourites join the line-up as ChillOut
Festival approaches.
Choir of Hard Knocks and Lion will perform at the annual LGBTQIA+
pride festival event.

Australia’s most famous choir was introduced to the public in 2006 in the award-
winning ABC TV series Choir of Hard Knocks. Now in its 16th year, they continue
on their journey, with some of the original members from the award-winning
documentary, to ChillOut Festival’s annual carnival day.
The choir is an incredible tool for members to overcome social isolation and
homelessness through the joy and connection of singing.
Also joining the line-up is queer, black electropop/alt artist, singer, songwriter,
producer and dancer Lion who recently wowed audiences at Big Sound festival and
the Midsumma Festival Victoria’s Pride street party.
They join a star-studded rainbow line-up including MCs Nate Byrne and Art
Simone, Kate Miller-Heidke, Karen From Finance, The Lost Girls, Cerulean (Miss
First Nation 2021), Jude Perl, Elektra Lite, Tuck Shop Ladies, Greg Gould, Freddie
Merkin, Dean Arcuri, DJ Eddie, Diamond and York and DJ Du Jour.
Festival ambassadors Rudy Jean Rigg, commissioner for LGBTQIA+
Communities Dr Todd Fernando, Sally Goldner and Jude Munroe will also make
appearances.
Festival director Emma Ireland said that ChillOut Festival was for the whole
LGBTQIA+ community, young and old, city and country. “We’re so excited that
Lion will bring his high energy, joyful performance to the stage in Daylesford.”
The ongoing and regular contact the Choir of Hard Knocks provides to the
members has had a profound effect on their lives, leading many of the original 52
back to either part-time or full-time study or work.
Many had become socially excluded due to their socio-economic circumstances,
and the choir has enabled them to acquire new skills and rebuild personal confidence
and self-esteem, which Ms. Ireland said “is the goal of ChillOut Festival for the
broader LGBTQIA+ community, and the essence of this year’s theme ‘Find Your
Wings’”.
“ChillOut Festival was founded on the principle of being a safe space for people
to be themselves, connect, to create and celebrate community. The Choir of Hard
Knocks is a gorgeous example of that in action. ChillOut is a space for people to
overcome social isolation to connect with community. We are thrilled to have them
perform at ChillOut Festival.”
The full festival program features over 50 events running over five days around
Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. Events will range from large late night outdoor
dance parties, circus, drag and comedy shows, and a Sunday morning street parade, to
the more intimate, like art gallery exhibitions, social drinks, speed dating, all-gender
sport events, and rainbow storytime.
ChillOut Festival will run from March 9-13 (Victoria’s Labour Day long
weekend) in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, with events also organised in nearby
towns Clunes and Creswick.
Lion will perform at Ballroom Blitz on Saturday, March 11, 8pm–midnight.
Choir of Hard Knocks will perform at Carnivale, Victoria Park on Sunday, March
12, 11am-5pm.