CO-OP NEWS
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Aug/Sep 2007

A Beanie Wonderland In Alance
By Co-Op Member, Anne Buff

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival gives people who weave, knit, crochet or work with felt, an opportunity to create beanies. Originally, the festival was a venue for knitters and for those who crochet to display their craft. Today, for a gold coin donation at the door, visitors can see that this has expanded to a celebration of a very specific and creative art form. Apart from Australian attendees, there were visitors from Malaysia, Japan, Brazil, France, Poland, Italy, New Zealand, Japan and Germany.

The beanies are made well before the start of the festival and before a designated date, then they are sent to the festival committee, which offers these hats for sale to the public during the three-day event. If participants are so inclined, they can also enter a beanie into a competition, the theme of which is set by the festival committee. This year, entries came from as far away as Japan. If one competition is not enough, you can also enter the 'fastest beanie-maker' event. The deal here is to make a beanie (and make it fit) in the fastest possible time.

The history of the Beanie Festival dates back to 1997. Adi Dunlop founded this now annual event, and is still a frequent visitor to the festival. As someone who worked tirelessly among the remote aboriginal communities, Adi saw the need to wear beanies, especially in Alice Springs where winter temperatures plummet at night.

Her main aim in establishing the festival was to bring people together to celebrate women's art, and the associated stories which would be exchanged as they sat around making beanies. Beanie-making was easy. You could sit around the campfire and produce works of art, it required no infrastructure, no big arts centre, and no government funding, so it was a perfect medium to express one's creativity.

During these 11 years, the festival has grown into a three-day annual event held at the Alice Springs Cultural Centre. Last year, 3,000 beanies were submitted to the festival; this year the event attracted 4,000. One woman I met had submitted 110 beanies for sale! As a 'beaniologist' and addict, Adi goes on record saying that she makes one beanie a day.

The event is not only focused on beanies; visitors also participate in a wide variety of fibre arts workshops. Weaving, dilly bag making, crocheting, knitting techniques and felt making, just to name a few. I was fortunate enough to watch some of the local indigenous women showing their basket-making, painting and spinning techniques. There is a strong involvement in this festival by indigenous women, who enter some amazingly creative beanies into the competition and also share skills with the public. Part of the money raised from sales of beanies and refreshments now supports workshops and programs in remote Aboriginal communities and in Alice Springs, where indigenous women have become involved in developing a beanie industry.

I didn't enter any beanies for sale or into the competition, but after spending the long weekend at the festival, I am inspired to get involved next year. Apart from the concrete visual and practical experiences, I take away with me not only the memories of the colour and vitality of the festival, but also the generosity of spirit of many of the women I met. As an avid knitter, I still have much to learn about this craft, so any question I asked would always be answered with a generous heart and a willingness to share information. If one couldn't access information, on the spot, addresses and emails were exchanged, knowing that one would receive information regarding a certain pattern, the name of a supplier or the possibility of an upcoming workshop.
Like so many other festivals, there was also a very large volunteer component involved, and this too comes under that umbrella of generosity of spirit. Ranging from the committee, to the people on the gate, to those operating the tills, to the organisers of the volunteers, to the one person whose endless task was to clean the coffee plungers for those who worked in the tearoom, each person played a vital role in making this event successful.

The story that touched me the most was about the woman who bought a beanie made by someone in Bairnsdale in Victoria, at the time of the floods in East Gippsland. "I don't even like this beanie," she said, "But I'm going to buy it anyway, because it was made by someone in Bairnsdale and people in Bairnsdale need all the help they can get."

To conclude, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Richena Bridge, who was instrumental in organising this trip for the both of us. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances she was unable to go with me.

For more information about the Beanie Festival visit www.beanifest.org

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", August/September 2007; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au, website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]