Gay Ski Week Postponed

Gay Ski Week, the annual edition of Australia’s only pride event in the snow, is the latest casualty to the COVID-19 pandemic and Victoria’s second wave. On Wednesday, the organisers of the event announced that the 12th edition has been postponed to September 2021.

“We will make it [next year’s program] bigger and better,” Adam Bold, from Points of Difference Travel and Events, said in a live streamed announcement.

“Due to the current COVID-19 situation in Australia, our only national pride event will now be celebrating 12 years in 2021. We had such an amazing program planned for 2020, we didn’t want it to go to waste, so we are simply picking everything up and moving it to next year! All the frosty fun, amazing accommodations, cool events and naughty aprés action will all be back, bigger and better in 2021,” the organisers said.

The new dates are September 3-12, 2021.

 “The 2021 event will go across two weekends in September, giving you 10 days of frosty fun, and nine nice and slightly naughty nights of entertainment, being delivered to you by Frock Hudson, and other amazing DJs, and entertainment talent that we’ve got lined up,” said Bold.

The organisers said that they would get in touch with people who had booked packages for this year’s event. All the booked packages would be transferred to next year with an added credit of 10% of their value with the same accommodation, transport and other components, said the organisers.

For Falls Creek it has been a tough summer and now a winter too. Many of the resorts were closed to visitors due to the bushfires in summer and then COVID-19 laid low Victoria’s $800 million snow industry. The resorts had officially opened in late June, but as a result of the stage 3 COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, the ski lifts at Mt Hotham and Falls Creek were soon closed. Stage 4 restrictions for Metropolitan Melbourne came into force on August 2, while regional Victoria was placed under stage 3 restrictions.

Gay Ski Week was scheduled to start on September 4. The events included cabarets, pool parties, a queer short film festival, drag bingo, pub crawl, a special three-day program for women and a pride day on the slopes. The organisers are now planning a virtual “Winter Onsieland Cocktail Party.”

To register for Gay Ski Week 2021 and grab a VIP pass, check the details here.