Cape York dance festival postponed until next year

The Laura Quinkan Dance Festival, one of Australia’s longest running Indigenous festivals, has been cancelled for 2025.

The biennial festival attracts thousands of people to Cape York but organisers have admitted that rising costs and delays have led to this year’s event not going ahead.

“We’ve had two weeks to have a look at the festival … and what we did find was that there’d been no pre-work done by the previous management to enable the festival to go ahead this year,” Cairns-based advocacy body United UpRise chief executive Debbie Ross told the ABC.

Ms Ross added the costs of putting on the community-run festival had become “excessive”, with the 2023 and 2021 events losing money.

She said they were now looking at holding the event in June next year, employing as many locals as they can.