Ballarat Beat 2017

This year for Ballarat Beat, I was invited to be a judge for the Pin Up competition. Normally the event asks me to come down and take general photos and I miss out on seeing the whole Pin Up comp, but I might get a couple of snaps. This year it was the opposite. I got to see the whole Pin Up comp (three hours of pin up guys and dolls) and missed the little details of the event. I got home with my photos and realised I didn’t have many general shots of the street and what was happening. It was to be expected though. I try to take photos during the event that tell a story and without having the time to watch and wait I didn’t get to see many of those stories unfolding.

What I did get to see though, was an awesome range of pin up babes! There were several catagories that people could enter into. Miss Classique was for full vintage attire and style. Miss Modern was for vintage inspired modern pinups. Then there was an incredible category for hero and pop culture inspired pinups. This was my favourite by far. I have 2 competitors full scores in this section. Then there was Psychobilly, which was full of death, horror, blood and spiders and a Miss Inkspired which was all for showing off tattoos. This was followed by a category for gents and then couples.

My favourite category had a Wonder Woman, a Minnie Mouse, a Phantom, a Riddler and a Rainbow Brite! The Riddler and Rainbow Brite were my favourites and both ended up winning with Miss Jessie Leigh taking out Miss Ballarat Beat 2017 and Miss Bambi L’Amour taking out Miss Geekabilly.

The Rainbow Brite routine was amazing! Jessie had rainbows in her hair. Her eyelashes were rainbows. She wore seven petticoats for each colour of the rainbow. She pulled a rainbow out of her bust. She had hand painted rainbow shoes. Her first prop was an umbrella turned into a sparkling raincloud with shimmering metallic rain and fairy lights. She had a giant inflatable unicorn. She fired a confetti cannon at the crowd which sent of sparkling red metallic hearts. I can’t even remember all of it because she did so much. Every inch of it was wonderful.

The competition was great because it embraced people of all walks of life. It was inclusive, body positive and before all the competing took place, the organisers spent a heap of time with the pin ups going through how to do hair, makeup and poses. Not only did this extra time and nurturing help the contestants prepare and feel comfortable, it meant their performance was even more entertaining for the audience. The competitors were all supportive of one another, encouraging and proud of the competition as a whole. I was so chuffed to be part of it.

There’s one more day of Ballarat Beat festival today. I’m in rehearsals most of the day so probably won’t get to see much more of it. Yesterday was awesome and I can’t wait for next year already!