Bingo and Beyond

Feast’s Sunday night Bingo has become a part of Adelaide’s queer social scene and it’s back at Vonni’s Big Arvo from Feb 3. Ron Hughes talks to Feast’s Margie Fischer.

Bingo kicks off at 7pm every Sunday night at The Colonel Light Hotel, Light Square. It’s $10 for 20 games, a bargain for two hours of very queer fun, astounding prizes and great company.

Compered by Malt Biscuit featuring Shimmer Chernobyl and Margie Fischer spinning her balls, Bingo is just the ticket for a Sunday night out. It’s a chance to socialise, have a meal, good coffee and a few bevvies then stay on for Vonni’s show upstairs which features a line up of different talent every week and top DJs with free entry.

Why is Feast doing Bingo every Sunday night? “Fundraising is one of the sources of income for the Feast Festival and Bingo provides Feast with a significant contribution to the fundraising budget,” says Margie Fischer, the Chair of the Feast Board who also heads up the fundraising committee of Feast.

Margie is passionate about Bingo, way beyond its fundraising focus. “Bingo is brilliant on many levels. Bingoers are a wonderful smorgasbord of people. We’ve had Bingo birthday parties, people who have never ventured out in the community come along, queer people bringing  straight friends, glamorous drag queens, lesbians, young queers and grandmas  sit together having  fun, getting competitive, enjoying the special guests that are a Bingo feature, the weekly surprises and Malt Biscuit’s outrageous humour.

“Feast has an ambitious fundraising target each year, around $40,000.  It is an important part of Feast’s Festival budget,” Margie says.

What other fundraisers are in the pipeline? Dragorama at The Garden of Unearthly Delights in the divine Paradiso Spiegeltent on March 7 at 10.15pm  is next.  Dragorama showcases Adelaide’s drag talent at the Fringe Festival. All the performers donate their talent for this ‘one show only’ non-stop drag extravaganza.

Feast’s annual Quiz night happens in May. It’s all hands on deck at Feast for this bigger than Ben-Hur night which attracts 400 queer community members and their friends. There’s very queer quiz questions, an auction, games, prizes galore for everything from Best Supper to the table that gets the lowest quiz score. “It’s an event that brings together the queer community in Adelaide for a fun night under the fluro’s at the Goodwood Community Centre ” says Margie.

Then there’s the Annual Mid Winter Dinner combining great speakers and a three course meal, film screenings plus more in the lead up to Feast in November.

Who puts their creativity, time and energy into making these events a success? Feast has a fundraising committee that is looking for new members right now. You can get involved in just one fundraiser or be part of them all. If you want experience in event management and bar work, publicity and marketing, Feast wants you and anyone who enjoys having ideas and making them a reality is more than welcome.

Ring Lily at Feast on 84630684 to find out more.