One of Australia’s longest-running Indigenous festivals, the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival in Cape York, has been postponed for 2025. The announcement came shortly before the region experienced historic rainfall and flooding. Organisers cited costs and organisational delays as the reason for cancelling in 2025.
The festival, held every two years, attracted 5000 artists and 240 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in 2023. It had been run by the Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation, but began accepting governance advice from advocacy body United Uprise in January.
“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,” United Uprise chief executive Debbie Ross told the ABC.
Arts Queensland had previously provided funding for the event, but said no funding had been released for the 2025 festival. Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation did not hold its 2024 annual general meeting, but did secure an extension from the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.Â
Ross said the event would aim to recommence in June 2026.
