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 Since it opened in 2001, Sunday nights at Family Nightclub have been dominated by a fun-loving gay crowd. And from the very beginning, DJs Harry K and Neroli have been on hand to spin the discs that now draw up to 800 people every week.
On November 18, the Fluffy crew will take a leap into the great outdoors for the first ever Fluffy Festival at the RNA Showgrounds, with an expected crowd of 5,000 attending the ten-and-a-half hour event. For Harry it’s a long-held dream come true and a long way from Fluffy’s humble beginnings.
“We used to have to close at one,” Harry told Queensland Pride. “It was just one of those things where it took about a year, a year-and-a-half, to take off.” Harry himself can take a great deal of the credit for making Fluffy what it is today. Six months into the operation, the 32-year-old DJ took over as promotions manager, a role he retains to this day. And what is the secret of the Fluffy success? Well, fluff itself, Harry suggests.
“I’m not afraid to play commercial stuff people like to hear, remixes of singles that people can’t get and whatever the crowd really likes. It was always a fun night, the music was always fun, the shows were the best and it wasn’t anything anyone had seen in Brisbane, which is what we wanted. It was my goal to do theme nights as well. We put a lot of work and time into it,” he says.
Themes will also play a big part in the inaugural Fluffy Festival – and yes, the plan is to make it an annual event.
“My five-year plan is to make it one of the biggest, most diverse cultural festivals in Australia. I want to make it a big calendar event and get more interstate people coming. There’s going to be heaps of theming, a mix of shows and colour and people, live entertainment, DJs and roving performers, and that’s what’s going to make this festival different. Headlining is going to be Ricki Lee; she’s bringing a five-piece band with her,” Harry enthuses.
“Then we’ve got The Potbelleez, TV Rock, Brielle Davis, Slinkee Minx, Vandalism and heaps of DJs. It’s going to be anything you can imagine. We’ve also got the Australian trampoline champion who’ll be doing displays. We’ve organised our own cheerleading squad that’s going to be doing displays throughout the day. When you walk in there’ll always be something, whether it’s performers roaming around or someone doing aerial displays on stage.”
Along with interstate DJs Sveta, Kate Monroe, Dan Murphy and Alex Taylor, Fluffy Festival will include locals of the calibre of Ish, Matt Steer, Les Smith and Mr Sparkles. Of course, Neroli and Harry himself will also be doing their fluffy thing.
“I’ve had the idea for the last four years, it was just a matter of developing it and timing and getting the right people to say yes. The club night was around for about two or three years and I always wanted to do something bigger. In the last couple of years Fluffy has really flourished, so it was an easy decision to make. It’s like a massive version of Fluffy in the club.”
And if ten-and-a-half hours is not enough, there’s an after-party too. Where?
Where else? Fluffy.
Fluffy Festival is on at RNA Showgrounds on Sunday Nov 18.
$2 of every ticket sold is being donated to Open Doors & the Gay & Lesbian Welfare Association.
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Fluffy frolics al fresco
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