Some of the country's best pin-up performers took to the stage at the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute on Saturday afternoon as part of the inaugural Victorian Pinup Pageant.
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After a few years being part of the Rock Ballarat rockabilly festival, this is the first time the pageant has been held as a standalone event and attracted competitors from across the state and as far as Queensland and South Australia.
The pageant attracted a large crowd, with more than 200 people filling the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute's Minerva Space and loudly cheering on the 20-strong field of pin-up performers across five categories including rockabilly, psychobilly and 'couple-o-billies'.
Victorian Pinup Pageant MC Lana Lunacy said it was exciting for the pageant to become a standalone event.
"I suppose being part of the Heritage Festival has been so helpful and it's just great to have that one show in itself and really give the pinups what they deserve," she said.
Ms Lunacy said many of the competitors had already planned to compete in February before the pageant was postponed.
"It's all across Australia now which is fabulous so they were all competing in Rock Ballarat in February, but now they've passed over into the new one which is fantastic so not only did they come down once, they came down twice which is fantastic," she said.
"I think it was spectacular, it's just so much fun and that's all it's about. It's about having fun and just trying something different. The audience felt fabulous, I'm so glad everyone cheered.
"I think Ballarat's the perfect platform for this culture, especially rockabilly and vintage-inspired anything. It's such a beautiful town for it so it's really nice."
The event's top prize was won by duo Bambi L'Amour and Katie Kaleidoscope who performed a short musical about the tumultuous year that was 2020.
"The 2020 musical was pretty great. They said unneeded, but really, I think we all needed to have a bit of a laugh about that and what a great idea to incorporate pinup and rockabilly and all of that into something that we all collectively experienced," Ms Lunacy said.
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The pageant is a family affair, organised by Ballarat rockabilly and vintage clothing business Lana Rose Fashion and the Spencer family.
"When the festival looked like it may not have been going on, which was a few years ago, we picked it up and we just carried on which was just fabulous," Ms Lunacy said.
"My parents are powerhouses in events and organisation. I'm not, but they are and it's just wonderful and I hope this continues on as long as we can do it.
The Ballarat Heritage Festival runs until May 30 - visit the website to see what else is happening.
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