It won’t be held around Mardi Gras this time, but the good news is that Australia’s first queer gaming festival — GX Australia — is making a comeback, provided the Kickstarter campaign gets over the line.
The organisers behind GX Australia have announced via an update to their original Kickstarter that they will be launching a second crowdfunding campaign for GX Australia in 2017.
Provided it gets enough support, the event will be held on April 29-30 at Sydney Showground. It’s the same place where EB Expo is held every year, which is far less central to Sydney’s CBD than the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.
That said, the change of date and venue has supposedly given organisers a lot more options, something that was outlined in the update to backers:
Why the date change? GX Australia needs to be as accessible as possible to attendees, and unfortunately the date this year made that difficult as accomodation etc. was more expensive than usual due to the activity around Mardi Gras. As much as we loved being a part of Mardi Gras, it makes more sense for us to step outside and find our own space during the year, where we aren’t conflicting with other events, to make it easier for everyone all-around!
The organisers have also asked users to send in short videos outlining what they loved about the event this year before September 10, and that the Kickstarter campaign for GX Australia 2017 will go live before the end of September.
They also outlined a range of changes for next year’s event, including a bigger focus on tabletop gaming, cheaper ticket prices for attendees, a smaller exhibition hall, more activities, and options for food — although having been to Sydney Showground multiple times, the food situation isn’t going to be fantastic even if there’s a lot more of it.
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25 responses to “Australia’s Queer Gaming Festival Is Returning To Kickstarter Later This Month”
Get in some food trucks or hire some people who are decent at cooking/organising. I’ve been to events that attract say 200 people and the food has been run by two women and is amazing.
Seems strange to me that they cite the cost of accomodation etc around mardis gras time as a reason to shift the event. You’d think a lot of people interested in either of these events would be interested in both. So if somebody goes over for mardis gras, yeah it’s expensive, but they can attend GX while they’re there. Moving it to another time of year means that if somebody wants to go to both then they end up having to make 2 trips to Sydney which would probably end up more expensive than 1 trip even if it’s at mardis gras time?
Probably one of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” things
TBH going out to Sydney Showground is a problem. There’s space and all, but to quote my darling mother: “Good God Homebush is a hole.”
If you don’t have a car, you’re forced to catch the train. And training to Homebush is, and always has been, a miserable trip.
At least it has a train station nearby; I hate fox studios because its either car or bus (getting home from events there late at night by bus is always entertaining)
True, but it’s actually not that far to walk to Central from moore park if you head up cleveland st, certainly faster than getting out of that EQ damn carpark!
Hell yes. I’m a Bulldogs supporter so I have to suffer from it all the time. Packing in with thousands of others while you wait an hour for a train, or drive and pay $20 for parking if you can find a parking spot (after dealing with the worst round about in Australia. Seriously, it was voted the worst roundabout in Australia for good reason). And there’s nothing nearby. A couple of take away places, some good ribs at a place that you’ll never get a table at during an event, some ice cream, and a bar that only sells mid-strength beer most of the time.
Same nightmare when the Big Bash rolls around. I prefer watching the Thunder (because they’re so, so crap) but I’ll be buggered if I’m going to torture myself any more by travelling to Homebush for it.
Same problem when Sydney plays finals in the AFL. They have a perfectly good ground in the SCG, and yet the AFL continually forces them to play football at Homebush, even though the fans, teams and everyone else on the planet hate the ground. I would argue it’s one of the worst stadiums in Australia considering location and all the problems associated with it.
Didnt realise they play Big Bash at Homebush. Do the 6ers play at SCG then?
The SCG is their official “home” ground, but they move around.
It’s not so much the cost of accommodation as availability – it’s hard to book anything close to the CBD around the Mardi Gras weekend, and people book for that 12 months+ in advance. Remember that Mardi Gras is actually a festival that spans a week, with other arts and music events on, as well as the parade itself.
Hmmm perhaps. But the quote in the article specifically calls out the cost of accomodation which is what struck me as being a bit strange. Or, indeed, queer 😛
Accomm. is always more expensive when there’s high demand for it. Hotel rooms aren’t fixed in price. We have the same problems booking for PAX as it’s on at the same time as the Spring Racing Carnival.
They also noted that it would also have then been the same time as a particular indie gaming conference/exhibition in 2017, which would have meant less exhibitors likely able to attend GX. No other choice, really.
Good luck, lads, ladies and all in between/unspecified 🙂
Hopefully the likelihood of a smaller, more condensed venues will save on costs that in turn will bring down ticket prices, thereby fulfilling a couple of the next event’s plans.
I don’t understand…
Why do we need a specific Queer gamer show? What’s stopping them going to the shows that everyone else goes to?
Serious question btw, I’m not meaning this to be derogatory at all.
Because it’s a “safe space” for people from the LGBITQPXRFNTLS+ community to celebrate without having to worry about the evils of “the evil CIS-genders”. AKA, just another reason to go “hey look at us!”.
‘We’ don’t need the shows that already exist. PAX is a scam perpetuated by two talent-less comedians and video game corporations. The comic-cons are similar same.
You, I, and indeed ‘they’ can choose whether or not to go to this show. There’s nothing stopping you.
Why are Pax and Comi-Con a scam? You seem awfully salty about events millions love?
Actually, this is your answer. This right here. Muppet.
One of the organisers for GX Australia wrote a post last year addressing that exact question: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/11/why-australia-needs-a-queer-gaming-convention
There isn’t anything in particular stopping people from attending any event, be it PAX, EB games, or GX Australia. All are intended for people interested in games.
Damn, you beat me to it!
The convention organiser actually wrote a cool piece about this for us while this year’s event was still being funded, you can read it here: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/11/why-australia-needs-a-queer-gaming-convention/
For me, it’s not that queer people can’t go to ‘regular’ shows. It’s not even that straight/cis people can’t go to GX (everyone is very welcome). It’s just cool to also have shows that showcase and celebrate a side of the gaming community that can be hard to find at the big events.
And when it comes down to it, it’s one more gaming expo in a country with very few of them, so that’s a plus for all of us (including the devs in our awesome indie scene).
GX isn’t as welcoming as its been made out to be. Let’s just say if you’re not thinking some very specific mindsets, you’re not welcome to attend. I watched an exchange between a GX organiser (not Liam) and an Australian gaming journalist (who also happens to be gay) that went along the lines of “since you don’t believe in X, y, z victim complex issues, we don’t want you attending our convention. People of your mindset are not welcome here.”
I wish I archived the whole thing because frankly it just displays how GX is another “us vs them” style event more than a true welcoming of all to enjoy something we have in common.
Mostly it’s about feeling comfortable and having an event that mostly talks about issues that relate to your own life experiences in relation to video games. It’s not like I’m not planning on going to Pax, this isn’t a replacement event for all the other conventions that happen in Australia. It’s also open to all people if you want to check it out.
If there doing another Kick stater, then that, to me, screams problems. e.g. it was not popular enough to get sponsors to run it without help from the ‘normal people’ (e.g. people who don’t own mega corps and game company) then to me, that means there was not enough interest in it.