They started the podcast at their own expense, but production costs are now covered via listener donations. They host the AussieVision podcast, providing weekly updates about the contest from November until May each year. Mike Jones and Dale Roberts with Voyager, the Australian entrant to the 2023 Eurovision song contest. It’s obviously been hugely influential in the LGBTQ+ community and shown an often conservative audience that gender diversity is nothing to be afraid of,” she says.īut with this year’s contest taking place in Liverpool, historically high airfares and food prices in the UK rising at the fastest rate in 45 years, attending, for Australians, is not cheap. “It’s adapted to the changing climate of Europe and changing society, welcoming many new countries. She says it’s helped nurture her children’s appreciation of cultures outside of their own. Ruth Oldfield, 57, from Canberra, has been watching since the 1990s and believes it’s the values that Eurovision promotes that resonate with fans. “It was such a great atmosphere, I just fell in love with it and thought, ‘We’ve got to be part of this’,” he recalls.

He says for many Australians, Eurovision is a chance to celebrate their heritage and hear songs in their own language.Ĭlarke helped broker Australia’s entry into the contest in 2015, but first attended when he produced the Australian commentary for Moscow 2009. “We’re a nation of immigrants, a lot of us come from Europe in the first instance,” says Paul Clarke, the creative director of Australia’s Eurovision delegation. Photograph: Frances Andrijich/The Guardian So committed are Australian fans to the cause that the BBC mistook one OGAE Australia member, wearing a custom-made costume, for Finland’s entrant Käärijä and ran an interview with them in Liverpool on Tuesday night.īut why are Australians so enamoured by a competition that they didn’t even compete in until recently?Ī selection of Kate Hansen’s Eurovision memorabilia. Members pay an annual $25 fee which gives them access to social events throughout the year, including a worldwide OGAE song contest which members can compete in, and priority access to Eurovision tickets. This puts it ahead of equivalent branches in France, Italy, Ireland and Sweden, countries traditionally considered Eurovision stalwarts.

The Australian branch of Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l’Eurovision (OGAE), the world’s largest Eurovision fan club, has around 800 members. “I’ve gained a community of friends that I wouldn’t live without, some have become almost family.” “We can be crazy, we can dress up, we can be ourselves … It’s about more than the music,” she says.

‘We can be crazy, we can dress up, we can be ourselves’: Kate Hansen.

I Can Tell the Time by Gill Davies