Entertainment
23 August, 2025
Celebrating art deco designs
Annual festival showcases historic town’s outstanding architectural buildings
LOVERS of all things 1920s will be dusting off their ‘flapper attire’, practising their Charleston moves, and gearing up for a week’s work of entertainment at the fabulous 2025 Tropical Art Deco Festival next month.
Celebrating a century of art deco style this year, the boutique festival is held appropriately in Innisfail, which showcases Australia’s most concentrated art deco architecture.
“Our festival program is packed with events. There’ll be something for everyone with lots of opportunities to dress up and have a great time,” Innisfail and District Historical Society president Trish Ernst said.
The festival begins on Sunday, September 14 with a nod to the elegance of the era at high tea the Shire Hall.
On offer are sumptuous sweet and savoury treats, prizes for those who dress to impress in their art deco fashions, lucky door and raffle prizes and live music.
Free and ticketed events continue throughout the eight days with historical walks, talks and tours, a 1920s murder mystery dinner at Innisfail’s Brothers Leagues Club; the Great Gatsby 100th birthday picnic, singing and vintage hat workshops, a fancy-dress trivia night, vintage cars on show and culminating with the bustling vintage market on Sunday, September 21.
Ms Ernst said the Great Gatsby birthday picnic on Saturday, September 20 marked 100 years of art deco and coincided with the year F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Great Gatsby, novel was first published.
It will feature more live performances by local musicians, singers and dancers, a fashions on the field competition and a ‘doggy deco’ parade.
“Bring your picnic goodies, folding chair or picnic rug and have a look at the vintage cars on display,” Ms Ernst said.
“Refreshments will be available from the Mens’ Shed barbecue.
“It’s a free family event from 2-5pm and we’d love to see lots of people there.”
A free screening of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Great Gatsby’ movie at the Innisfail RSL Club will be held at 7pm, after the picnic.
Art deco is the term used to describe the visual style and design elements in architecture, fashion, jewellery, household goods, graphics and art, transport and industrial design, in the years between WWI and WWII.
It was born out of the 1925 Paris Exhibition and was synonymous with social change – from the introduction of women’s voting rights and the liberation from the hair styles and fashions of the previous decades to the boom of the jazz age.
In Innisfail, the abundance of beautiful deco buildings grew out of the devastation caused by a 1918 cyclone which reportedly left only 12 houses standing. The town’s rebuild ensured solid, reinforced concrete buildings – in vogue, as well as practical – would future-proof the town.
Ms Ernst said that while visitor numbers were growing, “we still need everyone to support this unique festival”, which was made possible with the backing of the Cassowary Coast Regional Council, Brothers Leagues Club and Paronella Park.
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