Bunbury Fringe 2023 closes with a bang featuring heartwarming cabaret performance and hard-hitting tunes

As the Bunbury Fringe festival came to a close for another year, arts and entertainment lovers were treated to a buffet of fabulous performances and fun activities. The Bunbury Fringe Festival closed with a bang on Saturday with an exciting double bill of entertainment inside the Alcoa Big Top. Former Bunbury Senior High School head boy Manuao TeAotonga took to the stage in his first performance in Bunbury in 23 years, telling his heartwarming life story in Dragged Back to Bunbury. Following the stunning performance, which left the audiences in awe of Manuao’s vulnerability and talent, punters head-banged the night away as Perth prog-metal band Voyager closed out the festival. Before the final ticketed events for Bunbury Fringe 2023, the young and young at heart enjoyed an afternoon of slushies, fairy floss and dancing in the Fringe Garden during the Family Dance Party. With Famous Sharron providing the tunes, children and their parents engaged in a family dance-off, with a family doing “the worm” to take out the grand prize. As the sun set on another beautiful Saturday, attendees were treated to the musical stylings of the David Rastrick Sextet with several getting up on their feet to dance along to classic jazz tunes and covers of various songs such as Guns N’ Roses hit Sweet Child O’ Mine. Outside of the Bunbury Fringe hub, Perth-based drag queen Donna Kebab and a collective of wine experts took wine lovers through a tasting of various local drops during the sell-out, Wine & Drag, at the Rose Hotel on Friday. In the midst of wine tastings, Donna Kebab wowed the crowd with fabulous performances throughout the night. Meanwhile at BREC, punters experienced a pub quiz with a twist in a bid to navigate the future of food and how the land food comes from is cared for, in a performance dubbed Eaters. Cuprum Distillery hosted a special production of Love, Lust & Drama, presented by the South West Opera Company, while Froth Bunbury hosted its monthly Comedy Shack, providing plenty of side-splitting laughter.