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New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/northern-exposure-2024-a-success-as-mr-bear-qld-crowned/

Northern Exposure 2024 a success as Mr Bear Qld crowned

Brisbears recently hosted their annual event Northern Exposure for a week of fun, fur and frivolity that saw the crowning of Mr Bear Queensland. Their President Graeme Kerr shares how the week went. 

Northern Exposure (NEX) is an annual event that takes place every October with an extensive program of events including the Meet and Greet Dinner, the highly coveted Underbear dance party and the Mr Bear Queensland competition.

Meet and Greet Dinner

NEX kicked off with our Meet and Greet Dinner at The Pineapple Hotel. This event, hosted by drag superstar Shanny T Bone, gives the bears a chance to meet up, enjoy a three-course meal and learn a little bit more about our Mr Bear QLD contestants.

Local performers Abril La Trene, Henny Spaghetti and MOOSE! dazzled the crowd throughout the night. 

Shape

This year saw the program expand with a special screening of the Australian documentary; Shape directed by Roger Ungers. Shape uncovers how being in a tribe can help gay males feel part of a community. This sense of inclusion and belonging can be so valuable, especially for young males whose families may have rejected them after they came out. 

However, this social grouping can lead to unhealthy stereotypes and unrealistic body image ideals. One of the film’s subjects, Aaron, proudly represented the bear community and it was great to see some familiar faces up on the silver screen.

Mr Bear Queensland 2024

Each year we call for representatives from our community to compete for the chance to win the title of Mr Bear Queensland. Mr Bear QLD is the ambassador for Brisbears and gives the titleholder the opportunity to fundraise for their chosen charities and represent Queensland at the Mr Australasia Bear competition hosted by Vicbears during Southern Hibernation. 

This year’s competition took place in The Bunker Bar at The Sportsman Hotel and was hosted by local legends Shanny T Bone and Paul Wheeler (Mr Bear Queensland 2021). 

The comp is very similar to a beauty pageant with contestants participating in interviews and three stage rounds comprising of Bear Casual, Bear Minimum and a Talent round. 

This year we saw four contestants duking it out for the sash. Each contestant did an amazing job wowing the crowd and Wesley emerged victorious.

Damien was awarded the inaugural Mr Congeniality title as voted by his fellow contestants. It takes a bit of nerve to put your hand up to represent our community and I want to thank Demetrio and Thomas for plucking up the courage.

Other events

Saturday night saw the bears take over the entire venue at Sporties for a crowd favourite event; Underbear with the venue pumping until the early hours.

Other events during the week included the Teddy Bears Picnic at Roma Street Parklands, a beach party at South Bank and the recovery session hosted by the Brunswick Hotel. We said our farewell to our out-of-towners as we closed out the jam-packed week.

Thank you to every bear who came out and supported our events. Lastly a massive thank you to the entire Brisbears committee for their tireless efforts in putting on a great event. 

You can follow @Brisbears on Facebook. Check out more photos of Northern Exposure in this month’s edition of QNews Queensland magaazine.

All photos were supplied by Brisbears.

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My year of being Mr Bear Queensland

Southern Hibearnation brings bears from all over to Melbourne