Last year, the ball began with a big surprise: Tom Neuwirth had cut off his long hair. He also wore a glittering red dress with a high slit up the leg. A real wow moment from and with Conchita Wurst, the Austrian stage persona who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014. This year, too, an illustrious crowd from the LGBTQ scene can be expected in Graz on 15 February. That’s the day the 31st Tuntenball, the city’s drag ball, takes place at the Congress.
The motto for 2020: ACT! - Celebrate diversity and take ACTion! AROMEA Airdesign has taken that literally and is one of the sponsors of this year’s charity event. Because we ALL smell good to each other, especially in times of political extremes and supposed hopelessness. That’s a dangerous mix, one that has often led to the persecution of and discrimination against minorities and dissenters throughout history. We’re thumbing our noses at all that and fighting small-mindedness with all kinds of fragrances: from exotic to woody and floral to oriental. We’re celebrating diversity, in fragrances and in life.
That’s why this year’s Tuntenball smells as varied as its guests. It’s not for nothing that the Carinthian company is the market leader in scenting everything from hotels to sales floors to individual events. Scent marketing makes a difference. So do tolerance and diversity.
The Tuntenball.
The end of the 1980s saw AIDS claim many victims, and in most Western democratic countries homosexuality was still a matter for criminal law. In Graz, a group of gay men set out to break through isolation and stigma, and planned a party by gay men for gay men and their friends. But this party was not to be hidden away in a cellar, as before. It was to be publicly visible, as a clear statement for equal rights. Today, 31 years later, the Tuntenball has grown from a small party in the university canteen into a well-known event. But the message has stayed the same: all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights!
Where, how, what.
The Tuntenball takes place on 15 February at the Congress Graz. Doors open at 19:30, and a spectacular show with live music, the presentation of the Tuntenball Awards, the election of Miss Tuntenball, porn karaoke and much more is on the programme. Loud, colourful, warm-hearted and certainly not for the faint-hearted.
Photos/Copyright: Andy Joe
WE ALL SMELL GOOD TO EACH OTHER
