The Feast Festival – Australian Adelaide’s gay cultural festival – will welcome former Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst as the headliner at the largest South Australian LGBTQI curated cultural festival this November.

Howbeit, the bearded songstress’ visit has raised eyebrows amongst Australian arts and LGBT communities, since the festival hasn’t been in the best financial situation recently. One of the festival’s founders, Helen Bock said:

While it is exciting for South Australia and Adelaide to have international artists in Festival programmes, it appears Feast is doing that at the expense of local artists and our own LGBTQI creative industry.

It has been understood that Conchita will make several appearances throughout the Festival. Even though the Feast board of management wouldn’t reveal how much the diva was commanding for her appearance, a leading Australian promoter and celebrity touring agent Stephen Craddock said:

Conchita would likely travel with an entourage including an assistant, a manager and a glam person and it’s standard for someone of her calibre to fly business class.

Business class return flights from Vienna to Adelaide cost around AU $11,000. Yet, the festival’s general manager Cassandra Liebeknecht said that she couldn’t disclose what Conchita’s appearance would cost. She further added:

Feast’s agreement with Conchita and her management is commercial in confidence.

However, will Conchita’s appearance at the gay festival dig even a bigger hole in the the festival’s budget, and how Feast will cover the costs for the diva’s visit hasn’t been revealed yet. Conchita is also expected to make appearances in Melbourne and in Sydney, including a planned performance on the X Factor (Australia.)

Conchita’s involvement in the Feast Festival will be officially announced at an invite-only event on 22nd July. The festival’s full programme will be announced in September.