Blokesworld 'blokes, booze and sheilas' expo Banned in Brisbane - Coming to Melbourne!!

A 'blokes, booze and sheilas expo' prevented from going ahead at the 11th hour in Brisbane last weekend willcome to Melbourne in February.

Blokesworld Live - which features bikini-bull-riding, lingerie pillow-fights and beer games - was shut down by Brisbane City Council last Friday afternoon, just hours before the two-day expo was to start at the city's showgrounds.

Event director John Dunlea told theage.com.au the event would go to Sydney in November and Melbourne's Docklands in mid-February.

Mr Dunlea said the company would lose $300,000 if it did not stage the event within a fortnight, and he was considering the town of Ipswitch, in south-east Queensland.

Women's and Christian groups claimed victory, saying its line-up of events was demeaning to women.

Blokesworld Live is a spin-off from the Channel 10 show of the same name, which is produced in Melbourne by Cornerbox and goes to air late on Friday nights.

The organisers of Blokesworld Live, Brisbane-based Showtime Events, have accused Brisbane City Council of foul play and are threatening legal action. They have enlisted Brisbane legal firm Just Us Lawyers, but have declined to comment further on possible legal action.

Advertisement Advertisement

Blokesworld Live organisers went to the Supreme Court but Justice Anthe Philipides ruled in the council's favour.

A council spokesman said the decision to refuse an entertainment permit was not a moral judgement, but because of concerns on public health and safety issues and notification of residents about the nature of the event. "So long as their activities are lawful council cannot make a determination based on those moral grounds," he said.

Mr Dunlea told theage.com.au that in 15 years in the event trade, and running large events at the showgrounds, he had never been subject to such onerous requirements.

"They still just kept putting up hurdles," he said.

He said all permits were in order when he had a final meeting with police and liquor licensing authorities on the Thursday prior.

But political heat was evident in those final 48 hours, he said, with The Australian Defence Forces and a government agency he declined to name abruptly cancelling plans to set up information stalls.

Whoever was ultimately responsible for the shutdown order, Mr Dunlea said, "had a lot more influence than an interest group".

He said this was borne out by an email sent to JJJ radio, allegedly from a council employee who claimed the shutdown was "for political reasons only" as a result of women's groups' protests.

The email, read out on JJJ, said: "It had nothing to do with security, fire and safety issues or traffic management as these are all dealt with by the RNA showgrounds who held an event their (sic) last weekend.

"The police had given the event the ok as had the liquor licensing authority. The event was never going to take place no matter what they submitted, it came from the top to make sure it never went ahead."