Laura Johnson started Mulletfest as a piss-take in a little pub town. Eight years on, she’s bringing it to Red CentreNATS, and she reckons she’s single-handedly responsible for your barber’s waiting list.

There was a time when getting a mullet was less a fashion statement and more a cry for help. Now, thanks in no small part to Laura Johnson, they’re back.

The founder of Mulletfest has spent the past eight years turning Australia’s most divisive haircut into a celebration of individuality, community and, above all else, having a good time. And judging by the state of modern haircuts, she might have accidentally won the war.

“I’m like, yeah, we bought them back,” Laura laughs. “You’re welcome.”

The irony isn’t lost on her. Laura’s a hairdresser by trade, having done her apprenticeship in the early 2000s, when the mullet was about as welcome in a salon as a smoky burnout at a school fete.

“When I started my apprenticeship, my bosses told us to talk people out of it,” she says. “We were actually instructed to shorten the back, lengthen the fringe, blend, blend, blend. We’re not having a mullet.”

Fast-forward a couple of decades and she’s now travelling Australia with a mini-fest that celebrates the iconic cut, bringing the business in front and the party in back.

Mulletfest started in 2018 in the small NSW town of Kurri Kurri, where Laura and her family were running a pub during a tough stretch for the local community. The town’s aluminium smelter had just closed, taking a huge chunk of the workforce with it. Businesses were struggling, money was tight, and Laura was after a way to bring people back through the pub doors. The solution was, naturally, a mullet competition.

“It was literally a piss take,” she says. “We just wanted to have a bit of a laugh, celebrate something easy and Aussie, and bring some people from out of town into the town.”

The expectations weren’t exactly massive. When Laura’s publicist friend questioned who would actually turn up, her response was simple: “If no one else comes, JJ (her son) and his dad can arm wrestle and we’ll all have some beers and it’ll be fine. We really didn’t have very high expectations,” she says. “We were just happy to have a bit of a crack.”

Eight years later, Mulletfest is a travelling celebration of all things hairy, hilarious and unapologetically Australian, popping up at events including the iconic Aussie car festival, Summernats. And that’s where the relationship with car culture gets interesting.

“Burnouts, mullets… it’s kind of a match made in heaven,” Laura says. For every one car entrant, there’s a pit crew that has 20 people in it,” she says. “Not everyone’s going to have the car, and the car really does take a whole team. We’re there to give those 20 something else to be celebrated for. If you can’t afford a car, grow a mullet.”

It’s particularly obvious at car events, where the number of kids entering Mulletfest goes through the roof. Some already fully committed to the follicular lifestyle, others the ones who’ve spent years hanging around the shed while Dad and the boys build cars until all hours. “Sometimes it’s nice for them to have something that’s all about them,” she says.

The modern mullet is welcome at Mulletfest too, with categories from everyday and rookie through to the more spectacular creations. And if you don’t have a mullet at all? That doesn’t matter either — one bloke once wandered on stage with a beard but no mullet, prompting Laura to joke he’d grown it on the wrong end. “Dude, where’s my mullet?” became a category. This year, it’s moustaches getting their moment.

“Get your dirty Moe out,” Laura laughs.

At Red CentreNATS, Mulletfest will once again bring its grassroots chaos to the car scene, with hairdressing students from Charles Darwin University helping entrants get sorted on Friday night before the competition kicks off.

And that’s part of what Laura loves about Red CentreNATS. For her, it’s not just another car show where the mullets get wheeled out for a photo — it’s the whole atmosphere of the event, the fact that people aren’t just standing around looking at cars, they’re actually getting amongst it.

“I just love the way Red CentreNATS is laid out,” she says. “You’ve got the burnouts, you’ve got the drags, you’ve got all the different things happening, and everyone gets to be involved. Everyone’s just so friendly,” she says. “You can go there and you don’t know anyone, and by the end of the weekend you’ve made 20 friends.”

For Mulletfest, that’s pretty much the perfect crowd — one of the biggest reasons the festival keeps coming back to the Red Centre year after year. And if you’ve ever wondered what happens when you put a microphone in front of a mulleted kid who’s spent half their life around a shed, Laura’s got some advice. Be prepared.

“I always ask the kids, ‘What do your teachers think?'” she says. “You just never know what you’re going to get.”

And for Laura, that’s what it’s all about. Not the haircut. Not the trophy. It’s about the people. “We just take it back to basics,” she says. “Everyone’s on the level. Everyone’s welcome and appreciated and celebrated.”

Show up. Have a laugh. Don’t take yourself too seriously. And, if all else fails, let your hair down.

Register to be a part of Mulletfest now by heading to mulletfest.com.au/register. It’s on as part of the 12th annual Red CentreNATS, presented by LMCT+, in Alice Springs from 3 to 6 September 2026. Entries and Chrome Passes are on sale now, single day tickets hit OzTix from 17 August. Get in early, price do go up from 3 September.