Beverly Dimmock needs at least one red slushy from the Chelmsford Hotel bar at Kurri Kurri before she's ready for her photoshoot. She's three-years-old, from Heddon Greta, decked out blue jeans and work boots. There's a spiderweb pattern, inspired by her Spiderman costume back home, clipped into the undercut sides of an epic, feathery blonde mullet that cascades down the back of her MulletFest tank-top.
Bev has always had a mullet. It just seemed to grow that way even when she was a toddler. As her mum explains, Bev is "the kind of kid who has that punk-rocker mullet, with a tutu and some gumboots". Bev is Bev.
In 2019, when she first entered MulletFest - Kurri's now infamous annual event celebrating the iconic Australian hairstyle - Bev had a more "natural" look; which is to say, she had never had a haircut.
"It was this full-blown mullet, but it had never been touched," Beverly's mum, Kasey Dimmock, says. "She walked up on stage in her golden shimmery work boots - and a flanno, I might add - and everyone was in absolute awe.
"It was cute when it was growing on its own, and then it was a bit of a shock when she wanted to start doing fancy stuff with it.
"We said 'ok, are you sure you don't want it more girly?', she said 'nope.' ... I have a feeling that it's going to be here for the long haul. Honestly, I could not see her in any other way."
Beverly will be chasing a win in the junior mullets category on Sunday at the Chelmsford when the new-format MulletFest kicks off what will become a tour of regional pubs around the country in 2021.
More from MulletFest: The Kurri Kurri sensation is going on tour, coming to a country pub near you
The annual event, which quickly caught international attention when it started in 2018, skirted the imposition of pervasive lockdowns by a matter of weeks last year as the coronavirus pandemic suddenly descended.
"The pub was the best it had ever been," Laura Johnson, the founder and driving force behind MulletFest, said. "MulletFest was the best it had ever been. Everything was on point.
"Then, all of a sudden, the pub that has never closed in 100 years is shut and it feels like it's my fault. It was awful."
Photos: Dedication and design on display at Mulletfest 2020
The months of uncertainty sent organisers back to the drawing board to hatch a new plan.
Under a re-imagined format, which kicked off Friday night with the 'Rookie" category, and continues this weekend with categories for adults and kids, Mrs Johnson will take her show on the road, hosting heats in exclusively small-town country pubs in search of the best of the country's most fashion-forward do, before returning to Kurri for the grand final later this year.
