Getty Image / Roni Bintang
The Mulletfest Grand Final in Australia was held last weekend at the Hebburn MotorSport Park in New South Wales. This was the culmination of a year’s worth of regional mullet competitions all leading up to the grand finale with one person getting to stake claim to the best mullet on earth.
We are, of course, not talking about ‘mullet‘ the fish. We’re talking about the ‘business in the front, party in the back’ hairstyle that exploded in the 1980s and disappeared for decades until a recent resurgence. And one man, an Army doctor from Britain by the name of Dr. Alastair Bush took home the title of Best International Mullet.
Dr. Bush had previously won his feeder competition in Kurri Kurri at the The Chelmsford Hotel back in February. By winning that, he was invited back to the grand finale which was held on December 2nd where he too home the title of Best International Mullet… Personally, I’m not sure this was the best mullet at the Mulletfest competition but that’s one of the funny things about this hairstyle, it’s up to interpretation:
I came across the Mulletfest 2023 results on the 7 News Australia YouTube channel after I’d just published an article on a blue-ringed octopus, a story they covered that I was looking for on their YT. And I’m VERY glad I did because Mulletfest might be one of the best competitions on earth. There were some spectacular mullets captured in this footage:
Again, the love for or distaste of a particular mullet is entirely a matter of personal preference. Society, unfortunately, hasn’t progressed the level of ‘breed standards’ for mullets like you’d find in a dog show. It’s more ‘yeah, I like that’ and how the wearer of the mullet pulls it off. Outfits also play heavily into the judge’s decisions, from what I’ve seen in the past.
There are various styles that get judged: “everyday”, “grubby”, “ranga” (red hair), “vintage”, “extreme”, “international” and “junior”. But judging those is still a matter of preference.
The champion, Dr. Alastair Bush, started growing out his mullet back in 2020 when haircuts were banned in Britain. He told the Daily Mail “It all started when haircuts were banned during lockdown and my nephew and I were looking at funny hairstyles online. I thought it would be funny to do it and started growing my mullet in the summer of 2021 with the intention of winning the international mullet championships at Mulletfest in Australia.”
Dr. Bush went on to say “this is widely considered to be the Everest of the competitive mullet growing world. As a Pom, beating the Aussies at mullet growing would feel like fitting retribution for the 1882 Ashes series.”
Suffice it to say, talk of the ‘1882 Ashes Series‘ is lost on many Americans. Australia won. It was a Cricket match. And apparently they’re all holding onto it nearly 150 years later.