NWT man vows to win contest of his dreams: Mulletfest

A Ragged Ass Barbers muscle shirt, jean shorts cut off at the thigh, and a shoulder-length mullet were not enough to snag a Yellowknife resident first place in one of Australia’s most prestigious contests: Mulletfest.

Logan Andrew, originally from Inuvik, says he’s had a mullet since he was a teenager (save for the time he regretfully cut it off for a girl when he was 24, a move he calls “a big mistake”).

Friends had tagged him in posts on social media about Mulletfest – an Australian contest to find the greatest mullets – enough times over the past few years that he eventually gave in.

Andrew used frequent flyer miles to book a month-long trip to Australia, living in a rented camper van and occasionally couch-surfing to take advantage of other people’s air conditioning.

“It was pretty mind-blowing,” he said of the event, which took place last month.

“In the Northwest Territories, there’s just a couple of us. We call ourselves the mullet mafia.

“Every single person at this event had a mullet pretty much,” he continued – competitors and spectators alike.

Organizers said there were around 250 participants at this year’s Mulletfest.

The day starts off in the small town of Kurri Kurri in a beer garden, with family portraits scheduled first thing in the morning. The next 12 hours involve parades for all competition categories, which include everything from a zero-to-three age bracket to vintage mullets, to “grubby mullets.” 

Entrants are judged on their mullet, “overall presentation, and stage presence,” according to the competition’s website.

Andrew entered the international category, facing off against nine other competitors including one other Canadian – a man from Fort McMurray. It turned out the two have mutual friends. (To celebrate, they bought themselves shots.)

They didn’t win. That honour went to a man from the United Kingdom, whose mullet Andrews described as “a Lloyd Christmas meets Joe Dirt.”

He describes his own mullet as “a sick flo.”

“I shouldn’t have cut it off for that girl,” he repeated. “I would have had a really deadly one by now.”

Andrew says he’ll be back to compete again one day, when his mullet has grown.

“I gotta get that title before I die,” he said. “I don’t know how many years I have left – I told myself I’d cut my mullet off when I was 30. Now I’m telling myself I’ll cut it off when I’m 40.”

Keeping the mullet has its perks.

Andrew says everywhere he goes in Australia, people offer to buy him a beer.