For dinner and a show coastal-style, check out Naughty Noodle, an arts and entertainment organisation with a purpose. Running events across multiple Central Coast venues, including the increasingly popular yearly Coastal Twist Festival, this social enterprise leverages creativity as an agent for social change. Founders, Glitta Supernova and Juan Locco moved to the Central Coast in 2012, and, after noticing lack of diversity in the area’s contemporary arts and culture offerings, established Naughty Noodle. With the third largest population in a NSW local government area, ‘Coasties’ deserve access to a wide range of art and cultural events, and this talented pair are on a mission to see that they get it!
Across the long weekend, I visited Fun Haus Factory, Naughty Noodle’s permanent live music and performance space in Gosford’s Kibble Park for a queer art exhibition focused on inclusion. Over in Ettalong, the pair make over the Wadhayi Leisure and Learning Centre in technicolour as Naughty Noodle Fun Haus for their larger events. A cabaret night, like the sold-out Love Superstars Cabaret I attended, will set you back fewer than forty bucks with an optional dinner add-on plucked from a roving list of guest food curators. We tucked into steaming plates of paella ($22)—seafood, chicken and chorizo, or vegetarian—and a decent bottle of rosé ($36) as we watched a quirky collection of acts take to the stage. Australian Idol 2023 finalist, Jasey Fox, made great use of the projector, screen and black box stage provided by a NSW Government creative capital grant. Long-time circus star, Jess Love, wowed the enthusiastic crowd with great character acting and hula hoops. Local act, Tynga Williams, fresh from the stages of the 2023 Sydney Fringe, dazzled with long brown legs, high kicks and sultry singing.
The next Naughty Noodle cabaret event in Ettalong, Clambake: Sink or Swim ($35), will take place on Saturday 11 November as part of The Lakes Festival 2023. On the menu at the Fun Haus Factory in Gosford, there is an almost non-stop series of events, kicking off with a launch party on 14 October.
