'Awful situation' leads to huge support for Dandyman
UPDATE, Wednesday, 7am: A HUGE crowd has turned up to support a performance by North Coast man Daniel Oldaker, also known as Dandyman, after he was attacked by a right-wing mob at Melbourne's Federation Square last Sunday.
The group, United Patriots Front, objected to Oldaker's pink mankini and told him to "piss off" in a shocking incident that is going viral on social media.
But Oldaker yesterday returned to Federation Square - and was greeted by a huge and supportive crowd.
The Campaign and Racism and Fascism group posted photos of the performance on its Facebook page, saying: "A huge crowd of Melburnians turned out today to stand with Dandyman, to support freedom of expression and to send a message to fascist thugs, once again: you'll always lose in Melbourne."
The post has been liked more than 1600 times and shared 400 times.
Simon Doyle commented that the support for Dandyman was a "great response to an awful situation".
Katt Nelson wrote: "This story not only turned out to have such a happy ending, but completed backfired on Blair's (from the United Patriots Front) part.
"For each person who threatened Dandy that day, there's hundreds if not thousands who are supporting him and having his back.
"It's heart warming to know that positivity won, doing the right thing won, and will keep winning."
UPDATE, Tuesday 1pm: A BRUNSWICK Heads performer has vowed to return to Federation Square this afternoon despite a shocking confrontation with right-wing group at the site last Sunday.
Brunswick Heads resident Daniel Oldaker, also known as Dandyman, put out a Facebook call for support for his show at the square in Melbourne at 3pm.
A video of Blair Cottrell, leader of the United Patriots Front group, strongly objecting to Oldaker's outfit of pink, wrestler-style shorts has gone viral.
Original story: A RIGHT-WING group has harassed and chased a North Coast street performer in a shocking incident at Federation Square in Melbourne.
Brunswick Heads resident Daniel Oldaker, also known as The Dandyman, has spoken out after the incident, which was captured on video and was now going viral on social media.
The video shows Blair Cottrell, leader of the United Patriots Front group, strongly objecting to Oldaker's outfit of pink, wrestler-style shorts.
"He's wearing a G-string in front of kids, man," Cottrell says, and some of his followers can be heard calling the performer a "degenerate" and saying "there's kids watching".
Cottrell then interrupts Oldaker's show saying: "Piss off mate, there's kids here, what are you doing? Are you a paedophile? You are not welcome here."
At that point, Oldaker starts calling police and some people from the audience confront Cottrell.
"I love this country and I'm trying to protect the kids of this country," Cottrell explained.
Spectators then were harassed by the far-right activists and Cotrell was seen asking police to arrest Oldaker.
Police officers were forced to surround Oldaker to protect him.
He told The Northern Star he would be appearing on Channel Ten's The Project tonight to talk about what happened.
"I have been working as street performer for 23 years in 30 countries around the world, and nothing like this has ever happened to me before," he said.
"I have decided not to let it crush me.
"The feeling (I had was) of wanting to crawl under a rock and disappear and not ever be approached by those kind of people again, but I love what I do and what I do is important in society and there needs to be more of it.
"My partner (performer Ruby Rubberlegs) and myself will continue doing shows in halls, theatres and the street, contributing to the culture and the community we live in."
Oldaker said he'd never had a complaint about his outfit before.
"That outfit is a parody of the Australian sporting outfits and that's what's so funny, that's why people laugh, (it's like) Tony Abbot in his budgie smugglers," he said.
"I don't perform he whole show in that, that's just the finale."
The performer said he had not pressed charges over the incident.
The Dandyman will be coming back to the Northern Rivers for a show as part of an East Coast tour in spring.