Tuntenball’s Joe Niedermayer on building a space for all: ‘We would like to have equal rights, equal society’ (EXCLUSIVE)

The word “Tunte” – a German-language slur akin to the English “fairy” that demeans drag queens, trans people and effeminate gay men – has long been used as an insult in Austria. But in the city of Graz, the queer community reclaimed it, building one of Europe’s most distinctive LGBTQ+ events around something which was meant to belittle them.

Graz’s Tuntenball, now in its fourth decade, is one of this year’s honourees at the 2026 PEUGEOT Attitude PRIDE Awards Europe, supported by British Airways. Joe Niedermayer, its head organiser, has spent 10 of those years making sure it happens. 

The Tuntenball began in 1991, three years before Niedermayer was born, in the queer politics group of the University of Graz. Austria’s ball season is a serious institution, a calendar of formal dances in grand historic buildings, each tied to a trade or profession: Vienna holds balls for confectioners, coffeehouse owners, hunters, scientists and practically everyone in between. In that context, creating the Tuntenball was a statement as much as a party. “Having a Tuntenball,” says Niedermayer, “was something bringing us up on the same level – we finally had a ball of our own.”

Building the Tuntenball

That first event drew around 140 people to the university canteen. As the numbers grew, so did the need for a bigger venue. But it was politics that forced the decisive break: when a conservative group won the student elections and declared they no longer wanted the event on university premises, the organising group did what queer communities have always done: they built something of their own. 

On 7 November 1991, they formally founded the RosaLila PantherInnen (PinkPurple Panthers) – named after the white panther on the coat of arms of the state of Styria, of which Graz is the capital. The organisation took ownership of the Tuntenball and has run it ever since, using proceeds from the event to fund professional counselling, asylum support and political lobbying, as well as the “feel free” community centre in central Graz – a bar, social space and youth drop-in that hosts everything from peer support sessions to party nights. 

A celebration for everyone

The Tuntenball itself fills the opulent Congress Graz building with 2,500 guests each year. Attendees have always pulled out the stops in elaborate costumes, many in drag that predates its mainstream visibility. “We didn’t know what drag was,” notes Niedermayer. Of those guests, roughly half identify as straight. “Never anywhere else [have I] found events with so many straight allies at the party,” he says. “And at the end of the day, what do we want? We would like to have equal rights, equal society. And this can only be done if the main group, and these are the straight people, accept us and if they join us. And they do join us.”

The Tuntenball organiser’s full interview appears in issue 371 of Attitude magazine, on sale in print and digital now. Order Attitude magazine issue 371 in print now, or in digital on the links below on Apple News+ and the Attitude app.