Mr Harbour City Bears night just around the corner

Who will be the next bear to wear the Mr Harbour City Bears leather sash?

Every year the Harbour City Bears (HCB) runs the competition to find the new face of the club. Event organisers promise that it will be a fun night of fur and laughs as contestants battle it out before a live audience.

“The Mr HCB competition is great event on our club’s calendar,” HCB president Marcus Pastorelli told the Star Observer.

“It’s a light-hearted competition with a serious purpose. Our new Mr Harbour City Bears will be the face of our club for the coming 12 months and will also represent Sydney at the Mr Australasia Bear contest held during Southern Hibernation in Melbourne in June.”

This year, the competition will be held at Sydney’s Midnight Shift Club on Saturday, May 10 from 7.30pm.

It will be hosted by Aunt Mavis, who appeared in the teaser videos that the HCB used to promote their Bear Essentials 18 festival earlier this year. Aunt Mavis will be joined by DJ Richard Bolt for the music.

The competition runs over two and half hours with three rounds. Each round has challenges for the contestants with the judges looking for personality and character. The second round is a crowd favourite, with cubs involved in a set of on-stage interactions that combine a little cuddly with a little sexy.

“Over the years we have refined the way our Mr HCB is chosen,” Pastorelli said.

“With a panel of community judges having 50 per cent of the vote, and the cub round and audience ballot making up 25 per cent each.

“This year we are all set for a really entertaining competition with a great host and a great group of contestants. We’d love to see a big crowd of people attend and cheer on these awesome fellas.”

Any HCB member is eligible to enter the competition regardless of age, size of hirsuteness.

All profits from the Mr HCB competition go to charity and it is also the event the club uses to do formal hand overs of the funds it has raised for charity over the year. This year, they are set to announce donations of money raised to two worthwhile organisations: The Inspire Foundation and the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation.

Mr Harbour City Bears is on between 7.30pm-11.00pm, Saturday, May 10 at the Midnight Shift. For more information about the competition email: [email protected]

(Main image: The winner of the 2013 Mr Harbour City Bears. Photo credit: Ann-Marie Calilhanna; Star Observer)