Pidapipo Has Made Three Gelato Flavours Exclusively for AFL’s Footy Fest

The Telstra Pre-Game Entertainment at the 2026 Toyota AFL Grand Final is set to be the most highly anticipated 20 minutes of the week, and we’re marking the occasion the only way we know how. We’ve teamed up with our friends at Pidapipo and the AFL on three limited-edition gelato flavours, served at a Footy Fest pop-up over just four days from September 23. 

Each one takes its inspiration from a Kylie song or an album cover. “They all have a sense of nostalgia and fun to them, but they’re quite different in terms of flavour,” Pidapipo founder Lisa Valmorbida says.

La La Lamington came out of the catchy track Can’t Get You Out of My Head and a desire to do a distinctly Australian ice-cream befitting our homegrown pop princess: coconut gelato with a raspberry swirl and chocolate chips, in a cone dipped in dark chocolate and coconut. “You get the creamy coconut gelato, the acidity and fruitiness from the raspberry and then little hits of chocolate throughout,” Valmorbida says.

Choco Motion plays on The Loco-Motion. It’s crema gelato with a chocolate swirl in a cone dipped in milk chocolate and feuilletine. “Crema is a classic Italian gelato flavour, similar to a custard, and it has this beautiful richness without being too sweet,” she says.

Padam Padam started elsewhere. “We were really inspired by the colours on the Padam Padam album cover, particularly those pinks and warm orange tones, and started thinking about what those colours could taste like,” Valmorbida says. The result: strawberry and mandarin cream gelato, in a white chocolate and dried strawberry cone.

The cones are doing real work here. Valmorbida wanted them “considered as part of the flavour rather than just a vessel for the gelato,” so each is dipped and finished with a different texture, which makes them feel “celebratory and a little opulent”.

Collaborations are familiar territory for Pidapipo, but this is the gelato shop’s first of this scale. “It’s two things that feel incredibly Australian coming together, with gelato in the middle of it,” she says.

Valmorbida’s personal favourite is La La Lamington. “It was the one everyone kept eating during testing, which is normally a pretty good sign.”

AFL Footy Fest returns to Yarra Park next the MCG from September 23 to 26, and entry is free. Alongside the exclusive Pidapipo x Team Kylie pop-up, there will be a Team Kylie activation selling limited-edition AFL x Kylie merch, a BWS Beer Garden, DJs, food and drinks stalls, kids' activities and appearances from AFL and AFLW players. The 2026 Toyota AFL Grand Final Parade is on at the precinct on September 25, followed by a post-parade celebration.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with AFL.