New feel for Daffodil Festival
THE 2017 Daffodil Festival will have a new direction, as the organisation of events outside Memorial Hall is handed over to a new committee.
Claire and Brenton Williams are on the committee and spoke at the South Gippsland Shire Council’s public presentation session last Wednesday.
“The Leongatha Horticultural Society came to the Leongatha Chamber of Commerce late last year to say it won’t be organising any events outside the hall for the 2017 Daffodil Festival,” Mr Williams said.
“It was taken to a chamber meeting and everyone was keen for it to keep happening, so eight of us formed a subcommittee.”
The subcommittee plan to host a day of activities in Leongatha, focussed on and around Bair Street on Saturday, September 2 from 9am to 3pm.
Mr Williams said the plan is to restore the Daffodil Festival to its former glory and foster some excitement within the community for the event.
“Leongatha has no identity anymore, we want to get to a point where Melbourne people come here in their droves and recognise how beautiful it is,” he said.
“We used to have the show, the Cycling Carnival, the Christmas Carnival and the Daffodil festival used to be huge.
“Now we have children of our own, we want to show them Leongatha is a fun place to grow up with fun things to do.”
Mr Williams said the committee has already submitted a grant application into the council for the event.
“At the moment we have zero dollars to fund it,” he said.
The theme for the festival this year will be daffodils and dairy.
Councillor Lorraine Brunt said because it has the dairy theme, the committee could also source funding from the council’s Dairy Tight Times Support program.
Mrs Williams said they want to rejuvenate the Daffodil Festival, give it a new feel and keep it as a free event.
“We want to show our children how to be active members of their community. A positive, thriving community fosters a positive thriving community for future generations,” she said.
Deputy mayor Cr Maxine Kiel said volunteering breeds volunteering.
“We all grew up with volunteer run shows and it is good to see young people who want to continue that,” she said.
Involvement in the festival has already been secured from local schools, the Leongatha Community Garden, the SES and the CFA, Autobarn and the Leongatha Children’s Centre.
Mr Williams said a band, dance groups and the South Gippsland Ladies Choir have also committed to the festival.
“We want to shut down Bair Street for the day, as well as Michael Place and Lyon Street,” Mr Williams said.
“The plan is to encourage both locals and people from outside of town, including Melbourne, to come and see what Leongatha is like and hopefully encourage repeat visitation.”
Mr Williams said they have plans to display children’s artwork in some of Bair Street’s vacant shops, as well as run pop up bars and live music.
“We have got six local artists to play on the day so far,” he said.
Mrs Williams said she had collected over 100 signatures from local businesses, all pledging their support for the event.
“That is basically every shop owner from the CDB and the industrial estate,” she said.
The next committee meeting will be held on Friday, May 12.
Festival feels: South Gippsland Shire Council Cr Jeremy Rich, Daffodil Festival subcommittee members Claire and Brenton Williams and Cr Don Hill are keen to see a rejuvenated Daffodil Festival in 2017.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Apr 26 2017. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
