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General News

23 March, 2023

Success for first community festival

Maryborough’s inaugural Goldfields Community Festival is being hailed a success, achieving its goal of revitalising and reinvigorating the local community. It was third time lucky for the Goldfields Community Festival — Connect and Celebrate...

By Riley Upton

The first Goldfields Community Festival was a big hit with locals on Saturday. Photo: 240323 01
The first Goldfields Community Festival was a big hit with locals on Saturday. Photo: 240323 01

Maryborough’s inaugural Goldfields Community Festival is being hailed a success, achieving its goal of revitalising and reinvigorating the local community.

It was third time lucky for the Goldfields Community Festival — Connect and Celebrate, which after being cancelled twice, was finally able to get underway at Phillips Gardens on Saturday.

Organised by Go Goldfields in partnership with the Committee for Maryborough, Maryborough Rotary and the Central Goldfields Shire Council, the festival aimed to celebrate everything that makes the community special, and bring locals back together following the pandemic.

With around 1000 people taking part in Saturday’s festival, Committee for Maryborough executive officer Kerrie Dowling said feedback for the day has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Everyone was very supportive and wondering when we’re going to do the next festival, the feedback has been exceptionally good,” she said.

“We set out with the goal of bringing the community together and I think we achieved that, it was great to see everyone socialising and enjoying the day.”

An action-packed festival for all ages, the festival featured a climbing wall, laser tag, multiple performances by local musicians and a variety of food and rides, as well as stalls set up by local community groups.

“All the stalls the community groups put together looked wonderful, there were bright colours and flags everywhere which was lovely,” Ms Dowling said.

“The feedback I got from community groups was that they had great interactions with people.

“The Girl Guides signed up five or six people on the day as well as the community garden group, which is a fantastic result.”

It is hoped the festival will continue on an annual basis, however Ms Dowling said any decision will be subject to funding.

“We’re having a debrief meeting next week where we’ll go over the finer details of future events, how everyone is feeling and what we can do,” she said.

“Funding is a big part of the festival, everything on offer on Saturday was free and that’s because of the funding support we received, it was a significant help.

“Everything came together on the day and so many people contributed to its success, so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to bring it back next year.”

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