Good things come in
Bill Harvey
IT is wonderful to see the great affection with which the Hobart community holds the long history of outdoor carols by candlelight events in this city.
This was reflected in the Mercury editorial last week and many of the comments posted on various social media platforms over the last few days.
I very much understand and respect the strong feeling around this issue for so many in our community but it is important that people are fully informed of the facts about what the council has planned for Christmas carols events in 2017.
The council has provided a funding pool of some $55,000 to support community or notfor-profit-based organisations and groups to present Christmas carol events and Christmas activities.
Christmas 2017 will see seven Christmas carols events across our city with a great diversity of performances planned. There will be something for everyone.
We have also received grant applications for smaller Christmas activities, one for carollers to perform to patients in Hobart’s hospitals.
So, how did council come to the decision to change the delivery model of Christmas carols?
The ExitLeft Productions’ event at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens last year received very significant financial and in-kind support from the City of Hobart to stage a large outdoor Christmas Carols event that people could attend for free.
Following the 2016 event, the council considered a wide range of options for 2017, including seeking expressions of interest from external partners to stage an event similar in scale to the one held at the gardens, to the council itself staging a carols by candlelight at St David’s Park and a range of other venues.
This thinking included the possible use of Soldiers Memorial Walk, the TCA Ground and the Regatta Ground amongst others.
We also had to take account of the community feedback that we received. People told us to make the city’s carols more traditional, more reflective of the community and less commercial in style.
In light of this, and given the very successful outcomes associated with the council’s grants program, the council resolved to directly support the staging of local carols events and other Christmas activities through a City of Hobart Christmas Grants Program.
The council wanted to empower our diverse local communities to stage activities that meet their own particular needs and aspirations.
I think the idea of being able to walk to a local park or venue to come together with your local community to celebrate the joy of Christmas and strengthen vitally important social connections is a wonderful idea and worthy of everyone’s support.
This is what Christmas is all about. Christmas carol events bring families and friends together to celebrate the festive season and the 2017 community-delivered model will continue that tradition.
These events will activate the city, involve and engage local communities and provide benefit to both the local and wider Hobart community.
This council’s support of the events will include provision of an Auslan interpretation service at one or more of the larger carols events to help break down barriers and promote social inclusion.
In addition, the city will also provide an umbrella marketing campaign for all the community carols events, similar to the approach we have applied to the highly successful Lunar New Year period, and operational and technical support and advice to community committees and organisers to help them deliver successful events.
Of course, if there are any businesses that would like to add value to the council’s support to these community carols event, the City of Hobart would be very pleased to facilitate these conversations.