EVENT IS STREETS AHEAD
HELP FOR TRADERS:
THE first Sunday on Shields event has been met with praise from city businesses but time will tell if the project has a future.
Organised by Cairns Regional Council, yesterday’s event was the first of many planned activities aimed at reviving the Cairns CBD.
As well as free parking, the market stalls, live music, and performances will hopefully bring more visitors into the city to shop and eat until October 20.
The wet weather may have kept numbers down for the first Sunday on Shields event but Councillor Richie Bates reiterated there wasn’t one solution for breathing life back into the city.
“It was a shame about the weather but what we’ve been saying for a while is there is not any one thing that will invigorate the CBD,” he said. “It will take some time over a few months but hopefully it will be a real boost for the area.
“It is important to think about it as a project which will run for a couple of months and if it is successful we’ll think of continuing it.
“We did a little bit of this last year, late in the year, and that helped in terms of running Sunday on Shields.
The Woolshed’s Ricci Whelan said the event had been “brilliant” for the pub.
“We had a lot more people in. We were understaffed and we had to call in more staff,” he said. “I think it rained mostly in the morning, it did rain at one time and they stopped the show for about 10 minutes.
“I think the kebab shop next to us and the coffee shop did well too. It’s been brilliant.”
The Cotton Club provided a VW Kombi named Nemo for the live entertainment.
CQUniversity creative arts technician and associate lecturer Patty Preece said the university and Cairns Voice Studio was pleased to be involved by hosting two interactive workshops.
On August 18 students will run a street theatre workshop and on September 15, a musicbased workshop.
Irene Hickman said it was “good to see people in the city despite inclement weather” and congratulated Cycas Circus and the council on the Sunday on Shields initiative.