Chinchilla set for melon fever
MELON fever is well and truly being felt in the Western Downs region as business owners prepare stalls, volunteers organise sites and farmers load up their homegrown melons for the highly anticipated Chinchilla Melon Festival.
The Melon Fest is an epic event that allows tourists and locals to come together for four days of fun, including parades, competition, live entertainment, food and, of course, watermelons.
The event was last held in 2019. It was cancelled in 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions, and is estimated to inject an extra $2m to the region, according to Western Downs councillor Kylie Bourne.
“We had a number of major events across the region disrupted due to Covid so it’s really exciting for Chinchilla to have their festival again this year,” Ms Bourne said.
“On average, visitors will spend around $200 per day and night, so (the economic injection) in the millions.
“It’s a considerable flowon, those dollars turn over and over in a community.”
Melon Festival committee president and owner of Chinchilla Tyre and Battery Doug McNally said it was an incredibly tough decision to make in 2021 to cancel the event.
“I’m sure the town missed it, it leaves a big hole in the community when we don’t put an event like that on,” he said. “It was the right decision in hindsight, for our own sanity we made the call early to finish it and make a clean cut.”
Mr McNally, who has been the president for four festivals and made the move to Chinchilla in 1998, said he loved being involved in an event that represented the region positively. “The camaraderie you develop with the team you work with is a highlight,” he said.
“To see all the people come together, it gives you a good feeling, and you feel as though you’ve contributed to the community.”
Next week would be when melon fever truly hit and volunteers finalised setting up.
“We still have marquees to go up on the school oval, site
fencing to do, install generators for food stalls, it will all really kick into gear on Wednesday when everything starts falling together.”
Business owner and Chinchilla born-and-bred Terri Keller said the event was timely, considering tragic events that had rocked the region recently, and the Melon Fest was created out of the need to boost community spirit.
“It’s locals coming together as a community in a fun way, (which) I think will definitely help take people’s minds off things,” she said.
“The festival initially started to help the community through drought and that’s still a devastating thing so in terms of community recovery, the timing is perfect.”
The Chinchilla Creative Co and Red Hill Creative Co owner said the event was a strategy for the community to come together.
“There was a pretty harsh drought at the time and if I remember correctly it ended up bucketing rain that weekend,” Ms Keller said.
Despite it being the first festival in which her businesses would take part, Ms Keller said she had missed only one festival her whole life.
“It’s a fun vibe, it helps invigorate the town and especially after the period of Covid we’ve had, it helps bring back to the roots of why they started the festival in the first place, that economic boost and bringing community spirit to everybody,” Ms Keller said.
“And it’s not only just locals anymore, but also a bucket-load of tourists who come, which is fantastic.”
Mr McNally said the committee was confident they would welcome at least 10,000 to 15,000 visitors to the festival this year.
“It’s been building slowly,” he said.
“We’re confident we’ll crack a good crowd, people have been leaving decisions until last minute since Covid.
“I think we’re going to have a really good day, it’s going to be hot, but it’s always hot at Melon Fest.”
The Chinchilla Melon Festival will run until Sunday, February 19.