Huge Easter planned
Aschedule for Warracknabeal’s Y-fest Easter Festival from April 14 to 17 is packed with a broad range of activities and attractions.
The weekend offers everything from art, music and entertainment to horse racing, golf, an annual vintage rally and a traditional Easter Saturday street parade.
Y-fest is a Warracknabeal district celebration but embraces all things Yarriambiack Shire.
Launching the festival on Good Friday is the start of Warracknabeal Golf Club’s four-day Easter tournament.
The Friday event is a men and women versus par competition.
The golfing action continues with men’s and women’s stableford on the Saturday, men’s and women’s twoperson ambrose on the Sunday and again a men’s and women’s stableford competition on the Monday.
Friday evening activities are based around the launch of a festival art show in Yarriambiack Shire offices in Lyle Street.
Warracknabeal Arts Council hosts the art show and this year’s show features the work of Joan Goad of Brim and Ron Penrose of Horsham.
The State Library is also bringing a touring art show of copies and original paintings of children’s book covers to Warracknabeal for the weekend.
There will be a preview and artist talk from 5.30pm to 7pm on the Friday and the art show will be from noon to 5pm on the Saturday, 11am to 5pm, Sunday and 11am to 3.30pm on Monday.
There are major events at the heart of the festival, including Wheatlands 50th Annual Vintage Rally, Warracknabeal Racing Club’s Easter race meeting and the popular and colourful Easter Saturday street parade.
Wheatlands Museum, on the Henty Highway, has a reputation of housing the most extensive collection of vintage agricultural machinery, including tractors and stationary engines, in Australia. During the three days of the Easter rally, the unique collection goes on display while restoration enthusiasts from across Australia exhibit their own collections.
This year’s rally celebrates 100 years of Fordson and 150 years of machinery manufacturing in Warracknabeal.
Rally activities include participation in the street parade, a twilight vintage tractor pull and a crank start tractor race. There will also be tractor demonstrations, shearing, rocker cover races, a hay bale maze and Easter egg hunt.
Cup meeting
The Easter race meeting features the running of the Warracknabeal Cup and the day of racing also includes a variety of side events.
There will be fashions on the field, live music, an egg hunt and free activities for children.
This year there are ‘Fast and Furious’ tickets, incorporating horse racing on Easter Saturday at Warracknabeal and general admission to a Nitro Circus show at Horsham City Oval on Easter Sunday.
Many people will line Warracknabeal’s main street from 11am for the Easter Saturday Street Parade.
The parade features a town crier, vintage and modern vehicles, novelty floats and countless other school, group and community attractions.
Warracknabeal shops will open until 1pm and offer specials to match the occasion.
Warracknabeal Aero Club will organise a flyover during the event.
Busking has become a major part of the festival and Yfest Busking will be in the main street from 9am on the Saturday. Buskers can perform anywhere in Scott Street.
A busking competition will run from 12.30pm to 6pm at Lions Park over Yarriambiack Creek past Creekside Hotel, where there will also be a barbecue and drinks available.
More than $2000 in prizemoney is up for grabs in the competition, including $1000 for the winning act.
Competition entry forms are available online at yfest.com.au.
If that isn’t enough, Yarriambiack Shire’s evolving Silo Arts Trail is also a major attraction for visitors.
Massive murals are on silos at Sheep Hills, 18 kilometres south of Warracknabeal via Stawell-warracknabeal Road, Brim, 20 kilometres north on the Henty Highway, and Patchewollock, 112 kilometres north via the Henty Highway.