40th festival looms after weekend
Horsham Kannamaroo festival organisers are set to start planning for a special 40th birthday installment of the annual celebration next year.
A community committee, buoyed by a strong response to this year’s festival, will start exploring ideas for the milestone at a debriefing gathering in the next week.
Festival chairwoman Di Bell said 40 years of festivals was a significant occasion and its approach would be a spur to ensure the event was as successful as possible.
“When the committee gets together we will evaluate how things went this year and work on ways to make next year special. It’s a pretty big milestone and 40 years on it is a part of many people’s lives,” she said.
“We’re constantly hearing people say in reference to past festivals ‘I remember when…’. It means something different to everyone who has ever been part of the event.”
Mrs Bell said the weekend’s festival was a success and had provided confidence that the pre-christmas gathering continued to maintain a place in the community’s heart.
“We were generally extremely pleased. There was a feeling that all the energy expended into making it happen was rewarded, particularly on the Friday night,” she said. “Friday night was awesome. People were connecting everywhere and there was an amazing atmosphere. It was generally a fun night where people could come down, have a good time and then go home.
“And our continued expansion of the festival into the weekend also went well. We had a request from the community to bring back the Saturday part of the event and last year this included afternoon and evening activities. This year we shortened Saturday to twilight activities and it seemed to work better, although we still have some tweaking to do. So watch out for next year.
“Northern Fireworks put on an amazing display and the musical talent on stage at Horsham Soundshell was impressive. We are expecting to incorporate a larger local musical talent section next year.”
Mrs Bell said Sunday activities were predictably relaxed.
She said the Kannamaroo committee encouraged groups to make the most of the festival to make the weekend ‘bigger and better’.
“We’re only the lead group and the reality is Kannamaroo is a great opportunity for organisations to work collectively. It has proven to work really well,” she said.