Festival fun
Thirty years on and Drouin’s Ficifolia Festival has continued to draw large crowds and community support over the past week. The 30th anniversary was celebrated with a week long program that culminated in the traditional parade day on Saturday and plenty of activities for the whole family. Festival organising committee president Jess Murphy said there was a threat of bad weather on Saturday but luckily the storm passed through and no events were cancelled. “It all went really well and it was the largest turnout to the parade in years for the 30th anniversary. “It’s all about the families…it was really good to see it all come together on Saturday night for the outdoor movie and fireworks. “There has been a lot of feedback on social media that people were absolutely thrilled with the events through the week and people learnt a lot about the groups that participated,” she said. Organising for this year’s festival got off to a shaky start last year when the annual general meeting failed to fill office bearer and committee positions.
Ms Murphy said the agm would be held next month so that planning could get underway earlier and give the new committee more time to organise the festival.
“We don’t want to see it fold but at the end of the day if we don’t have the financial support we can’t keep it going.
“It’s good to have the people turn out to the festival but we also need people power to support it,” she said.
Ms Murphy said Saturday’s program was a highlight of the festival, starting with the car show and market, extending into the street parade, party in the park and outdoor movie.
She said 23 different community groups were involved in the street parade and there was a huge turnout of community members watching the parade.
She said the BMX competition at the Drouin skatepark was well supported by entries and people watching the BMX, skateboard and scooter classes.
The festival program featured a week of events, beginning last Sunday with a charity golf day.
Various groups and organisations held events throughout the week, including the Friends of Drouin’s Trees book launch.
The Ficifolia Festival art show and CWA Latrobe Central Group creative arts exhibition.
A combined churches service was the final event on the program on Sunday night.