Maydale push after Irish festival
Horsham Agricultural Society has urged Horsham groups to consider what events and activities they might be able to present at Maydale Reserve.
Spokeswoman Andrea Cross said the society had spent a busy six months providing examples of the potential of the Horsham Showground site and invited the community to explore more.
“We’ve basically run four major events – Horsham Show, Horsham German Fest, New Year’s Eve by the River and last weekend’s Horsham Irish Festival, as well as a major horse show, at the site in a relatively short space of time,” she said.
“It has been a lot of work, but the events, as well as being great fun, have also been about research and development and exploring ways of activating the area.
“Finding ways to use the riverbank space and Maydale Pavilion has been a key for us and this has been reflected in community feedback.
“There is only so much we can do as a society, but I encourage groups keen to run events to get in touch with us and take ownership of this space. What we have found is that it can certainly support all sorts of events.”
Mrs Cross said last weekend’s Irish festival, which represented a ‘toe in the water’ experiment, was successful enough to consider exploring more in the future.
“What a day. While we can’t say for sure that we will press ahead with it in the future – that’s a committee decision – the early signs are good,” she said.
“Considering it often takes up to five years to establish a festival and that you probably need to have a five-year plan in place, the festival was fantastic.”
Mrs Cross said several hundred people attended a morning ‘brekkie’ and market session and more than 300 the afternoon and evening entertainment and activities.
“It was basically split in two – morning and afternoon – we served around 200 breakfasts and had quite a large crowd on the riverbank,” she said.
“Not counting all the dance students and their followers, more than 300 people came in the afternoon, which was possibly down slightly on our expectations. But this event represented a toe in the water for us and I know everyone who attended enjoyed themselves.
“We had 10 competitors for our Danny Boy singing competition, the Horsham School of Dance Irish dancers were captivating, Paddy’s Bar in Maydale Pavilion was popular and Melbourne Irish band The Exciting Mcgillicuddies were exceptional.”