Plenty of events planned for annual Drouin festival

An evening crammed full of activity including the annual street parade will be a centrepiece of Drouin’s Ficifolia Festival in February.

The festival will run from Saturday, February 4, until Monday, February 13.

Organisers are expecting a bumper crowd in town and Civic Park on Saturday, February 11, with a program full of activity to cater for all ages.

The street parade of floats – the theme for is “Story Time” – will kick off proceedings.

For the first time the parade’s route will be along Young St, rather than in Princes Way, starting at Sinclair St and travelling through to Brynwood Av and the eastern end of Civic Park.

The section of Young St used for the parade will be closed to traffic from 4.30-6.30 p.m. with signage erected pointing to detours and alternative routes.

Registrations to enter floats are open already and early response has been strong especially from district schools.

Party in the Park that will include food, music and stalls will run from 6-10 p.m., the open air film showing in the Keith Pretty Sound Shell will begin at 8.15 p.m. with an intermission for the fireworks spectacular at approximately 9.15 p.m.

The sound shell will also be the venue for live music starting from about 6.30 p.m.

While it is a busy Saturday night program there are many events throughout the 10 days of the festival.

A cocktail party at the Drouin Golf and Country Club on Saturday, February 4, will get the festivities underway.

The Scarecrow Trail will be in place during the festival with people asked to vote on Facebook for their favourite scarecrow in the people’s choice award.

The Australian Shakespeare Company will be in Drouin especially for the Ficifolia Festival performing Wind in the Willows at two shows in Civic Park – 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. – on Sunday, February 5.

And on February 10,11 and 12 there’ll be performances at the Drouin Secondary College theatrette of Peter Pan, the Croc Rock Musical Pantomine, that featured at the Melbourne Musical Festival.

The jam packed program also includes the Ficifolia Art Show at the Drouin Football Club social rooms from August 10-12 presented by the Baw Baw Arts Alliance.

During the more than week of events there’ll be golf, croquet, bowls and BMX competitions, an all abilities disco, poetry readings, tree and nature and gardens and farm walks, historical stories from iconic residents of the Drouin district, story time for children, a family concert, combined church service and much more.

Details of the full list of events, dates, times and venues are available on the website www.ficifoliafestival.org.au