THE 2016-17 Moyneyana Festival has proven you can teach old dogs new tricks.
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In its 69th year, the iconic festival is not only showing no signs of slowing down but is continuing to break new ground.
Moyneyana Festival president Reg Harry said the success of this year’s event has been overwhelming.
“Attendance wise this is the biggest year we have had,” Mr Harry said.
“The town has been buzzing over the whole six weeks.
“The amount of young families that have enjoyed the free activities the festival has put on is certainly up on other years. We have found people are now spreading their holidays out longer.
“Work patterns have changed, it is now not the case that everyone has their holidays in the same two weeks over Christmas, times are now more varied and stretch right through January.”
Mr Harry said there have been plenty of highlights during this year’s festival.
He said a couple of new events had made an immediate impact.
“The Pet Appreciation Day on Fiddler’s Green was a huge hit,” Mr Harry said.
“There were a heap of people there with their pets, it was an outstanding success. The Park Run is also something we promoted on our program and that too has shown it is something people want and I think it will continue to thrive.”
The Moyneyana Festival began on Christmas Eve and will finish on Friday.
The iconic street procession on New Year’s Eve was again a centrepiece with over 10,000 people lining the town’s CBD to watch a record number of floats.
The Duck Derby on New Year’s Day attracted a big crowd to the Moyne River while the South West Rodders Show n’ Shine brought an influx of car lovers into the town. Music again played a big part in the entertainment on offer with the addition of a country music day this year proving to be a winning move.
The Port Fairy Belfast Lions Club Art Show attracted an impressive body of work while the CBD Alive program had everything from snakes to African drumming and plenty more in between.
“People love summer in Port Fairy and having so much free entertainment on offer plays a big part in that,” Mr Harry said.