THE resurgent Winter Weekend festivals have been a winner in Port Fairy over the past two months.
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A predominantly new and young committee took the reins of the event this year and their efforts have been rewarded with great crowds, high levels of participation, and positive feedback from residents, visitors, businesses and other community groups.
“We’re really excited because on the whole the events were very successful,” joint co-ordinator Loren Tuck said.
From the opening weekend’s Dachshund Dash to the closing weekend’s vinyl swap meet, the four festivals proved a hit, helping to drive the town’s economy over winter.
“It was very positive for the local businesses, and for the individuals as well who hosted different things,” Ms Tuck said.
She praised the other community groups that assisted with the festival, as well as the businesses and organisations that hosted events.
“We could see the (popular) events were the ones where people had to actively participate,” Ms Tuck said.
“We’ve learnt this is a very active community with great ideas. We’ve already got ideas for next year – people have been feeding us excellent ideas for next year.
“There’s a lot of cohesion and support from other festival committees. We could call up the Moyneyana or Folkie people and they were very generous, not only with their resources but also with their time.
“We couldn’t do it without that local knowledge.”
Ms Tuck said running the four weekends had been a huge learning curve.
“We need to start earlier next year,” she laughed.
The committee is already thinking ahead to 2018.
“We had a couple of events we had to cancel due to poor ticket sales unfortunately,” she said.
“But things like the vinyl swap meet, we will definitely do that kind of thing again and it shows sometimes if you take risks and put on something knew and fresh (it can work).
“Another thing that we learnt was that it was great to reach out and involve neighbouring communities.”
The Winter Weekends featured tours of Budj Bim – which sold out – as well as trips to Narrawong markets. Crossley’s St Brigid’s Hall group also staged a concert in Port Fairy, while the Warrnambool Camera Club was involved in the many photography events.
Ms Tuck said the committee was keen for community feedback via their website or Facebook page.
“If people have ideas, we do listen,” she said.
“Some of the events this year were run at the suggestion of community members.”