Page 29 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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The Food and Dance Spectacular no doubt remains the favourite event—and who could resist the food that came through Civic that day? The Pacific Islanders Showcase also provided wonderful sounds, and I believe we were treated to a cameo performance by one of our own, Mr John Hargreaves.
Carnival in the City on Saturday night drew in crowds, me included, who danced the night away and listened to the fabulous Latin American music of Los Chavos, Salsa Kingz and Mi Tierra. Saturday drew in more than 70,000, with some saying there were 100,000 through the day.
On Sunday I was keen for more, as were another 20,000 to 30,000 people who participated through that day, as estimated by festival logistics staff and stallholders. We are still waiting for the final numbers to come through. Around 90 stalls and three stages of entertainment made for another great day.
We started out with the Chinese new year celebration, where I painted the nose of the Chinese dragon. I went on to India in the City, where I had my first Bollywood dancing lesson. I understand that other MLAs share my enthusiasm for Bollywood dancing, so I might come and ask for some private lessons at some point.
Little did I know, though, that, after that, when I went to open the Greek Glendi, I was to be doused with water and “baptised”. Whilst it may have been a somewhat inelegant baptism, with a bottle of water thrown over the back of my head, it was indeed a privilege to be baptised and given a name by the Greek community.
I am grateful to the people who transformed Canberra’s city centre into such a wonderful showcase of art, culture and tradition. The Civic triangle, with three main stages plus other workshop areas, was jam-packed with colour and energy for the whole weekend and it was a great use of our common space.
Sunday also saw the community and government services come out in force to provide information about their services at Contact Canberra, which is now in its sixth year. What an impressive array of services they are, and I thank the hundreds of staff and volunteers who gave their time on Sunday to engage with the community and let them know what a wonderful array of government and community sector services we have here.
I am pleased to be able to provide a preliminary report on the festival. On Saturday alone there were more than 100 performance groups and 250 food stalls. There have been various estimates of attendance, including from some very experienced crowd estimators such as the police, our own festival ground staff and, of course, the Canberra Times. Whilst we await more detailed information on participant demographics—this is sourced from festival surveys—we estimate that over 130,000 people attended over the three-day festival. This is a great indication of the popularity and esteem with which this festival is held by our community.
I understand that there may be interest in the cost of the festival, based on previous years’ experience, and I am pleased to say that my department advises me that, while we need to wait until all the bills come in, it certainly looks like we are on track and
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