Seniors festival gets underway

THE Ballarat Seniors Festival has officially launched with a range of events and activities on offer throughout October.

The festival is seeking to celebrate the contribution made by local seniors to the community.

Activities include Thai Chi at Lake Wendouree, movies at Showbiz Cinema, come and try at the Ballarat Choral Society and much more.

“We’re really excited to bring the 2023 Ballarat Seniors Festival to Ballarat this year,” said Mayor Cr Des Hudson.

“Throughout the month of October there are just so many opportunities to participate in free or very low-cost events.”

The festival was launched with the Get Connected! Seniors Festival Expo at Alfredton Sports and Community Club.

More than 30 community groups were involved with the expo including social, art, sport, and special interest groups.

Blake Gordon from the University of the Third Age, or U3A, said it was great to have a festival targeted towards seniors.

“It has been one of the positive things as far as we’re concerned in terms of getting our message out to everybody else because U3A is probably one of the least known big organisations in Ballarat,” he said.

“Many times, people of our age are a bit shy and as a result they only need to get into a class and all of a sudden they find all these new friends, so it makes a big difference.”

The culmination of the month of low-cost or free events will be the Seniors of the Year awards at the Ballarat Town Hall on Tuesday 31 October.

For the full program of Ballarat Seniors Festival activities and events visit the City of Ballarat website.

Hard copies can also be collected at the Ballarat Library, Sebastopol Library, Wendouree Library or at the Phoenix Building located at 25 Armstrong Street South.