Christmas boost for Grove traders

LOCAL traders were given an end of year boost with up to a thousand community members turning out for the Christmas in the Grove event last week.

The Ocean Grove Business Association (OGBA) initiative designed to activate custom for the towns traders saw 65 local businesses take part in the event on Wednesday (December 7), where the Terrace was closed off for crowds to mingle among shops, street stalls and musical entertainment.

OGBA secretary Mark Edmonds said 53 of the 55 Terrace traders kept their doors open for the evening affair, while others setup on the main street for the first time.
“We had about five stalls that were Ocean Grove businesses that normally work from home but came and set up in the street and they were wrapped, four out of five joined the OGBA as a result,” he said.

“The comments that have come through are that ‘we were smashed’, ‘had plenty of people through’…a few came back and said ‘we did in two hours what we would ordinarily do on a Saturday’.

“Every café was packed, every restaurant was packed and once the rain came more of the crowds went into them.”

The street based-programming and Big Band wrapped up 45 minutes before the scheduled event end time of 8.00pm due to weather, “but we got two and bit hours of it which was good.”

“It wasn’t just about the traders, it was about the community getting out to.
“We’ve been doing it for five years but haven’t been able to do it for three years because of COVID.”

Mr Edmonds said he was being conservative with a crowd estimate of 1000 people, but it was pleasing to see so many out in the town centre and is confident the event has a strong future and would again be supported by the City of Greater Geelong, who provided a grant to help put it on.

“It’s all about driving local,” he said.