Community callout for festival reprise

RESIDENTS and representatives of the region’s south-western community groups took part in a community meeting last week aimed at shaping the local involvement in an upcoming music event return.

With the Beyond the Valley Music Festival set to return to Barunah Plains later this year, the organisers behind the event at Untitled Group sought to engage with local stakeholders to discuss how the event can benefit everyone.

The organisation’s director of festivals and major events Pete Sofo said a stall-holding position for the festival’s community barbecue was the key topic of discussion.

“It’s something we offer at our other festival, Pitch Music Festival, and it’s a significant factor in how we contribute funds to the local community,” he said.

“At Pitch, funds from the community barbecue have gone on to build playgrounds at the local primary school and gotten new facilities at the sporting club.

“We tried to get this over the line last year but couldn’t with concern over lack of knowledge and lack of staff.”

The meeting took place at the Inverleigh Public Hall on Thursday evening, with representatives from the town’s primary school, cricket club, and CFA, as well as Golden Plains Shire attending.

A Moyston resident spoke at the meeting about her experiences as a volunteer with Pitch Music Festival.

Wayne Peel, a member of the Leigh Valley Lions Club attended the meeting and though he said it was a well-conducted one, no concrete outcomes have been achieved yet.

“They presented the case pretty well, but it’s about finding someone to come in and do it,” he said.

“Us Lions aren’t interested mainly because of the time because it’ll be our biggest time of the year for farming, and a lot of our members are over 65 with families.

“I’m not sure what’s going to come out of it or what the rest of the community’s thoughts are on it.”

The previous event, last held in December into January this year, was mired with issues to do with amenities, lack of shading, and a chaotic end which saw more than 30,000 people bottlenecked at the site’s single exit.

Mr Sofo said the previous event’s issues, many of which were brought up during the meeting, are being addressed.

“The main concerns this year are around fire and connectivity so we’re working on infrastructure with Telstra,” he said.

“We also had our fire commander at the meeting to discuss the plans we have in place for this year, and it felt like that allayed a lot of the concerns from residents.

“We’re hopeful the traffic issues we had last year won’t repeat itself. We’re aiming to stagger the exit times by having a lot more activity happening on the campsite to keep people there longer.”

A follow-up meeting is set to take place on Thursday next week, also at the Inverleigh Public Hall.

A list of community groups interested in volunteering for the festival is also being collated by municipal staff, which can be registered for by emailing [email protected].