Community carols event on the hunt for naming rights sponsor

Blue Lake Carols desperately needs financial injection

Blue Lake Carols is one of the region’s most popular and loved community events. It is also an award winning event, taking home the 2022 City of Mount Gambier Community Event of the Year at the Australia Day Awards. That award was focussed on the ability of organisers to pivot during the COVID years. SA Health restrictions around large scale events meant that the Blue Lake Carols Organising Committee had to innovate in an effort to continue to bring the iconic event, first held in 1947, to the community to spread some festive cheer.

The 2020 and 2021 events were recorded live on stage at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre and streamed via Facebook and YouTube in December. In 2020, more than 5000 individual streams of the event occurred on the night, conservatively putting the viewing audience at more than 20,000 people. The event was simultaneously broadcast on radio 5GTR FM and Lime FM in the South East and on 107.9 Life FM in Adelaide, adding thousands more to the total views.

Last year the event, celebrating its 75th year, had a triumphant return to the Mount Gambier Rail Lands and hopes were high the Blue Lake Carols would remain that large scale gathering the community has so warmly embraced but a lack of a major sponsor sees the event destined to return to an online format.

Blue Lake Carols Organising Committee chair Rudy Furlong said the clock was ticking on locking in the financial support required to ensure the Christmas celebration remained on the community calendar as an in-person event.

“We have put together a great naming rights package,” he said. “We have such a great creative team who are passionate about sharing the true meaning of Christmas and we are hoping someone will support that vision by taking up our sponsorship offer.” Last year’s even attracted up to 6000 people.

“This event has enjoyed incredible longevity,” Rudy said. “We are committed to having the 2023 event on December 17 at the Mount Gambier Rail Lands but that can only happen if we can secure a naming rights sponsor.”

If that support is not forthcoming, the organising committee will record the event at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in the lead up and then go live on December 17 for a return to an online experience but that is very much a Plan B and not the desired outcome.

If you are interested in discussing sponsorship options, especially the naming rights opportunity please contact Rudy Furlong at [email protected]