Berry and cherry fest set to impress

BACCHUS Marsh’s Main Road will come alive with sweet entertainment and fresh festivity when the town’s annual Strawberry and Cherry Festival returns from 14 to 17 November.

Organiser, Urban Markets’ Felicity Ashman, said she’s pleased to see it return after it was cancelled last year due to escalating operational costs.

“This is an iconic event for our community,” she said. “Particularly after the challenges we’ve had over the last few years, it’s ideal and exciting we can celebrate again.

“This creates a fair amount of energy particularly for our vast number of our local vendors who’ll be attending.”

Ms Ashman also said she’s pushing for greater community involvement down Graham Street.

“We’re still looking for community members that want to participate or local singers with the open mic we’re having,” she said.

“We’ve got the Scouts running a boulder-rock climbing wall, the library’s running story and craft sessions in the public hall, we’ve got a disability group running an arts display there too, as well as the CWA Devonshire teas.

“There’s a few little bits of new involvement this year.”

The carnival component of the festival will open early for locals only on Thursday 14 November from 5pm to 11pm. About 200 market stalls are expected to feature.

Ms Ashman said she’s in need of more volunteers to help run the festival.

“We’re still very short of several staff members,” she said. “On average, we have about 18 staff over the three days.

“At this point in time, we have no volunteers, and 8 to 10 people is what we’d be looking for at the moment, people who can assist with information, loading in and out, to do gate control, things like that.

“There’s not much we can do to keep costs down but we’re also looking for local people and businesses who’d like to sponsor the event too.”

Contact 0400 520 042 or email [email protected]. For more details on the festival’s program, visit the event’s website.