Community bands together for CresFest

THREE days of musical fun were enjoyed by all in attendance, with CresFest held from Friday 5 April to Sunday 7 April.

“CresFest is about providing opportunities for people from here and around Ballarat, Buninyong, Ballan, Daylesford to perform and also enjoy live music,” event director Judy Turner said in the lead-up to the big event.

“It’s really all about growing a culture of music participation and we’re really proud that this is only our third year and it’s grown from one local group which was the Creswick Brass Band.”

The Creswick Chorus, Creswick Kids’ Choir, Creswick Ukestra and Creswick Drum Circle all took to the stage along with performers from Gordon, Buninyong, Ballan and Ballarat.

“All of these groups have now got involvement in the festival and one of the things we’ve done is made it possible for every local group to interact with some of the professionals who are coming to play,” Ms Turner said.

“For example, the Creswick Chorus has been learning songs with three of the artists on the bill and they’ll perform them with those artists at the end of the festival.

“So they are working with high level performers.”

Ms Turner said it was important for the Creswick community to have opportunities to explore music.

“There are many people in our community who find getting involved with playing and learning music to be as important as sport is to other people.

“Our society, our funding bodies and our councils force huge amounts of money into sport justifiably but there’s nothing like that for music. The community has to take that into our own hands.”