Festival a blooming success

By Lachlan Ellis

The Ballan Autumn Festival (BAF) Committee were planning for the Festival to finally ‘spring back’ this month, after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus – and spring back it did.

Almost 10,000 people are estimated to have attended on Sunday 13 November, at the first BAF since March 2019.

Attendees enjoyed events and displays such as live music, a wood chopping competition, and of course, the famous Grand Street Parade.

BAF President Kevin Harper said the turnout went far beyond what the Committee had expected.

“We were very encouraged by the crowd, there were probably just shy of 10,000 people where we thought we’d struggle to get 2,000 in. We were planning for 4,000,” Mr Harper told the Moorabool News.

“It was great having local musicians playing, and working with the Ballan Arts Collective, with the Wombats decorating the town, and shopkeepers entering into the spirit of things decorating their shopfronts. The new gallery had 350 people through, and they were very happy with that.”

There were a range of winners from a variety of categories judged in the Parade, including Myrniong Primary School (Mayor’s Trophy), the Community Bank Ballan Branch (Best Commercial Entry), and St Patrick’s Primary School (Best School Entry).

Mr Harper thanked the Festival’s sponsors for making the event’s success possible: Moorabool Shire Council, McGrath Real Estate, the State Government, mecwacare, Millrose Quilting & Gallery, and the Moorabool News.

“We’d really like to thank all the retailers, traders, schools, and sponsors that got behind us, and we encourage people to please get on board for 2023. The amount of publicity that we managed to get in radio, print, and air time were a great success, because people all over Ballarat seem to have heard about it,” he said.

The next BAF will return to its regular autumn timing in March 2023, adopting the superheroes theme that was planned for BAF 2020, before that event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BAF Committee are keen to hear from those who attended the Festival, to help make BAF 2023 another fantastic event – you can fill out a questionnaire by heading to the Ballan Autumn Festival Facebook page, searching “feedback”, and clicking the link in the first result that comes up.

Anyone wanting to help out and become a volunteer can also contact the committee by their social media page.