By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
Mark your calendars, festival lovers \u2013 an iconic Moorabool festival is set to liven up a main street again next year, and organisers are planning to make it bigger and better than ever.<\/p>\n
The Ballan Autumn Festival (BAF) will be back to fill Inglis Street with colour and cheer next year, with the Committee announcing last week that the Festival\u2019s date will be Sunday 17 March.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Festival was a booming success, with around 9,000 people attending \u2013 and hopes are high that next year\u2019s may welcome an even bigger crowd.<\/p>\n
Secretary of the BAF Committee, Mary-Lou Spain, said work was already underway behind the scenes, and the hard-working volunteers were eager to make next year\u2019s BAF the best yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parade has always been reported as the main attraction at the Festival, in the last couple of days we\u2019ve been hearing that this year\u2019s parade was the best ever. So we\u2019re looking at ways we can enhance the parade working with the Wombat Regional Arts Network, to have a new banner system to announce each float as they go through,\u201d Ms Spain told the Moorabool News. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also planning to reposition the stage and bring in some more targeted musical acts for the stage. The pet show will be back, and hopefully the CWA afternoon tea as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
While BAF is famous for its themes \u2013 this year\u2019s was superhero themed, and 2019 was \u2018The Ballan Academy of Magic\u2019 \u2013 Ms Spain said next year\u2019s event would go \u201cback to its roots\u201d, and celebrate the beauty and wonder of Ballan in autumn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve decided this year not to go with a theme, to celebrate what the Festival is all about, which is Ballan in autumn and who we are as a township and a community. There will be no theme this year, I suppose it\u2019s more about Ballan itself. We\u2019re hoping we won\u2019t distract from that this year, by going back to the roots and focusing on what it means to be Ballan in autumn,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be going back to the core of the Ballan Autumn Festival, celebrating a much more local flavour, with some interesting acts coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Applications for market stalls, parade entries, pet show and more will open in the coming weeks, and a new BAF website is also in the works.<\/p>\n
For updates, keep an eye on the Ballan Autumn Festival Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis Mark your calendars, festival lovers \u2013 an iconic Moorabool festival is set to liven up a main street again next year, and organisers are planning to make it bigger and better than ever. The Ballan Autumn Festival (BAF) will be back to fill Inglis Street with colour and cheer next year, with […]<\/p>\n