LET’S hope the organisers of this weekend’s second Illuminate Bathurst festival pack the spare globes this time round.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There is no chance tomorrow night will see a repeat of the minor debacles that marred the opening night of the first festival back in May.
On that occasion, many of the 10,000-strong crowd that packed Kings Parade went home hungry because food stalls had drastically under-catered.
And the centrepiece of the Illumination light show – the historic Bathurst Court House – was left in almost total darkness because of a projector breakdown.
Despite the bumpy start, though, the glitches were ironed out by night two and the week-long festival continued to overwhelmingly positive feedback.
This time round, though, organisers will want to get it right from the start.
If anything, there is even more buzz around town surrounding the Winter Festival, particularly the ice rink now taking pride of place in Kings Parade.
That might mean an even larger crowd tomorrow night so we hope there’s enough food (and wine) to go round.
Overall, though, it would be hard to fault Bathurst Regional Council’s handling of the bicentenary celebrations.
Council was determined to deliver events throughout the year and that is exactly what we have seen.
There is still a third Illumination festival to come and even the smaller events – such as the Bathurst Youth Council colour run that was launched this week – have been generating plenty of excitement.
It took a long time to get the rest of Bathurst enthused about the bicentenary but council has done a good job of maintaining the incredible momentum created on Proclamation Day.
We have plenty to celebrate in Bathurst. It’s only right that we take the whole year to do it properly.