Ex-Sydneysider STUART PEARSON looks at Bathurst and its future from the perspective of a new resident.
EVERY village, town and city has the opportunity to create its own distinctive festival.
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If successful, this festival can attract visitors - sometimes huge numbers of them - as well as new residents and investors.
When effectively managed and presented, a festival can inject so much capital and people into a location that it grows to become the lifeblood of the community.
But first, a festival should mark out the place as being distinctive, different and even unique.
An example would be the Fire Festival, Lewis (Outer Hebrides) Scotland. This is Europe's largest fire festival, complete with the burning of a full-scale Viking ship.
The Vikings settled the Outer Hebrides of Scotland over 1000 years ago and left their mark everywhere - in the language, traditions and even the DNA of the islanders. The Fire Festival celebrates this unique biological, cultural and linguistic legacy.
Closer to home, we have the ABBA festival in Trundle; Parkes celebrates Elvis; Canberra produces Floriade and Sydney has Vivid, which last year attracted more than two million visitors to the three-week outdoor lighting extravaganza.
RECENT FRESH PAIR OF EYES COLUMNS:
What does Bathurst have that could form the basis of a regional festival and grow into a major event? Let me direct your attention to our carillon in Kings Parade.
Here are a few little-known statistics about this magnificent monument.
It is one of only two war memorial carillons in Australia and the first in inland Australia.
In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon was the city's best known and best loved structure. In fact, Bathurst then proudly called itself "The Carillon City".
Step inside Bathurst's carillon through this new documentary from the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre
In the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon, our city has something so different, rare and wonderful that it could be turned into a truly unique festival. Something that could be called a Festival of Bells.
Every two years, national and international bellringers and carillonneurs would descend upon Bathurst from around the world.
During the event, Bathurstians and visitors would enjoy the ringing of bells in the Catholic Cathedral, the pealing bells of the Anglican Cathedral and twice-a-day concert recitals of the carillon in Kings Parade.
But as important as such an event would be, it should be more than just a musical festival. The Festival of Bells could grow into one of Australia's major inland cultural events.
Other activities would be needed, such as:
- A concurrent art exhibition celebrating local artists in both public spaces and the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.
- Art performances, including storytelling of Bathurst's history and heritage in the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre and Town Square.
- Music concerts on Mount Panorama.
- Buskers performing in and around the Town Square and the central business district.
- Museum exhibitions.
- Heritage and historical tours.
- Street stalls and a "Big Bathurst BBQ" in and around the Town Square.
- A Farmers' Market, which could easily be held on the Saturday of the festival at the Bathurst Showgrounds, promoting all the best regional produce.
- Finally, the festival should be held close to Proclamation Day (May 7) every two years to coincide with official ceremonies celebrating the founding of the first European settlement in inland mainland Australia in 1815.
Ultimately, the Festival of Bells in Bathurst could become a showcase of the absolute best of art, food and culture in the Central West.
Mount Panorama attracts many thousands of motor sport enthusiasts to Bathurst. A Festival of Bells could do likewise for lovers of art, music, heritage, good food, history, wine and culture.
