September 10, 2012
The 2012 Bloomin’ Beautiful Blackbutt Festival wrapped up over the weekend with two days of family fun.
Festival visitors – and exhibitors – came from all over the South Burnett to help the Timber Town showcase itself as the region’s gateway. And after last week’s super-frosty Eagels concert at the Blackbutt Showgrounds, the weather turned out to be much kinder.
It was pleasantly warm and sunny on both days, with gusty early winds on Saturday quickly turning into light breezes as the morning wore on.
This year the Festival received sponsorship from Events Queensland and Stanwell Corporation, and most of this was invested in raising awareness of the event outside the area.
“I think this strategy was successful,” Festival committee spokesman Jeff Connor said.
According to Mr Connor, a quick survey of 300 visitors conducted during the weekend disclosed that roughly 20 per cent were “opportunistic Festival-goers” who happened to be driving through the town, noticed the party and decided to stop and join in.
But the remaining 80 per cent were almost evenly split between South Burnett residents and visitors from Brisbane, the Darling Downs, Wide Bay and the Sunshine Coast.
The total number of stall-holders was also roughly double last year’s roll-up.
While it was difficult to estimate the total number of people who came to Blackbutt over the two days because the Festival was spread over so many different locations around the town, Mr Connor said that several main street traders had told him that they were “run off their feet” on Saturday and enjoyed better than normal trading on Sunday, too.
During the course of the week Festival-goers were treated to a rock concert; an art exhibition opening; a burger night; and a choral concert by the Blackbutt singers. Most of these were predominantly patronised by Blackbutt-Benarkin residents.
But over the weekend visitors got to enjoy an Outdoor and Garden Expo; cooking demonstrations; drumming workshops; performances by the Brisbane Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra; street theatre; displays; exhibitions; pipe and brass bands; and the now-famous Bloomin’ Beautiful High Teas on the verandahs of the Blackbutt Memorial Hall.
There was also a Timbertowns Escape Marathon on the Sunday – participants got to choose a 50km or a 100km course – as well as two full days of free children’s entertainment.
And the end result was that visitors came from everywhere (including a few from interstate).
Mr Connor said that while everything went fairly smoothly, the Festival – which has grown from a two-day event in 2009 to a nine-day event this year – was constantly evolving.
Because of this he expected further refinements to it next year. One of these might include changing the opening concert to a closing closing concert in order to avoid cold weather caused by a late Spring.
However, Bloomin’ Beautiful Blackbutt has now been accepted into Events Queensland’s “Significant Regional Events Scheme”, he said, which ensures three years funding.
So the South Burnett can look forward to more Bloomin’ Beautiful weekends into the foreseeable future!
PS: What do celebrity chefs eat when they’re not demonstrating how to cook healthy meals? According to reliable sources, Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington and chef Jason Ford took the opportunity of a break between their shows on Saturday to race from the Memorial Hall to the nearby Blackbutt Bakery to enthusiastically sample the Bakery’s award-winning pies.
