Members of the Nanango SES were proudly showing off their new Swift rescue boat which is just three weeks old … fortunately they didn’t need to use it, despite the rain!
Action on stage in the Nanango Cultural Centre from the play ‘Spirit”

April 15, 2013

The Spirit of the South Burnett shines through droughts, bushfires and floods … and even the odd shower on a cold and drizzly Saturday afternoon.

Despite the less-than-perfect conditions, the Spirit of the South Burnett celebration in Nanango, which was designed as a flood recovery event, went ahead.

Back-to-back live music on stage entertained the small crowd and there were activities on the lawn and in and about the Nanango Cultural Centre.

While many of the adults sheltered inside the centre – and took the opportunity to view live performances of the Spirit of the South Burnett theatre production “Spirit”, and watch a video documentary about the floods – the children were more than happy to stay outside.

There were long queues at the free face-painting and the balloon man; and the games on the lawn were also popular.

Children’s artwork was on display inside the Winds of Change Art Gallery, including six special “therapeutic art” banners painted at different spots around the South Burnett in January and February.

The banners, painted at the Nanango,  Wondai, Murgon, Kingaroy, Yarraman and Blackbutt markets, depicted children’s views and memories of the floods. Some wrote stories, others left hand prints … and even a few paw prints.

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Festival co-organiser Dean Love, from the Nanango Arts Network Alliance (NANA), told southburnett.com.au he was pleased at how the event was progressing.

“We will try to find private funding to do it all over again next year,” he said.

He said that with sufficient funding it could become a “premiere event” in the South Burnett.

“We will pick another theme next year and work the artworks around that theme, for example mental health,” he said.

He said NANA aimed to eventually stage three or four major events every year, and perhaps hold them in different towns.

“That’s our goal,” he said.

Dean said the Spirit of the South Burnett festival had been organised in conjunction with the Boots’n Bulldust committee for legal reasons, however the plan was for NANA to take over the role in the future.

NANA are also planning on setting up a permanent shop in Nanango.

Lex Evans and James Nix, both 4, from Nanango, enjoyed the free balloons

Rowan Edwards was one of the many local artists who performed on stage

Amelia Smith, 6, was admiring the children’s art on show in the Winds of Change gallery
Joy Nix and Pearly Evans were enjoying the festival fun

Karren Bolton and Julia Shaw were looking after the sausage sizzle outside the Winds Of Change art gallery 

Blackbutt SES members were manning the food van, from left, Wallace Smith, Shirley Abbott and Derek Ralph
Rhianann Reed, 6, from Kumbia, amd Shevon Tews-Smallwood, from Nanango, visited both the face-painting and the balloon man

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