January 17, 2017
The Nanango Funfest committee is seeking new members to help ease the burden of organising the town’s most successful retail promotion.
The committee is the volunteer group responsible for organising the Nanango Mardi Gras shopping dollars promotion and the Heritage Nanango New Years Eve Mardi Gras,
This year the group’s members organised both activities for the second year running.
The promotion rewards shoppers who patronise participating Nanango businesses with Mardi Gras dollars, which they can then spend at the Heritage New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras for free food, soft drinks and amusement rides.
Shoppers who patronise Nanango businesses for three months between October and December can usually accumulate enough Mardi Gras dollars to fund a free night out at the New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras.
However, running the promotion and the New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras requires a lot of work, and committee members would like to expand the base of volunteers to reduce the time demands on individual members.
This year’s New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras drew a slightly smaller crowd than last year’s but organisers attributed that more to the blistering heat of the day than anything else.
While the gates at Nanango Showgrounds opened at 4:00pm, the crowds only really began to bulk up after sunset.
Lighting problems that had caused a few difficulties at the inaugural Mardi Gras were far less this year, and food, drink and market stalls spread the grounds were much better laid out.
Vendors southburnett.com.au spoke to said they were doing very good trade on the night; and volunteers from NaTDA who were helping out at the Showgrounds’ canteen said they were run off their feet but otherwise enjoying their two-hour shifts.
The Mardi Gras amusement rides also seemed to be busy most of the night, with long queues for some of the more popular ones. The laser and fireworks displays also drew many favourable comments.
Funfest Committee member Barry Green said the group was very happy with how last year’s shopping promotion and New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras worked out but wanted to continue to improve both.
“As with anything you do, you can always find ways to do it better next time,” Barry said.
“We’re thinking about several improvements we can introduce in 2017 but we’re also very open to any new ideas that other people might want to bring to the table.”
The Funfest Committee will be holding its Annual General Meeting at 5:30pm on Thursday, February 9 at the Nanango RSL.
People who would like to get involved with the group’s activities are very welcome to come along.
