Cobar’s inaugural Grey Mardi Gras was so good that we think we’ll do it again next year.
That was the sentiment of all those present at the festival wrap-up/debriefing meeting held at the council chambers last week.
Council’s project manager, Angela Shepherd, who had a hand in the running of this year’s festival, said council was very pleased with the feedback they had received.
“From our point of view we thought it was a great start and were impressed to see how many people made Cobar their destination for the festival,” Ms Shepherd reported.
“Others made it a stop-over point, but the majority of tickets to the dinner dance were from those who came to Cobar specifically for the festival of music and dance.
“That has given us a lot of positives to look at for the future.”
She said council staff have tried to collect as much feedback about the festival as they can from the community, from visitors and from the various festival sponsors to learn how they can improve on any festivals they run in the future.
Locals and visitors have said there were a lot of things done well for this year’s festival however there were a few areas where
improvements could be made or “tweaked a bit”.
Many at the meeting said that it had been a “fun” weekend and they would been keen to be involved again next year.
“Our small committee had lots of ideas however we didn’t have time to implement them all this year – but there seems to be plenty of enthusiasm to build on these ideas in the future,” Ms Shepherd said.
“And there seems to be many in the community who would like to be involved in the development of a festival in the future if it becomes a regular feature on the Cobar calendar.”
A festival wrap up report was to be presented to last night’s council meeting with a recommendation that funding for another festival next year be included in council’s budget.
