Apart from the weather, it seems that on the whole, this year’s Festival of the Miner’s Ghost (FOMG) was once again a success.
The FOMG committee, headed up by Cobar Shire Council’s projects officer Miranda Riley, held a wrap up meeting on Thursday at the council chambers.
Mrs Riley reports there was good attendance at all events including the Cobar Arts Council’s art exhibition, the Miners Memorial Service, the Miners Reunion, the cemetery tours, the Show n’ Shine car event, the markets in the park, fireworks display, the Police Charity Golf Day and Grandparents Day event.
One of the most successful events from the weekend was the Miners Memorial Service which had over 200 people in attendance and received lots of very favourable feedback.
Barry Knight, who organised the event, was present at last week’s wrap up meeting, and said he was very pleased with how the night went.
He said it was suggested to him by a large number of people that the event should become an annual one.
At the meeting he said he would look at organising it again next year with the view of obtaining more guest speakers for the event.
Mr Knight, who also organised the Miners Reunion, was pleased to report that it has grown from a fledgling idea and low attendance last year, to having over 80 current and former miners attend this year.
Numbers were also up for this year’s cemetery tours, organised by museum curator, Kay Stingemore.
Mrs Stingemore provided mining themed tours of the cemetary for 51 adults plus children this year.
She told last week’s meeting she is keen to run tours again this year and already has some ideas for next year’s theme.
This year’s Show n’ Shine organised by the Cobar Dust Bowl Fuel Burners Club was also well attended and included a number of entries from Dubbo.
There was also a good roll up for the Markets in the Park with lots of happy stallholders and shoppers up until a late storm rolled in which forced an early pack up.
While they were also hampered somewhat by the weather, the fireworks did go ahead and it’s reported that it was a “brilliant display” which outdid last year’s show.
Lots of fun and laughs was had at the Grandparents Day at the youth centre and the participants are calling for it to be included in next year’s program as well.
The proposed air leg drilling exhibition did not go ahead as planned and for various reasons it had to be cancelled a few days before the festival.
The meeting discussed ideas for next year’s festival with Mrs Riley saying she would like to expand to the festival to run over a whole week.
It was decided a local survey would be conducted to gauge interest for moving the festival date and to find out what sort of activities locals would like to see at next year’s event.
