Vol. No. Vol. 2118No. 36 27
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FLYING FORWARD: Ararat teenager Nathaniel Kuchel is among national pacesetters in the rapidly growing sport of first-person-view or FPV drone racing. The Marian College student has taken his hobby onto the international stage and plans to use it as the foundation for a future business venture. Story, page 17. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Mayor’s festival plea H
BY DEAN LAWSON
orsham mayor Mark Radford has urged people to use the ‘final’ Horsham Country Music Festival this weekend to consider whether they want the annual event to continue.
Cr Radford said an enormous amount of work had gone into establishing the four-day celebration of traditional country music and people needed to assess its worth to the municipality. “Perhaps instead of accepting this weekend’s festival is the last countrymusic extravaganza for Horsham, we
should consider it a trigger to explore ways of keeping the event,” he said. “Why don’t we use this ‘last-festival’ opportunity to consider what the festival means for the Wimmera and not only whether it is worth keeping, but whether it is something we can build on. “We know Horsham Country Music Association, despite doing a fantastic job of organising this event over the years, is tired and simply does not have the energy to keep going. “So we have to ask, is it now up to the people of Horsham and the broader Wimmera to realise the value of this
event and come up with a solution and way of keeping it going.” Horsham Country Music Association has organised the festival for the past 12 years. After announcing it could no longer run the event because it had become too hard for its elderly members, it failed to find an appropriate solution to keeping it running. Cr Radford said he had met with festival representatives and remained keen to explore other ways of keeping the event alive. “There is no doubt about the economic value of this event to Horsham and the region,” he said.
“People who come here have to eat, sleep, be entertained and they will visit shops. But it has to be driven by the people of Horsham district. “We’re talking about traditional country music, which history in our own back yard tells us has a massive following. “People travel across Australia to be part of these types of events and stimulate economic activity wherever they go. This is a mobile population that uses country music festivals as an opportunity, often in retirement, to visit Australia. “Horsham is on this map at the mo-
ment and been an obvious winner. If we allow this country-music festival to be the last we have to ask ourselves have we done all we could to avoid it setting on the horizon? “I’m as concerned as anyone that we might be letting something significant for our community slip through the cracks.” Cr Radford said people should observe and analyse what the festival, which starts tomorrow night and continues until Sunday with key events at Horsham’s Sawyer Park Soundshell, meant and then consider its value. Continued page 3
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