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Whyalla City Council has unearthed a winner with its new two-day festival.
Council rolled out the first ever UneARTh festival at Easter this year and the response was overwhelming. More than 10,000 people turned out for the event on Good Friday and Saturday with council quickly committing to staging the event again next year.
The arts, music and activities festival, held on the foreshore at Ada Ryan Gardens, struck a chord with Whyalla residents and many visitors to the region. Produced in co-operation with the South Australian Fringe Festival, local performers, artists and business people, the eclectic nature of the event was a breath of fresh air for Whyalla according to many of those that attended.
“uneARTh received an unprecedented positive response with very few negative comments or complaints,” Whyalla City Council Community Events Officer and event organiser Rebecca Neilson said.
“It created a different vibe in the city and the community engagement was one of the highlights.
“The overall reaction was amazing from those that attended, the artists that performed and the business people that set up stalls and seeing some sell out of their products.”
From early morning Pop Pilates sessions to quality musical acts on the stage and the extremely popular flash mob dance sessions, the two-day festival had smiling faces, happy feet and plenty of praise.
Comments flooded in on social media with one festival goer saying “Loved Friday night, Doogans were brill, as was Motown band. Really liked the set up in the Ada Ryan Gardens.”
Another comments included “Fantastic venue, best use of the Ada Ryan Gardens ever”, “Loved every minute of it down there, well done, amazing”, “It was a great event and great for the town”, “two magical days of festivities, loved it, congrats to all involved.”
These comments were backed up by Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer at a meeting to discuss plans for next year’s event.
“It was just what this town needed,” Mayor Breuer said.
“After the year we were having with the uncertainty of the steelworks future, this was a real breath of fresh air.
“People were blown away by it with a lot of people saying “this is the Whyalla we know, this is just fantastic”.
Council is now working furiously to put together next year’s program and is expecting even more community groups and individuals to jump on board. UneARTh 2018 will again be held over Easter but it has yet to be decided on what days it will be.
The next big challenge will be getting acts to top this year’s with cabaret act Anya Anastacia hugely popular and going on to tour in Great Britain while the likes of Motown Connection, the Time and Space and Mr Oopy will be hard acts to follow.
And added focus on the art will also be added to next year’s events with council working on some exciting and innovative ideas to involve local and visiting artists at next year’s event.
With most shops shut in Whyalla over Easter in the Plaza area, there is a golden opportunity for businesses to get involved and set up stalls at the event.
“These businesses that came along and were a part of it were rapt,” Ms Neilson said.
“A lot of them sold out on the first day and we are already getting more expressions of interest for next year.
“This was a little bit of the city coming to the country and the community really embraced. “We can’t wait for next year.”