Photos Delta Charlie Images.
The newly rebranded Business Cootamundra (formerly Cootamundra Development Corporation) in conjunction with the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council held the Festival of Lights last Friday night on Parker Street, which went down a huge success.
The event ran between 6 pm and 10 pm on Friday, March 18, and featured magnificent fairy-lit trees, as well as food and drink from local cafes.
Leah Sutherland, Manager of Business Coota-mundra, said the event was everything they had hoped for.
“The Festival of Lights was a huge success. It was fantastic to see so many people come out and support this event,” Leah said.
“The happy, smiling faces were awesome, the dance floor was never empty, the kids in particular danced up a storm. People came at 6 pm intending to just have some dinner and ended up staying to the end. There were people from all age groups, and little kids were still dancing at 10 pm.”
“The brief of the grant from DPIE (Department of Planning and Environment) to create the Festival of Place, Summer Night Fund, and to re-emerge, celebrate and engage – was to support community wellbeing by giving opportunities to safely return to public spaces, we definitely achieved this.”
“The small but hard-working Business Cootamundra team can’t thank everyone enough that helped enough. It was a huge task to hold this event, but the willingness of people to get in wash chairs down, help set up and pack up, serve at the bar or tickets stall, lend us things, just help in any way was greatly appreciated by the committee.”
Business Cootamundra received lots of positive comments, emails and phone calls, with all the feedback taken on board for future years. Some of the comments on social media included:
“Congratulations to everyone involved, the vibe was simply incredible. You catered for such a diverse age dynamic, not easy to do. Well done.”
“Hats off to everyone involved. Thank you so much for bringing smiles and laughter back to the community, which is what we all needed in our lives.”
“Great night, fantastic atmosphere and awesome band. Well done to all that made a magical night for our community.”
“Congratulations to Business Coota-mundra and those involved. What a wonderful initiative. I can only see this growing.”
“Massive congrats to Business Coota-mundra on the staging of Festival Of Lights. I haven’t seen the main street pumping like this for years. Everyone I have spoken to has nothing but praise for the night. It’s great to see so many people from other towns come over. Let’s hope this is an annual event.”
“Absolutely amazing, well done. Keep up the amazing work. I enjoyed every minute of it and my boys were rocking to the music in their pram.”
“Great to see families relaxing and friends mingling.”
“A very special evening much needed, enjoyed and supported by the community. Congratulations to the organisers. Well done.”
Leah said Business Cootamundra will consider making the Festival of Lights an annual event after all of the positive feedback.
Business Cootamundra (formerly CDC) is a not-for-profit organisation that supports local businesses and events, with memberships available for $30 to help support all they do for the town.
Tim Warren