Funds critical to Bendigo Easter Festival future

THE Bendigo Easter Festival needs money and people to continue.Next year, the festival will be held over three days instead of four with the cost budgeted at $270,800, with about $166,000 from the City of Greater Bendigo.The remaining $104,000 is funded through sponsorship, rental and vendor site fees. More than 2000 volunteers contribute to the festival.Bendigo Easter Fair Society president Ian Dyett said more money and people were needed for the festival to keep going.“The City is a great supporter, but basically this is still a community festival and it belongs to each and every community member,” he said.Chairman of the Bendigo Easter Festival Committee Rod Fyffe said the festival was worth between $1 million and $2 million to the community each day it ran.He said research had showed this year’s event had been a success with people embracing it.“The decision to make it a three-day event was not taken lightly. We have consulted with all of the festivals stakeholders and sponsors,” he said.Cr Fyffe said it was a major change for the festival and while he understood some people in the community might not be pleased about the change, it was integral to the festival’s ongoing success.“The festival doesn’t receive any funding from state or federal governments and relies solely on funding from the City of Greater Bendigo and sponsors,” he said.“The festival does not run itself and without the goodwill of our volunteers and financial support from both the City of Greater Bendigo and our sponsors it simply would not be possible to run it. To ensure the festival continued into the future we need to spend what little funds we do have in the best possible way.“This year, because of Anzac Day, we were able to concentrate our funding into the three-day festival rather than spread it thinly over four days and it worked really well.”He said some old favourites like the awakening of the dragon and the torchlight and gala parades would move to different days.