By Margaret Maccoll
The Noosa Alive festival should be in full swing this month delivering about 300 artists to audiences of about 30,000 but Covid-19 forced its cancellation and this week festival president Andrew Squires was instead accepting a $60,000 Federal Government grant from Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien to organise next year’s event.
Mr Squires said the milestone grant for the festival gave them greater confidence to begin planning for 2021 but with the uncertainty of future events it would have to be designed to be Covid-safe.
He said the organising committee was working with Noosa Council and Tourism Noosa on the future of the event and keeping the festival alive in the community through social media.
And they had been approached by artists wanting to do some online performances.
“We’re still in discussions to see how the festival will look, to see what we can put forward,” he said.
Costing hundreds of thousands to produce the festival takes many months to put together.
Mr Squires said the festival was continually evolving to suit the needs of a changing culture and new visitors to the region.
Last year the festival tested the market with younger people and found the appetite was there, he said.
With the influx of breweries in Noosa the festival hosted an event at Land and Sea Brewery for the first time last year that proved extremely popular.
After introducing an Indigenous experience last year the festival hoped to engage more with the Indigenous community.
Mr Squires said there was ample opportunity to engage the community in events that merged the arts with Noosa’ natural habitat.
Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien described the Noosa Alive Festival as an important arts event for locals and a significant attraction for domestic tourism.
Other groups to receive funding include Cooroy Badminton Club who were given $20,000 to upgrade their toilets and showers, Pomona District Meals on Wheels which received $4300 for fuel and travel costs and Noosa Shire Arts and Crafts Association which gained $4300 for a debrillator and office equipment.
“The projects will drive economic growth, creating jobs in construction, promoting new opportunities and events to boost domestic tourism, and help volunteers continue to help the community, benefiting the region as it begins the recovery from COVID-19 to become even better place to live, work and holiday,” Mr O’Brien said.
