General News
19 April, 2022
Warracknabeal Easter brings people ‘back together again’
THE crowds of people in Warracknabeal signalled the success of the returning annual Easter celebrations to the town.
THE crowds of people in Warracknabeal signalled the success of the returning annual Easter celebrations to the town.
The town began to come alive on Good Friday, April 15, with the start of the Easter Golf Tournament and Warracknabeal Fire Brigade trucks making street rounds to fundraise for the Good Friday Appeal.
The festivities continued on Saturday with the Lions Club Market, Scott Street parade, Community Garden egg hunt, Wheatlands Agricultural Museum rally, Show N Shine and annual Easter horse races at the racecourse.
This year’s celebrations differed from past years as YFest, the usual organiser of Easter celebrations, disbanded in late 2021 and Warracknabeal Action Group subcommittee Easter in the ‘Beal took over.
Easter in the ‘Beal committee member Alan Bandy said that the entire celebration hit a peak this year.
“There was good weather, no drama with anybody, awesome crowds and participation - it was just great to see the community out and about and enjoying themselves,” he said.
“It was really good to see everything at the museum and a whole heap of families and oldies coming out for the music there as well.
“The street parade is a hit every time … the crowd for the street parade and the amount of vehicles and community groups that turned up to get into it was unreal for a post COVID event.”
Warracknabeal has not been able to celebrate Easter in the annual grand way for three years due to COVID lockdowns and interruptions.
“It was just good to see people loosening up after all of the lockdowns and such. Everybody was out and about and happy to be there,” Mr Bandy said.
“I reckon there would have been at least 400 to 500 people at the museum on Sunday with the music that was there; the whole weekend had a massive turnout.”
WAG committee member Dianne Marchment said that it was great to see everything back to the way it was again.
“Not much has been happening in town for the past two years because of COVID so it was so nice to see people back in the street,” she said.
The freshly formed Easter in the ‘Beal committee hosted the parade and musicians at the Wheatlands Agricultural Museum themselves and coordinated with other community groups for other activities along the Easter weekend.
Ms Marchment said that it was “astonishing” how much the committee had organised in the seven weeks that they had to prepare.
“To organise this and get people involved, trying to get the kids involved too is massive and was done very well,” she said.
“The main street on Saturday morning was fantastic and people were there until around 1.30pm and then they started to disappear, but then they went to the races which was amazing.”
Ms Marchment said that she couldn't stress how important it was to see Warracknabeal thriving as a community and fully embracing Easter.
“A lot of people have been really shut down over the past two years,” she said.
“It was all about getting people back together, inclusiveness, and that was really important. It worked.”
The Easter in the ‘Beal committee is set to meet again in two weeks for an overall feedback of the weekend meeting and begin planning for 2023’s Easter celebrations.