Mid-winter festivals bring warmth and creativity to regional communities
ABCHundreds of people line the main street of Mirboo North in regional Victoria at dusk armed with their phones to film the lantern parade. Mid-winter wellbeing Returning to East Gippsland to raise his young family, founder and co-director of the East Gippsland Winter Festival Adam Bloem initially set out to create a new event to bring energy to the region's quieter months after the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020. "We created the East Gippsland Winter Festival in the wake of the bushfires, and then we went straight into COVID lockdowns, so particularly in the first year, there was that real need and desire for the community to come together and connect again," he says. With dozens of volunteer artists, local businesses organisations and community groups organising their unique boutique events under the marketing umbrella of the East Gippsland Winter Festival, he says the financial risk was effectively shared, making the festival brand sustainable in the long term. "The hands-on workshops, people just love to connect and come together and be creative and do something with their hands'", Mr Bloem says acknowledging the need for healing and interaction after the COVID-era.