Annual kidfest hopes

By Ed Merrison
UPWEY’S inaugural kidfest was such a success that organisers hope to make it an annual event.
The festival, which took place at the Upwey Recreation Reserve on Sunday, 30 October, attracted more than 1000 people.
Kidfest Communications Officer Samantha Dunn said organisers were really pleased with the community support, especially considering the inaugural event was on the Melbourne Cup weekend.
“You enter these things with a sense of trepidation, so it was great to see it pan out so well. What really amazed us was the amount of community support and the amount of people who put in at short notice to make it a success,” Ms Dunn said.
Kidfest featured 44 stalls and enjoyed support from local band the Defectors, who played for free.
Although the focus was on children, exhibitors catered for all ages to make for what Ms Dunn described as a “wellrounded event”.
“The motivation was to build community links and celebrate living in the Dandenong Ranges,” she said.
“What concerned us was there wasn’t a festival for this southern part of the ranges. We thought it needed addressing and just went with it.”
Ms Dunn described this year’s kidfest as a “seehowitgoes affair”, and said the result augurs well for the future.
“Based on this year we have a great festival to build on and we plan to host 2006 on the same weekend. It would be great to have it as a regular feature on the festival calendar,” she said.