A Wyndham councillor is calling on residents to pitch in their ideas, time and labour to help revive the Weerama Festival.
Cr Heather Marcus said Weerama was a celebration for all to come together and celebrate the municipality.
“It was a festival that involved absolutely everybody,” she said.
“A lot of [events] do die, but you’ve got to continue to revitalise, and sadly this is not what happened with Weerama.”
Cr Marcus, who was a member of the Weerama committee for about 25 years, said people would come from “everywhere” to attend the once 10-day festival.
“We couldn’t sustain [that] so we cut it back to four full days, it was beautiful,” she said.
“We had art projects for the kids, a photography competition, we had school concerts where over 2000 students performed with the Royal Australian Navy Band and the Weerama Young Idol competition.
“There was a torchlight procession, and the parade, with at least 60 floats and there were community groups, dance schools, all people on decorated floats that were beautiful.
“[It’s sad] to think that bang, it’s all gone. How it wasn’t picked up by somebody, I can’t understand.”
Cr Marcus said the committee would be made up of “champions” who would assist with the heavy workload needed to pull off an event of the same quality.
“Without a strong committee with many champions, it doesn’t work,” she said.
“This is a call out for a people that do event coordinating, [people] in the corporate world, [and] sponsors that would help us produce something spectacular.
“We [also] need lots of volunteers.”
Cr Marcus said she acknowledges the event would take ” a lot of hardwork” and at least 12 months preparation, but believes it can be done.
“The most important thing is teamwork, networking and respect, we want everybody to feel very welcome,” she said.
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