By Alesha Capone
The Weerama Committee has announced they will cancel this year’s event in favour of focusing on 2020 and beyond.
In a statement released this afternoon, the committee said: “We would like to inform the Wyndham community that the 2019 Weerama festival will not be going ahead due to lack of timely funding and time constraints.
“The Weerama committee will instead focus our efforts on planning a much larger 2020 festival.”
Weerama president Marcel Mahfoud said the decision was not made lightly.
“The committee feel it would be in the best interest(s) of everyone involved for us work with the Wyndham community over the next 12 months, to give the people of of Wyndham the signature event they deserve,” he said.
“Over the coming months will be calling out to community groups within the Wyndham community to get involved and start planning for 2020.
“To ensure the success of future Weerama festivals we need a greater collaboration with as many community groups within Wyndham as possible.”
Mr Mahfoud said that the committee would also like to take advantage of Wyndham council’s recent release of its proposed future Festivals and Events Strategy.
“In this strategy there is mention of a signature event for the city of Wyndham,” Mr Mahfoud said.
“We believe that Weerama has always been Wyndham’s signature event and would like to build on the strength of Weerama to ensure that it stays this way.”
Weerama secretary Amanda Littlejohn said the committee had “worked tirelessly over the last few years to bring Weerama to the Wyndham community, but have lacked the support needed to make Weerama the best festival that it could be”.
“They (the committee) feel that with the support of the council and the residents of Wyndham, Weerama can once again become the must-attend event for the entire community in 2020 and beyond,” Ms Littlejohn said.
Wyndham council’s chief executive Kelly Grigsby said the council “has supported the Weerama Festival Committee for many years both financially and via staff support”.
“We were saddened to be advised by the committee late last year that the Festival could not go ahead due to planning issues and lack of sponsorship overall,” she said.
“It is important to note that the Weerama Festival Committee applied for a $17,500 council grant which under the application process was not due for decision until late 2018/early 2019 which was known at the time of application.
Ms Grigsby said the Weerama committee withdrew their application for council funding late last year after they made the decision to cancel the event.
“Council staff have continued to provide significant support to the committee and acknowledge the work of the volunteers who have made the effort to try and make this event happen,” Ms Grigsby said.
“Council’s Festivals and Event’s Strategy will provide a road-map for the development of events in our city and council will work with the broader community to ascertain what they would like to see in signature event for our city.”
