By Charlene Macaulay
Wyndham council has lost faith in the Weerama festival, arguing that “the momentum of the event has been lost” and that it needs “a professional event organiser”.
According to the minutes of a meeting of the council’s tourism and major events committee, Weerama needs refreshing.
“The challenge is the momentum of the event has been lost … [it is] recommended council has ‘one last attempt’ to refresh the Weerama brand, change governance and to modernise offering,” the minutes read.
“If this is not successful, then guidance is to work on developing a new replacement signature event for March each year.”
But Wyndham council corporate affairs manager Emily Keogh stressed that the committee was not a decision-making body and the minutes of its last meeting reflected “only a discussion in relation to Weerama”.
The February 14 meeting occurred after the Weerama committee cancelled this year’s event due to time constraints and a lack of funding.
Festival organiser Marcel Mahfoud said he was “blindsided” by the report and would have liked for the Weerama committee to have been invited to the meeting.
“We’ve had limited resources to deliver this festival, extremely limited, with safety costs going through the roof and new expenses Weerama hasn’t had in previous years,” he said.
“What is really positive is that they’ve acknowledged that Weerama is Wyndham’s signature event.”
Mr Mahfoud said the Weerama committee included people with extensive experience in event management. The festival is expected to return on March 15, 2020.
The report continues the tumultuous relationship between the festival committee and the council.
The festival was cancelled in 2015 when the council refused grant money to fix committee governance issues.
In 2017, festival organisers spent the week before the event scrambling to get permits in place after the council turned down a request to cover the costs of traffic management and rubbish collection for the festival.
