Planning for the 60th anniversary of the Ballarat Begonia Festival, to be held from 10 -12 March, 2012, is well underway.
One of the most visual features of the Festival is the Begonia Parade, which The Courier will sponsor for a second consecutive year.
The Courier Begonia Parade will be held on Monday 12 March, 2012 and registrations are now open.
City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Craig Fletcher encouraged the community to get their group, club, organisation or school involved.
“Last year’s Parade was one of the best in history; let’s keep the momentum going and make 2012 an even better and more visually spectacular event.
“This year’s Parade theme is ‘fairytales’. We are asking the community to be creative and celebrate the joy and visual delight of fairytales from across the world.”
Following on from the popular introduction of the award categories in 2011, the Mayor’s Choice, Best Schools Entry, Best Community Entry, Best Business Entry and Best Musical Entry (new category) awards, awards will again be presented in 2012.
Black Hill Primary School was the winner of the 2011 Mayor’s Choice Award (best overall entry).
The Black Hill entry was a product of the ‘artists in schools’ initiative which placed local artists in two schools to work with the students in developing parade entries.
The schools initiative, along with the ‘floating synergies’ program which seeks support from local businesses to assist groups to create a visually dynamic parade entries, will run again in 2012.
To register interest in The Courier Begonia Parade please contact 0438 671 809 or download the registration forms from www.ballaratbegoniafestival.com
For more information on the Ballarat Begonia Festival call 1800 656 374 or visit www.ballaratbegoniafestival.com