By Dongyun Kwon
Mother’s Day weekend in Healesville was filled with a number of activities for families, thanks to the dedication of community-minded volunteers.
The inaugural Healesville Festival was organised by a not-for-profit group, Healesville Festival Incorporated.
The group was founded by Rose Herring last year with a mission to create accessible and inclusive events that invigorate Healesville and foster connections among residents and visitors, after she’d noticed a high demand for a big festival from the community after the termination of the Healesville Music Festival in 2023.
When asked about the feeling of finally unveiling the festival to the community after one year of preparation, Ms Herring said it was a mix of excitement and nervousness all at the same time.
“We brought in a lot of multicultural acts that we don’t always get in Healesville, so we partnered with The Boite, which is Melbourne’s longest standing multicultural arts supporting company,” the Healesville Festival organiser said.
“We have a wealth of incredible local performers as well, who also have a wide variety of cultural influences.”
The two-day festival aimed not only to provide entertainment for the locals but also to boost the local economy by attracting tourism to the town.
Ms Herring said the Connecting Healesville Festival was a great model.
“(Connecting Healesville Festival and Healesville Festival) work beautifully together. Connecting Healesville was an amazingly community-based festival, providing something that was available to local community members to come along and enjoy,” she said.
“Our aim was a little bit different. We were trying to have a really nice balance between targeting tourism and helping our economy in Healesville.
“We wanted to help all of those local businesses that we have around town. We see so many of them closing in recent years. We wanted to bring a bit of tourism into the town to keep Healesville’s economy going, but also provide a nice balance of entertainment for our local community to enjoy.”
The festival kicked off at 10.30am in The Memo, Healesville, with different cultural workshops on Saturday 10 May.
In the afternoon, the festive vibe moved onto the local businesses, where locals enjoyed drink and music together.
The first day of the festival was wrapped up with the live music at the Healesville Hotel and The Memo.
On Mother’s Day, the festival took place at the green area on 13 Green Street, starting from 10.30am.
