Turning a light on our Gold Rush parade

Council is considering a big change to this year’s Gold Rush Festival by including a Friday evening parade instead of a Saturday daytime parade. The change is being proposed as part of efforts to reinvigorate the festival and encourage greater levels of involvement from schools and the broader community.

Council said that an evening parade would mean that new and exciting elements could be added to what would become the festival’s launch event, including a large night-time lantern display with lanterns designed and paraded by local school students.

Councillor Bob Fredman said that Council staff had consulted with a local traders’ association as well as with schools and some local community groups to seek their feedback on the proposed change with strong support being shown; however Council is keen to also hear from the community. “Our Gold Rush Festival is a much-loved annual event that our community takes enormous pride in,” he said. “We want to make sure that a change like this has the community’s support, because it is the community’s event after all.”

Over the next few weeks, Council will be seeking the community’s feedback on whether they support changing the event’s parade to an evening event. Members of the community will have until 13 June 2019 to complete a short online survey at https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/haveyoursay, participate in a social media poll, or pop in to one of Council’s libraries to complete a paper-based survey.