A winter celebration at Mirboo North

MIRBOO NORTH kicked off with their first Winterfest on Friday evening in what was a spectacular display of fire, ice, light, art, food and drink across three days.

Expecting typical winter conditions, the team had carefully planned for rain with giant tipis, but what ensured was crisp beautiful weather in the hilltop village, if not a bit fresh.

After two years of the pandemic, the team behind the Mirboo North Arty Gras: a festival that was developed to nurture the Mirboo North Art Show with a parallel celebration of arts, culture and community, took the opportunity to bring celebration and community back to life in the long cold dark days of winter.

“Over the last two years we haven’t been able to get together as a community to celebrate,” Kelly McCarthy explained.

“We felt COVID was a good opportunity to reinvent the festival, and we wanted to move it to winter so that we had something to celebrate.

“We’ve had a fantastic turnout.”

Funded by South Gippsland Shire with many community and local business sponsors, the festival was a hit amongst locals and visitors alike.

Winterfest also retained the beating heart of Arty Gras, its street parade, adapting to Winterfest with a lantern parade on Saturday evening.

Drawing participants from a diverse collection of community groups, businesses and entertainers, traffic was diverted as individuals, families and groups hit Ridgeway in a spectacular display of light, as the sun set to the west.

Boolarra Primary School, Mirboo North & District Community Bank, and Calvary Strzelecki House were amongst the parade alongside Baromi Park.