Thank You

Open Letter to our communities.

The Bega Valley Festival was a demonstration of communities in the Bega Valley at play, at work and on show.

As the inaugural Festival, we achieved our aim of providing a platform to showcase our 'Communities in Transition' to a more sustainable lifestyle economically, socially and environmentally.

So very many people were involved in the Festival, and we will thank them personally, but it is right to publicly express our deepest thanks for their involvement, through sponsorship, by having a stand, providing services and support, playing music or speaking, volunteering to help organise the event, by coming to experience what was on offer as visitors and suggesting new ideas to make the next event even better.

What became obvious as the three days of events unfolded was how a Festival of this kind provides us with a deeper sense of who we are, a sense of place in our landscape and the interdependence we have with each other.

To see children with faces painted like cats happily running around among our elders, to listen to people sharing new ideas, to hear of successful speaking events and to see laughter and handshakes, hugs and smiles between people was the proof we sought that our communities had come together to celebrate our life and the bonds we are making to manage the transition into a more localised, more resilient economy.

Many visitors told us they had come from as far away as Bendigo, Brisbane and Mudgee to see what our South East communities were up to.

We are clearly a special people. Our differences do not create division but ask us to find solutions together no matter how hard they may seem. The very real challenges put to us by global conditions have become a source of new enterprise and people all over Australia see the Bega Valley as a model society based on trust, a shared path ahead and so they choose to move here to share that future with us.

The inaugural Bega Valley Festival taught us many things about event management and community involvement and we look forward to exploring all of the ideas people have offered in the second Bega Valley Festival in November 2010.

We happily accept comments HERE or phone us on 6492 5000.

Thank you one and all.

Prue Kelly
Kym Mogridge
Geoffrey Grigg