Story and photos Eve Jeffery
The Living Community Festival held at the Mullumbimby Community Gardens yesterday celebrated not only the exceptional space created for the community, but the news the gardens have been named the 2014 Gardening Australia Community Garden of the Year.
The day of activities, workshops and seminars was officially opened with a parade from the council chambers and the rain did a pretty good job of staying in the clouds for most of the day.
Perennial plant lover Costa Georgiadis, from the ABC’s Gardening Australia program, was on hand as a keynote speaker, bamboo sculpture judge, agricultural activist and general spreader of thought seeds and fun throughout the gardens all day.
Costa said that the Mullum event is really something unique and special.
‘This is the second time I have been at this festival’, he said.
‘This is a wonderful festival. It’s kind of funny when you are in a town, and I see it everywhere I go, it’s really easy to understate and undervalue what your local events mean. Not locally, not regionally, but nationally.
‘I go to these almost week-in week-out and lots of different scales of things and the thing that I see repeated is that, you come to a region and people are fired up and love what they are doing but, sometimes they don’t fully appreciate how valuable their event is.
‘I mean, just marching down that street, for me, that’s an old value which has kind of almost been buried. All of these old fairs, all of these old days where people march down the street, usually an agricultural show, and all the people came out. It’s at those points where you actually see the community. All the different clubs come out to march. I look at that and say, “Don’t lose that. That is so human”. It’s such a tangible thing.
‘I have talked about this festival around the country. For me the highlight here is that you are walking down the street and there is barely anyone on the street because everyone is in the march! I think that sums it up.’
Love this Festival…Go the Mullum Living Community festival!!
What a joy the Mullum Community Gardens are! Walking through the entry gates on Sunday was like walking into a different world: a world of beauty, creativity, passion …. and of course plants! The best of the Sixties revisited. Congratulations to all those tireless workers who helped to win the ABC Community Garden of the Year. The Bamboo Society of Australia’s Bamboo Sculpture Competition was also a standout and showcased many of the uses of this remarkable plant. Costa was impressed too when he announced the winners.
As we left at the end of the day we had huge smiles on our faces … and we still have!
Loved the day! Love the gardens! Awesome event!
But… was bummed that so many people and families (including me and mine) were turned away from the inspiring talks on the day because we simply could not afford to pay an extra 70 or $80 to enter the privileged persons tent to hear them 🙁 The speakers must’ve wondered if they smelt funny there were so few people in there.
Perhaps an extra $2.50 or $5 on the door per person would’ve covered the costs?
Good on you guys anyway. Just a thought.