Christmas Festival Returns

IMAGE: Steph Cooke MP face paints Bill West last Friday...

Cowra’s Christmas Festival returned for the first time in two years last Friday night, with the “Christmas On The Oval” event entertaining children and families at Sid Kallas Oval.

It was the first time since 2019 that the festival had been run, with last year’s festivities cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Christmas on the Oval was the main social gathering event for this year’s overall festival, which also includes the Cowra Christmas Lights Competition.

While most Christmas Festivals in previ-ous years have taken place as a one-off event with market stalls on the main street, this year’s festival was planned differently due to COVID-19 restrictions. Christmas On The Oval was the centrepiece of the festival, however the Christmas lights competition has been ongoing since December 1, and will be judged on December 22 and 23.

While Christmas On The Oval was far smaller than the main street market stalls of previous years’ festivals, Cowra Tourism Corporation Assistant Manager Kurt Overzet said it was great to still be able to have people in Cowra gathering again.

“We had a fantastic turnout of be-tween 600 and 800 people, and it was great to see everyone out and about again,” he said. The event was targeted primarily at children and families, with the Cowra Information and Neighbourhood Centre providing Santa photos, hair spray, face painting, tattoos and letters to Santa for children.

There was also live ,music to enter-tain the crowds, featuring Josh Maynard, Malia Stirling, Belle Whitwell, the Cowra Band and Terry Lovett. The Cowra Magpies Rugby League Club ran a bar and canteen, while Lil Bean & Co served coffee.

Mr Overzet said the highlight of the night was seeing the community come together again after a year of seasawing COVID restrictions.

“It was great to see community groups like the Magpies and CINC being out in public again and raising some funds,” he said.