Noosa Festival of Water 2018
Fantastic weather and the beautiful setting drew crowds of people to the annual Noosa Festival of Water at the Noosa Botanic Gardens and Lake Macdonald on Sunday 24th June. The Botanical Gardens are stunning, providing a magnificent backdrop to the Festival each year. Throughout the Festival, people were treated to wide range of free entertainment and activities focused on caring for our environment and local water supply.
Seqwater representatives were kept busy talking to people about the pending Lake Macdonald Dam Improvement Program, which will see the Lake partially drained next year to accommodate construction of a new dam wall.
Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington officially opened the Festival, introducing the fabulous Gubbi Gubbi dancers and their storytelling. The Amphitheatre program included performances from wonderful local songstress Andrea Kirwin, a toe tapping set from six piece band the Strangest Dreamers, lovely harmonies from Kath William’s InSingC Choir, and the smooth sounds of duo Zuric and Brown.
Kids were treated to free face painting and jumping castle, environmental art activities, stand up Paddleboarding and kayaking and the No Sound Playground!Information about land and water management and our adjacent Noosa and Great Sandy Biospheres was freely available from Council, Landcare, BMRG, MRCCC and Wildlife care groups, helping to improve community awareness and educate land and water managers.
Popular activities included Geckoes Wildlife’s Martin Fingland and his menagerie of native animals including Bumpy the wombat – a festival favourite with people of all ages. Allan Burnett was swamped with people watching his reptile show and Noosa River Fishing Safari’s boat operator James Free was inundated with passengers for the short trip across the Lake to the Gerry Cook Hatchery, where Manager Darren Knowles was educating people about the breeding program for the endangered Mary River cod.
Local food vendors including the Tewantin Noosa Lions kept the crowds refreshed and the SES did a wonderful job directing traffic and parking.
Congratulations to Tegan McCrae of Mt Coolum who won the Peppers Noosa Resort voucher simply by telling the organisers what she liked about the Festival! All the feedback collected will be compiled into a report which will be available on the MRCCC’s website in coming weeks.
Thank you to Unitywater for providing the Back to Tap van and subsidising the sale of stainless steel water bottles to reinforce the Festival’s move away from single use plastic water bottles. Unitywater also organised production of a fantastic short video on the day of the Festival, featuring Eva Ford and Jan Clarke explaining what the Festival is all about. The video has now been viewed over 2000 times on Unitywater’s Facebook page. Click on the link below to have a look!
https://www.facebook.com/Unitywater/videos/1070383769767503/
Thank you also to Andrea Philipp, a Mexican who comes up to Gympie each year to manage promotion of the Festival. Andrea’s media releases and social media posts generated thousands of views on Facebook in relation to the Festival and the Gerry Cook Hatchery, and significantly increased interest in the Festival. 
Thank you to Noosa Council, Seqwater, Unitywater, the Burnett Mary Regional Group, Queensland Water and Landcare and Peppers Noosa Resort who sponsored this year’s Festival. And finally a huge thank you to all the volunteers who contribute their time and expertise to making the Festival a success each year.