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Winter Magic Festival 2015

Waiting to start

Waiting to start – click pic to enlarge

Well another Winter Magic is now history. Mother Nature well and truly smiled turning on beautiful sunshine in a deep blue sky after the many days of rain, drizzle and mist. While the damp and misty weather is such a beautiful part of the mountains it is not at all what a huge festival needs: but yes, although sunny it was a tad cool…

Once again the parade was a magnificent display of many different groups, including fabulous bands, wonderful dancers, people in amazing costumes, many different environmental groups and so much more. Both parade and festival were a huge success.

In the thick of it

Entertaining the crowd with ABC themes – click pic to enlarge

ABC Friends Blue Mountains was again well represented with about 20 people, including a few from ABC Friends Sydney as well as some family of members. We were extremely lucky to have with us the wonderfully costumed Madeline and Justin Boerst, the grandchildren of Barry and Bev. They were fantastic and a big thank you to them for giving up their Saturday to be part of the ‘oldies’ of the ABC Friends Blue Mountains group. This added a wonderful extra dimension and also highlighted that the ABC and ABC friends can include all ages.

In the thick of it

In the thick of it – click pic to enlarge

We had great support from sections of the crowd as well as the group in front of us, with clapping, singing and dancing along to the ABC theme music, particularly Bananas in Pyjamas, Bob the Builder, Miss Fisher and New Tricks as they belted out from our ‘boom box’ being pushed up the hills by the Webmaster. Initially it was feared we could be drowned out when we heard other parade participants warming up practicing their fabulous music but this was not the case at all. The parade organiser had managed to separate ‘the noisy ones’ really well.

Ron Fuller’s ‘static stall’ depicting an unused, dying ABC studio was brilliant, but very sad. According to Margaret Foy, who helped ‘man’ the stall, it was a great success, drawing much interest. This provided Ron, Margaret and Phil the opportunity to share information on what is sadly the continuing decimation of our ABC.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the organising and to all who participated in any way. Thanks also to those who had planned on coming but due to unforeseen circumstances were unable to attend. (Next year, hopefully).

We’re looking forward to next year’s Winter Magic Parade and all its sparkle, pizazz and magic.

Photos
Go to the Gallery for a selection of photos of ABC Friends and also general pictures of the parade and festival.