Over 1,500 people came together to enjoy amazing music, delicious food, stalls, face painting and plant sales—all in an atmosphere filled with friendship and relaxation.
It is very reasonable for people to ask, why does Milparinka have this festival, for crying out loud you are a disability service. Well we don’t do it to make money and we don’t do it to attract more clients. We do it for a few different reasons, we are proud of our Milparinka community and the different parts of us; our participants, our families, our garden clubs members, our volunteers, our friends and our garden and we want people to see and know that. We do it because when we bring community together, with no expectation other than to share friendship and joy we are helping our world to be a more welcoming place, but most of all we do it because it creates opportunity. When we are more known, when we talk to more people, when we create more movement that encourages people to accidentally and purposefully bump into each other, stuff happens, people talk, interests are shared, people have ideas, friendship develop and new opportunities are created for the people we support and love. That’s why we do it.
While I get to tell you the story of the festival, I actually do the least work in making it happen. A small group of three people, Jo, our gardener, Mark, a support coordinator and Annie, Max’s mum, planned and coordinated this. They will be the first to say that none of this could have happened without the great work and support of so many community, participant and staff volunteers along with garden club members. I know when all of these people look at what they have created and been part of, they will be very proud. We are incredibly grateful for all of their support and generosity. Of course we don’t do it alone, we are also thankful to get support in different ways, with donations like beer from Inner North Brewing Co, bread from Wildlife Bakery and use of kitchens and expertise from The Big Umbrella. The following places and people were also great in helping us out with their expertise or products, Henkel Street Cinema, Nelson Alexander, Choukette Fine Pastry, Petal Pop Flowers, Poyntons Nursery, Impact Neighbourhoods and Salvage Sisters Repair.
You may be surprised to know but we don’t really care much about how much money the festival raises, because its not about money, its about community and the opportunities it creates for people. At the same time money helps us to do the next thing and on Sunday we raised $8,649.65.
I don’t usually comment on the acts on the day. There are so many good and talented musicians. But I am going to break that rule this year because we had the most exciting act we have seen in the 6 years, that we have had the festival. DJ ANNA, some of you will know her as Anna Chambers, and is someone who we support, was absolutely amazing, DJ ANNA had the crowd dancing and cheering for 40 minutes, and screaming for more at the end.
What a great reminder of what can happen when you have a dream, and surround yourself with people who listen to you and let you lead the way, rather than just look after you.
