By TANIA PHILLIPS
MORE than 12,000 people flocked to Stanthorpe over the weekend for the Snowflakes in Stanthorpe festival.
Stanthorpe Art Gallery director and event spokesperson Nicola Holly hailed the three-day festival as a major success.
“Oh my god, it was fantastic,” she enthused.
“We had about 12,000 people and we’d estimated 5000 to 6000 so it was fantastic.
“I think everyone loved the snow and the ice-skating – they were the big drawcards.”
She said the festival had struck a chord with locals and visitors and there seemed to “be a need for a winter festival” to celebrate the town’s cold weather.
This year’s festival was jointly run by the Stanthorpe and Granite Belt Chamber of Commerce and the Stanthorpe Agricultural Society however given its success, Ms Holly said plans were afoot to chase “tourism dollars” for next year’s event and make it bigger and better.
However she said while the event would be held next year, it would not become an annual event, instead being held turn about with the very popular and long-standing Apple and Grape Festival which was held earlier this year and will be held again in 2018.
She said the town did not have the “manpower” to hold the event every year but it had certainly proved the need and demand for something like this.
Ms Holly said the event would also continue to be held around the same time – during the school holidays.
Snowflakes in Stanthorpe is a celebration of all things cold, in the coldest town in Queensland.
It was originally the brainchild of four energetic young women in 2013.
They thought Stanthorpe should build on this reputation and celebrate this climatic phenomenon in a day-long community event to bring visitors and tourists to Stanthorpe.
That event took place on 3 July 2013 and included markets along the creek, activities in town and a snow making machine available for kids to have a snowman making competition and throw some snowballs around.
An estimated 300 people quickly turned into 3000 showing that the continued fascination Australians have with snow in winter was still apparent.
This year the Stanthorpe and Granite Belt Chamber of Commerce and Stanthorpe Agricultural Societies got behind the event to turn it into a festival with plans to grow it in the future.
Ms Holly said all the local business owners she had spoken to had reported a successful weekend.
