Become a founding friend of Echuca-Moama’s newest festival

Festival chair Christy O’Brien was proud to be leading a passionate group of locals to secure early support from government, business, tourism, arts and community partners to help establish the foundations for the festival.

‘’Now we are inviting the wider community to help bring the festival to life,’’ she said.

‘’Through the Festival of Stories Founding Friends Program we are asking individuals, families, business and community supporters to contribute financially and with in-kind support to help shape the future of this event from the very beginning.’’

Ms O’Brien said the Festival of Stories was more than an event, it was an investment in community, connection, creativity, culture and regional identity.

‘’Our Festival of Stories committee wanted to create something special for our community to own and to shine a light on arts, culture and creativity in our region,’’ she said.

‘’Creating a festival like this has been a dream of mine for a very long time.’’

The event will be more than just writers and authors, with musicians, artists, producers, and creatives of all types coming together to celebrate.

‘’We all have a story, and we all connect through each other’s stories. These stories bring us together,” Ms O’Brien said.

Festival committee member Jenny Turner said it was critical festivals were community-led and community-owned to truly reflect the values, passions and voices of the region.

‘’Every great grassroots movement relies on a sustainable foundation and our Friends of the Festival framework is intentionally designed to ensure passionate members of our community at every level can play a special part,’’ she said.

‘’Whether they want to champion our local economy, elevate regional tourism, or simply ensure our towns’ stories are heard and preserved forever, we are inviting people to invest in the arts and cultural future of Echuca-Moama.’’

Speaking at the launch at Wildergreen, Moama, committee member Suzie Shearer said community support for the festival would help build a community-owned legacy event to help boost tourism for our town and ensure a sustainable future for the event.

‘’We want to attract high-quality artists and storytellers to our region through the festival program, but we also want to provide a platform to amplify local voices that matter,’’ she said.

‘’We want to provide a program to support local creatives and encourage community participation by making arts and culture more affordable and more accessible for people living in and visiting our town.’’

For information about the Festival of Stories Founding Friends Program or to register your interest in the volunteer program, email friends@festivalofstories.com.au or sign up to the newsletter via festivalofstories.com.au