School of rock: Previous decorated guitar competition winners Sara Thompson, Hannah Weir, Ben Jacobs, Dale Costello, Ayla McAsey, Jazz Warde, Abigail McAsey and Ryder McMullan standing in for mum Jane.
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Lana Murphy
Be sure to get your creative juices flowing in the Winter Blues decorative guitar competition, which is set to return this year after a two-year hiatus.
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Committee member of the Winter Blues Festival, and co-ordinator of the decorative guitars competition, Dave Callanan said he had been working hard to revitalise the much-loved community event.
“It has been all about re-establishing connections with people and businesses who were previously involved in the event,” Mr Callanan said.
The concept behind the event is that people can purchase a blank guitar for $5, which they can then decorate and bring back to get judged for prizes.
After judging, the guitars are then lined up in shop windows around Echuca.
Mr Callanan said the competition was all about community spirit.
“The guitars are what turn it from being just a music festival into something that the whole community can be invested in and can be proud of.”
Mr Callanan said you did not need to be an artist to participate.
He said it was not about the quality of work that was being created, but was instead about being creative and connecting with the community.
“It’s all about linking the community back into the festival. The competition is just a bonus element.”
1st place: Winning guitar from a previous year.
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Contributed
The contest generally has about 150 to 200 entrants signing up, each year.
“We try to get everyone from kindergarten kids, up through to school-aged kids through to young adults, then adults and then seniors,” Mr Callanan said.
Mr Callanan, who has been in charge of running the decorative guitar competition for the past eight years, is hoping for someone to step up and help organise the event with him this year.
He said during the next few years he was looking to step back and pass the organisation of the event on to someone else.
“I’d like to encourage people this year to think about helping with the organisation of the event so that they can share that load with me,” he said.
“This is so that I can then pass this on to somebody younger who would like to step into my place.”
Mr Callanan said he would be staying on for as long as was required to find someone suitable to replace him.
This year’s competition will be running from April to July, April being the first month where you can collect the guitars and July being the time for judging.
Exact dates are soon to be announced and details for the event are still being worked out, such as where the guitars can purchased from and whether the Men’s Shed will be involved in making the guitars, as they usually do.
Stay tuned for more updates on the competition over the following weeks.
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