Chinchilla Melon Festival fever is in full swing with the return of the epic regional Queensland event
After a four year break, the Chinchilla Melon Festival is back in full force, and it’s anticipated to rake in millions of dollars for the region as well as provide a much-needed boost to community spirit.
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Melon fever is well and truly being felt in the Western Downs region as business owners prepare stalls, volunteers organise sites and farmers load up their homegrown melons for the highly-anticipated Chinchilla Melon Festival.
The Melon Fest is an epic event that allows tourists and locals to come together for four days of fun including parades, competition, live entertainment, food, and of course watermelons.
“We had a number of major events across the region disrupted due to Covid so it’s really exciting for Chinchilla to have their festival again this year,” Ms Bourne said.
“On average, visitors will spend around $200 per day and night, so (the economic injection) in the millions.
“It’s a considerable flow-on, those dollars turn over and over in a community.”
President of the Melon Festival committee and owner of Chinchilla Tyre and Battery Doug McNally said it was an incredibly tough decision to make in 2021 to cancel the event.
“I’m sure the town missed it, it leaves a big hole in the community when we don’t put an event like that on,” he said.
“It was the right decision in hindsight, for our own sanity we made the call early to finish it and make a clean cut.”
Mr McNally, who has been the president for four festivals and made the move to Chinchilla back in 1998, said he loved being involved in an event that represented the region positively.
“The camaraderie you develop with the team you work with is a highlight,” he said.
“To see all the people come together, it gives you a good feeling, and you feel as though you’ve contributed to the community.”
He said next week will be when melon fever truly hits and the volunteers finalise setting up.
“We still have marquees to go up on the school oval, site fencing to do, install generators for food stalls, it will all really kick into gear on Wednesday when everything starts falling together.”
The origin story and spirit of Melon Fest continues
Business owner and Chinchilla resident born and bred, Terri Keller said the event was a timely one considering tragic events that had rocked the region recently, and that the Melon Fest was created out of the need to boost community spirit.
“It’s locals coming together as a community in a fun way (which) I think will definitely help take people’s minds off things,” she said.
“The festival initially started to help the community through drought and that’s still a devastating thing so in terms of community recovery, the timing is perfect.”
The owner of Chinchilla Creative Co and Red Hill Creative Co said the event was a strategy for the community to come together.
“There was a pretty harsh drought at the time and if I remember correctly it ended up bucketing rain that weekend,” Mrs Keller said.
Despite it being the first festival in which her businesses will be apart of, Mrs Keller said she had only missed one festival her whole life.
“It’s a fun vibe, it helps invigorate the town and especially after the period of Covid we’ve had it helps bring back to the roots of why they started the festival in the first place, that economic boost and bringing community spirit to everybody,” she said.
“And it’s not only just locals anymore but also a bucketload of tourists who come which is fantastic.”
Mr McNally said the committee was confident they would welcome at least 10 to 15,000 visitors to the festival this year.
“It’s been building slowly,” he said.
“We’re confident we’ll crack a good crowd, people have been leaving decisions until last minute since Covid.
“I think we’re going to have a really good day, it’s going to be hot but it’s always hot at Melon Fest.”
Chinchilla Melon Fest kicks off Thursday, February 16 and ends Sunday, February 19.
Tickets for certain events can be purchased here.
We’ve rounded up some of the most epic photos taken at Chinchilla Melon Festival 2019, take a look at all the action in our throwback gallery below.
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