Camden Jacaranda Festival to launch this year
CAMDEN’s iconic jacaranda trees are ready to be celebrated, with the town to turn purple for the inaugural Camden Jacaranda Festival this November.
Macarthur
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CAMDEN’s iconic jacaranda trees are ready to be celebrated, with the town to turn purple for the inaugural Camden Jacaranda Festival this November.
The long-running campaign by Macarthur Chronicle readers for a jacaranda festival reached fever pitch in November last year, with calls to transform boutique Camden into a “little Berry”.
The Argyle Business Collective, consisting of about 15 Camden CBD businesses, will facilitate the three-day festival which is expected to feature street performers, community groups, buskers and night markets.
The event will also include the annual lighting of Camden’s Argyle St Christmas tree.
Argyle Business Collective chairman and Camden Hotel licensee Andrew Valciukas said it will be a fresh and exciting festival of all things Camden.
“It’s a celebration of Camden,” he said.
“It will be a celebration of all things which are unique to Camden. As a community, we are renowned for being parochial and proud of our area, so it’s just another opportunity for us to come together and celebrate.
“The jacarandas have been there for a very long time and we hope this festival becomes a major tourist attraction for Camden itself.
“The intention is to turn this into an annual fixture of the Camden calendar. With the way the jacarandas are going to be lit, ultimately providing a fairy light canopy down Argyle St in future years, it will become an ‘insta-paradise’.”
Camden Council has provided more than $10,000 worth of financial support to the inaugural event, opting against providing any financial support for the long-running Light Up Camden.
The Camden Jacaranda Festival is scheduled to take place from November 23 to 25, one week after the scheduled date of this year’s Light Up Camden which is facilitated by the Camden Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Camden Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president Peter Versluis said the decision by council not to award a $10,000 community grant was disappointing.
“We are disappointed that council made a decision not to fund the event considering it’s long and successful record in Camden, put on by a host of Camden Chambers over many, many years and as it has been a very successful community festival,” he said.
“The Chamber is committed to community events and we will continue to be.”
Camden Liberal Mayor Lara Symkowiak said the Camden Jacaranda Festival was a great outcome for the community.
“(The Camden Jacaranda Festival) is three time as long, and from a community perspective still includes the lighting of the Christmas tree,” she said.
“It has been touted for a number of years by a number of people and it would be great to see it come to fruition.”
Former Camden mayor and independent councillor Eva Campbell was the sole councillor who did not support the community sponsorship program for the next six months, advocating for an equal amount of funding to be provided to Light Up Camden.
“This (Camden Chamber of Commerce and Industry) is a collective of businesses which have been in Camden forever and a day. It’s an event which has gone on now, for more than 30 years,” she said.
“It is doing a disservice to the community of Camden and a slap in the face of all the small businesses in Camden — it is a complete and utter slap in the face.”
Camden’s Argyle St features 47 jacarandas, with 39 of the purple trees planted in 1927.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The future of this year’s Light Up Camden event is now uncertain with the Camden Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. executive board to discuss the options next week.