2016 June 18—Winter Magic Festival

Mountains weather had not been predicted to treat us kindly on the day of the Winter Magic Festival and according to our wonderful stall set up person, Ron Fuller, at 5.30am it was very cold and wet.  At 7am-ish when we arrived it was better, although we had to set up the stall with the table inside to prevent our information being ‘dribbled’ on. Fortunately it improved from there. We were a depleted group this year due to illnesses, movings and others having lovely holidays. Our small group was still very visible and Bananas in Pyjamas (B1 Barry, B2 grandson Justin) a great success. B2 had serious trouble with his banana top and it looked like his top notch may part from the rest but he stoically persevered to the end. We did have a big disappointment when a wheel fell off the boom box pre parade. On the positive, at least it didn’t fall off half way up Katoomba Street. It did mean we had to resort to plan B, a much smaller and less powerful hand held speaker which struggled in the noisy surroundings to broadcast the wonderful ABC theme music to a very receptive crowd. We did have the music in the stall however.

The parade itself was rather slow in moving off and we watched anxiously as very black clouds grew in the distance but again Mother Nature was kind and all was well. Our stall attracted a reasonable amount of interest well assisted by ABC Friends ‘Save our ABC SOS Bananas without Pyjamas’ banner. Bumper stickers seemed to be the order of the day along with information flyers on the cuts to the ABC. Once again, still many asked the “what is happening to the ABC’ question.
It was a long, but we feel, in this 2016 election year, a productive and worthwhile day. Thanks to all who participated in the parade and helped on the stall. Special mention and thanks to Ron for all his help again, in this an incredibly busy year for him.

See more pictures here