FOLLOWING a range of activities conducted since early in September, the 2022 Home Hill Harvest Festival counts down to its program of fun for the finale on Saturday, November 5, with the annual Grand Parade and following Mardi Gras Street Party bringing another successful Festival to an end.
From the annual Ephemera in Lloyd Mann Gardens and a Sixtieth Anniversary High Tea held in September, the Festival has continued through October to its final week of activities in November, leading into the last major weekend of the Festival program when the Personality and Charity Queens will be crowned at the Gala Ball on Friday evening, November 4, followed by the Grand Parade and Street Party on Saturday, November 5.
The last week of Harvest Festival activities at the beginning of November will also feature the My Pets Pet Show at Watson’s Green on Wednesday, November 2, where family pets of all shapes, sizes, colours and varieties find their way to the judging arena for one of the most popular festival events over many years.
The six Festival Queen entrants have been facing the judges over the last couple of weeks and they will meet their final challenge prior to the Home Hill Rotary Club’s Harvest Festival Ball, to be held at the Burdekin Memorial Hall on Friday night, November 4, when they sit down for a meal with the judges for the final time before being presented to the crowd at the Ball.
After they are presented, the winning Personality and Charity Queens will be announced and crowned by the previous winners.
The Festival Queens will then lead the way in their colourful floats as the Grand Parade makes its way down Eighth Avenue from Ashworth’s Rock Shop to the Post Office corner, before returning back to the Mardi Gras Street Party area around Ninth Avenue and Ninth Street, where the crowd will disperse to take in all the activities including varying types of food and drinks, entertainment on stage and displays that will continue late into the night.
Festival President, Mark Vass said he had been doing his best to “tweak” the layout for Mardi Gras participants to ensure there was not the congestion caused by the huge crowd in attendance in 2021.
He said he was planning to place all food stalls around the perimeter of other stalls, so people lined up do not block the path of the crowds moving through the area.
