By Callum Ludwig
Warburton’s much-loved Carols in the Park are returning for 2024, right as the Christmas spirit ramps up.
This year’s event will be held on Monday 23 December, again in the grassed area between the Warburton Holiday Park and Warburton Water World.
With the event again supported by the Warburton Advancement League, Vice President David Pratt said with the complexity of our world, the cost of living crisis and all of those things, let’s just have a night to celebrate being together as a local community.
“This year’s carols, we’re kicking off at 6.30pm with a bit of jazz in the park and we’re going to provide a free shuttle bus from the Redwood Cente car park, that way there’ll be plenty of room for locals to park and not have to walk all the way up,” he said.
“Then there’ll be a kids show with Woody (Clark) from 7pm to 7.30pm and then the carols kick off from 7.30pm until 9.30pm with an appearance from Santa at around 8pm,”
“We’d encourage people to bring blankets and some chairs and a picnic, but we will also have food and coffee vans on site, it’ll be free entry but as per previous years, we do a bit of fundraising and hopefully this year we can try and raise some money for the 10th anniversary of the Eastern 80 charity bike ride which is held in February.”
The Eastern 80, founded by local resident Norm Orr, has raised an average of $10,000 a year for the Royal Children’s Hospital since its inception, with local children and their families who have been helped by the Royal Children’s Hospital picked as ambassadors each year. The 2025 event aims to take the ride’s total fundraising effort to over $100,000.
The 2023 Carols in the Park event raised money for the ADRA Redwood Community Centre’s Dignity Project, helping to purchase a 10kg commercial grade washer and dryer for the centre that can used by those who visit.
