Melba spirit pervades Yarra Valley

By Kath Gannaway
AN ESTIMATED 3000 people celebrated the spirit of Melba and the Yarra Valley she loved as part of the three-day Melba Festival on the weekend.
At 36 venues along and off the three Yarra Valley highways and over the Black Spur at Marysville, lovers of fine music, food and wine took advantage of a program which offered outstanding performances from up-and-coming new talent to the most accomplished of the music world’s premier performers.
Presented by Yarra Valley and The Dandenongs Marketing and co-ordinated by Matthew Field, the festival was an outstanding success.
Among the venues were wineries, local hotels, restaurants and the Yarra Valley Racing Centre.
Blackouts which left three of the four Friday night events in the dark could have been seen as foreboding, but Mr Field said the audiences, venue operators and performers grasped the occasion, embracing the candle-lit atmosphere.
“Audiences at Healesville Hotel seemed almost disappointed when the lights came on,” Mr Field said.
“A wonderful charm and atmosphere had been created,” he said.
Having roved the valley in his role of festival director over a very hectic three days, Mr Field said the feedback from audiences had been wonderful.
“People were very appreciative of both the hospitality they had received at the various events and of the quality of the music,” he said.
Although the final numbers won’t be crunched until later this week, Mr Field said numbers were considerably improved on last year.
He said the Hamer String Quartet had booked out at Acacia Ridge and more than 60 people had pre-booked for harpist Allanah Guthrie-Jones at Sutherland Estate in Dixons Creek.
Mr Field said he believes the festival had succeeded also in bringing people into the valley at what is traditionally a ‘low’ visitation time and that the aim next year would very likely be to maintain that time-frame, maintaining the number of events and maximizing attendances at each event.