A clown entertains the crowds in the main street.
By Kath Gannaway
SANTA was, not surprisingly, the star of the show at the Healesville Chamber of Commerce (HVCC) Christmas Street Festival on the Thursday evening before Christmas.
With school finished for the year, hundreds of people, most of them family groups, descended on Healesville’s main street for a chance to have a photo and a last minute chat with the bearded gentleman, enjoy the free activities and entertainment and just catch up with friends, neighbours and the local traders before Christmas.
HVCC festival co-ordinator, Lisa Hennessy said the festival was a new event for the chamber and they were delighted with the response, both from traders and from the wider community.
“We were very pleasantly surprised at how many people came down and the feed-back we have received is just great,” Ms Hennessy said.
“I think Santa made the event for a lot of people … the line just kept growing and growing.”
HVCC president Bruce Argyle was also excited by the success of the event which he said was a gesture of goodwill aimed at both bringing the community and businesses together and a ‘thank you’ .
“It is part of what we see as our role, and also a way of saying thanks for supporting our businesses over the year,” Mr Argyle said.
“A lot of it is about the kids, and wanting to provide a Christmas experience for kids to have a sense of community, and a sense of the business community.”
Mr Argyle said each business was challenged with the notion to provide an experience or a product, either free or at a low cost which would make the festival enjoyable and accessible to everyone.
