Charlotte Varcoe
A PENOLA event has been highlighted for its growing success with the Penola Coonawarra Acoustic Music Festival announced as a finalist in the Australian Folk Music Awards.
The event was hosted earlier this year across two days and received an influx of 400 guests, 21 performers and 17 stalls during its Sunday evening market.
Event committee member Anne Miller said the band of volunteers were thrilled to be recognised on a national level following the festival’s debut.
“Obviously people have seen the potential in the festival and when we set out to start this event we never believed it could achieve this especially so early on,” Ms Miller said.
“I found the award nomination form and questioned the organisers whether our event would qualify and decided to go for it once they approved it.”
Ms Miller said the nomination was a credit to the volunteers and performers who took part in the festival with bigger and better plans already in the pipelines for 2022.
“Following this year’s success we have decided to go ahead with the 2022 event and it is looking to be an annual event as well,” she said.
“We have received fantastic feedback from artists, vendors and the community saying it was wonderfully organised which makes us so happy considering it was our first event.”
Alongside the nomination and the confirmed recurrence of the event for next year, Ms Miller said volunteers were now on the lookout for a dog daycare volunteer to join the ranks.
She said much of the feedback presented to the committee for this year was the need for a safe, cool place for pets to relax while owners enjoyed the day.
“We will set the dog daycare up on the grounds somewhere around here in the shade and we are asking if anybody is interested in the opportunity they are able to contact us through our social media or on the phone number provided online,” she said.
The 2022 Penola Coonawarra Acoustic Music Festival is planned to go ahead at McCorquindale Park on March 18-20 with tickets available.
