THE community will be spun into a celebration of art and culture when the fabric of Limestone Coast life is recognised at the 17th annual Geltwood Festival.
This year’s four-day festival will offer an intense and action-packed program with a mixture of traditional events and new additions.
Kicking off the Geltwood festivities will be the official opening delivered by Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll at the Millicent Gallery tomorrow evening from 6.30pm.
The public is invited to attend the event, which will also launch an exhibition from international award winning textile artist Julie Haddrick who will be in attendance.
Ms Haddrick’s work from the South Australian Living Textiles Exhibition is set to line the walls of the gallery throughout this month alongside an exhibition of quilts and pieces from retrospective workshops from the Geltwood Festival.
Craft workshops will start this Saturday and continue through to Sunday with Zip Up Craft Tool Bags, Flashy Slops, Granny Square Crochet for Beginners, Crochet Squares from Granny Square Flair and Reading Crochet Patterns and Charts.
The Flashy Slops workshop provides craft-goers with the opportunity to re-purpose the multitude of colour mass, which may leave their art bag overflowing.
Meanwhile, crochet workshops will be held under the guidance of Shelly Husband and are designed for people of all skill levels from novice through to adventurous beginners.
Amateur sleuths are will put their thinking caps on to solve the Murder at the Museum event, which will be held at the National Trust Living History Museum on Saturday.
The interactive event will see participants play investigators while gaining a unique after hours tour of the museum.
Celebrations will continue Sunday when Millicent’s central business district becomes a hive of activity for the Lions Family Fun and Market Day.
Centered around George Street, the day will feature a variety of stalls selling local produce, homemade goods, tasty treats and arts and crafts.
Millicent retailers will open their doors from 10am to cater for the busy crowd, while attendees of all ages will be entertained by live local music.
Finishing off the festival is the popular Quilting Convention, which is held at the Civic and Arts Centre on Monday.
The convention encourages community members and crafts people to bring along stitching and knitting and chat with like-minded people.
There will also be a fashion parade by “Heaven on a Hanger” and other entertainment provided throughout the day.
Over the weekend local shop windows will be transformed into a sea of colour with over 250 quilts on display in George, Glen and Davenport streets, as well as the Millicent Visitor Information Centre.
Quilts displayed at the visitor information centre are donated to “Quilts for a Cause” and the worthy recipient of the charity this year will be Anglicare.
The idea is quilts will be passed on to foster children.
