Plans are well underway for this year’s Alexandra Blossom Festival, after its annual general meeting (AGM) last week.

Festival manager Martin McPherson said they have had an outstanding response already from vendors securing market sites, with 50 per cent of all food and beverage sites already sold.

“The biggest fear is that people will miss out,” he said.

Committee chair Sharleen Stirling-Lindsay welcomed and thanked returning committee members Rachael Lovering, Michelle Davies, Ian Gare, secretary Cathy Marsh, treasurer Tim Coughlan and Vincent Community Board representative Tony Hammington at the AGM.

The 2023 Blossom Festival on September 22 followed one of the most successful blossom festivals on record in 2022, which was the 65th anniversary event.

The committee was conscious of the fact 2023 attendance numbers would likely be down on the previous year given the significance of the 65th festival.  

In a press release, the committee said as such, the budget was set assuming a more normalised level of attendance would be achieved in 2023. 

This ensured entertainer/supplier costs were maintained at a sensible level to avoid the risk of any material cash deficits being incurred. 

The festival returned a surplus of $5360 for 2023 compared to $5867 in 2022. 

Last year’s Friday night Mardi Gras had to be cancelled last minute due to the weather in the run up to the event.  

As such, early bird ticket sales were down on previous years.

On a positive note, the weather came right on the day for Saturday in the Park, which resulted in strong on-the-day-sales and attendances at the event.

While we estimate parade and attendance numbers to be 15 per cent down on the 2022 event, this was broadly in line with the committee’s forecast expectations, and given the poor weather in the run up to the event - and the fact Friday night’s events were cancelled -  the committee was extremely happy with the outcome of the event in the end, the press release noted.

Treasurer Tim Coughlan said the impact the weather nearly played on the main Saturday in the Park event further reaffirmed how important its key sponsors were to the event, “and how important it is for the committee to have sufficient cash reserves set aside to deal with any unforeseen issues/cancellations.”

Sharleen acknowledged the passing of Karen Peterson - the festival’s original Blossom Queen, “many of you would have had the privilege of meeting Karen when she returned to share her Blossom Festival stories with us in 2022, her passion and love for this festival and understanding of the positive impact it had and continues to have on our community was evident.  If you haven’t checked out her interview as she takes us down memory lane, I encourage you too, the float on fire story is a must hear,’’ she said.