Another Woodend Winter Arts Festival has come and gone, but artistic director and founder of the festival Jacky Ogeil won’t be forgetting this one anytime soon.
This festival marked its 20th anniversary over the King’s Birthday long weekend, and Ms Ogeil said it attracted the highest turnout yet.
“We were really delighted that it went according to schedule and better,” she said.
“We aimed at having an international festival again with international artists which we haven’t done since the pandemic.
“All of that went fantastically, our Moroccan artists, our violinist from Vienna, our harpist from Ireland and our other violinist from Italy, they performed absolutely brilliantly and everybody loved them.”
Ms Ogeil said it was great to see the massive number of people who enjoyed the festival, and said many people attended multiple events across the weekend, something she hadn’t witnessed before.
“The artists were thrilled, they thanked us and they were on a high. They loved the audience engagement with question time and responses to their performances,” she said.
“The volunteers were fantastic, they were very engaged and hardworking as were our contractors.”
She thanked St Ambrose Primary School for the use of its facilities as well as the pop-up cafe in the staff room.
The charity is always looking for donations and new volunteers. More information can be found at woodendwinterartsfestival.org.au/
“Here’s to the next 20 years,” Ms Ogeil said.
Georgia Tacey
