Kings Park Festival blossomed into more than wildflowers during 2007
The long tradition of the annual Wildflower Festival this year blossomed into a fresh, new format, community event delivering a more contemporary, accessible and sustainable celebration of Western Australia's unique wildflowers.
The 2007 Kings Park Festival successfully engaged over 500,000 visitors, through a variety of family days, educational and interpretive opportunities including workshops, demonstrations, live theatre and hands-on participation, to promote the vision and mission of Kings Park and Botanic Garden. The event moved away from its fenced five day, fee-for-entry to a month long, primarily free, event.
Each weekend there were different family events, and as good luck would have it, the weather was very pleasant every Sunday.
Synergy Father's Day - 2 September
Men's ‘Secret BBQ Business', along with other blokey things, was a highlight of the inaugural Synergy Father's Day Festival at Synergy Parkland. Dads were spoilt with a pancake breakfast and there were a range of activities to appeal to both parents and children - such as kite flying, rock climbing and camel rides.
The Great Granny and Gramps Gumboot Gardening Day - 9 September
Children’s theatre, worm farming, a toe-tapping bush band, bush craft activities, tips on how to build frog friendly gardens, the Scitech Road Show, a scarecrow competition, and an opportunity to get close to raptors, reptiles and roos were all part of this delightful day.
The Djilba Bush Life - 16 September
The Djilba Bush Life day was a relaxing Sunday event which celebrated our Australian culture and heritage in the Botanic Garden, offering Dreamtime storytelling and the chance to sample billy tea and damper ‘outback style'. Whip-cracking and sheep shearing displays were favourites with families and tourists, as were the 'up close and personal' opportunities with Aussie wildlife. The 'Wandering Wildflowers' were a highlight in eye-catching and original costumes and became a special photographic favourite with all visitors.
The Wild Fairyland Festival - 23 September
Fairies, elves, witches and wizards gathered in their thousands at the Ivey Watson Playground at the Wild Fairyland Festival. It all started with the Great Pram Stroll to Fairyland; a 1km walk through the Kings Park Bushland arriving at Fairyland and welcomed with a host of activities. Fairy folk and bush guardians enjoyed meeting the Great Gompho Wizardwort, and Queen Sandie. Storytelling, Fairy Ballet, magic, bush crafts, fairyfloss and bubbles were all part of this special day.
Spectacular Wildflower Displays
This year, for the first time, the mass planting of 27,000 wildflowers of 3,000 differing species were planted across permanent garden beds drawn from the South-west, Mallee (Goldfields), Mulga (Gascoyne and Murchison), desert (Pilbara), and Kimberley regions. This big splash Wildflower Display at the entry to the Botanic Garden was freely available for the 500,000+ visitors who came into Kings Park to discover the beauty of the Western Australian wildflowers. Many visitors took the opportunity to meet a Kings Park Horticulturalist at 11.00 am each day at the Everlasting Display.
A special feature of the Kings Park Festival was the Japanese Display Garden planted with primarily Western Australian native plants. The temporary garden celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Sister State relationship between Western Australia and Hyogo Prefecture in central Japan. It was ideally located in the Botanic Garden adjacent to the Wildflower Pavilion where many of the traditional Japanese cultural activities were held, including the Hana Matsuri or Flower Festival on Sunday 30 September. Hundreds of people attended the Japanese workshops and demonstrations including the 'Designing a Japanese Garden' seminar, Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations, Kimono dressing demonstrations, Ikebana, Woodblock Printing, Calligraphy and Kumi-e.
Wildflower Market Place - 28 September to 1 October
This year's Wildflower Market Place was held over the final weekend of the Kings Park Festival. Approximately 30,000 people filtered through the Botanic Garden, to the Marketplace's new location, at the Forrest carpark. Over 15,000 native plants of 300 different species were quickly snapped up by enthusiastic gardeners at the, ever popular, Friends of Kings Park plant sale. Many arts and crafts were available for sale over this long weekend in the Marketplace.
The Everlasting Jazz Picnic attracted several thousand people over the course of the day, with people picnicking and enjoying the good weather and wonderful free music and ambience.
Hats and High Tea was a delightful event in the Botanic Garden on the Friday of the long weekend. Many ladies joined in the fun by wearing their hats while they enjoyed a Devonshire tea at the festively decorated tables and chairs on the lawn near the main stage.
During the Festival there were fashion shows featuring Aspects of Kings Park Fashion Accessories at the Hats and High Tea Garden Party in the Botanic Garden and at the Discover your Individual Style Parade outside the Aspects Store on Fraser Avenue in Kings Park.
Workshops/Demonstrations
During the month there were a wide-ranging series of workshops and talks from garden specialists, crafts people and artists. Workshops held throughout the month of September included The Art of Propagation by Sabrina Hahn and BGPA staff, Botanical Wizardry with Dr Neville Marchant and Wildflowers for Shutterbugs with ‘Artomologist’ Jane Davenport. A number of guided wildflower and bird walks took in the delights of spring at Bold Park and Kings Park.
The Artists in Residence program at Aspects of Kings Park featured Kumi-e artist Mutsuko Bonnardeaux and wood craftsman Chris Fryters. The Water Corporation's Garden Shed talks with TV presenter Josh Byrne from Gardening Australia and numerous local gardening celebrities were well attended over the long weekend with many visitors enjoying the hands-on demonstrations.
The Breast Cancer Foundation of WA was very pleased with the attendance at both the Fashion and Flowers event held at Fraser's Restaurant and at the Purple Twilight Walk in Kings Park.
Thank you to everyone involved in making the 2007 Kings Park Festival a great success.