Kings Park Festival 2010 - People and Plants
With over 100 spectacular events and activities attracting gardening enthusiasts, budding artists, music lovers, families, and school students in their droves to Kings Park and Botanic Garden, the 2010 Kings Park Festival was a major success.
Must See Exhibits
Over 500,000 visitors witnessed a magnificent visual feast of native wildflowers in bloom throughout Kings Park and Botanic Garden. ‘People and Plants’ was the theme for this year’s Festival in celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity, which highlighted the connection between the people and the Western Australian environment.
Kings Park hosted Wildflower Country, an outdoor macro photographic exhibition which featured works by photographers Stan and Kaisa Breeden. Visitors experienced the larger than life, intricate detail of Western Australia’s wildflowers in an amazing series of spectacular close-up photographs.
The Kings Park at Heart exhibition showcased many stories and memories from people who have had a close association with the Park. This outdoor exhibit shared stories gathered to date and visitors were invited to share their recollections.
Santos Live Sundays
Australian energy company Santos joined the Kings Park Festival as its major partner in 2010 and their partnership has been instrumental in enabling the Festival host a range of free entertainment. Each Sunday in September Kings Park Festival’s main stage featured different musical acts, appeasing different styles and contributing to a bouyant festival atmosphere.
Santos also sponsored the latest edition of the Wildflower Wonderland Theatre Show: “Adorable Florables”, starring our very own Wandering Wildflowers competing for the title of the ‘Most Adorable Florable.’ The theatre show was intertwined with an important biodiversity conservation message that is integral to Kings Park’s vision and mission.
Thousands of fairies, elves, pirates and pixies attended the Wild Fairyland Festival for 2010. Families were entertained by magic shows, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, wishes granted by the Fairy Queen and the magical mushroom garden. Fabulous fairy face painters, bush crafts, pony rides and the fun filled fairy dance party with the Queen Fairy all added to the day's festivities. Thanks to the Santos for supporting this event.
Wildflower Market Place
The Wildflower Market Place showcased a range of market stalls, including a delightful selection of jewellery, fresh native flowers, bush foods and native seeds. Moving to a new location this year, the always popular Friends of Kings Park Native Plant Sale was a great success, raising funds for conservation and research projects in Kings Park and Botanic Garden.
Visitors to Kings Park had the chance to enjoy and celebrate our Indigenous culture with interactive didgeridoo and traditional Indigenous dance performances and other activities. Thanks to the Friends of Kings Park and Lotterywest for their support of these activities.
Thousands of native Australian wildflowers were intricately woven to construct nine bold sculptural floral art forms for the Rotunda Florabunda Exhibition. Leading floral designers and horticulturists the World Flower Council and Challenger Tafe converged to create spectacular art forms reflecting the incredible diversity of our nation’s flora. Glass artist Anne Sorensen was the featured in-house artist at Aspects of Kings Park. Visitors had the chance to meet Anne throughout September to discuss her artistic influences and the process of her amazing glass sculptures.
Workshops and Education
The Connect with Kings Park program saw a diverse series of 30 workshops and talks from garden specialists, scientists, crafts people and artists were on offer presented by the Water Corporation. The different workshops and seminars gave over 500 participants the opportunity to tap into their creative side and re-connect with nature.
The annual schools festival event ‘Quiz on Legs’, held in the Botanic Garden, was attended by a record 1500 primary school students and their teachers. Students were treated to an incredible line up of diverse environmental educational activities in celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity. Activities ranged from the interactive ‘Professor Biodiversity's Mad Cap Race Against Time’ theatre show presented by the Water Corporation, Aboriginal dance and storytelling, close encounters with native animals and many other entertaining and informative presentations.
The Festival Schools Poster Exhibition also received a huge response this year, with students producing amazing art works highlighting the plight of Western Australia's threatened species. 50 of these posters were selected for display throughout the Botanic Garden. The Festival Art Week offered felt making workshops for students by renowned local textile artist, Louise Snook.
A special thank you to the 2010 Kings Park Festival sponsors including Santos, Lotterywest through the Friends of Kings Park, Water Corporation, ABC 720 Perth and Mix 94.5FM and the very dedicated Kings Park volunteer groups including the Kings Park Guides, Friends of Kings Park and Volunteer Master Gardeners who provided hundreds of hours of their time to make the Festival a huge success. The combined support of these organisations and groups has enabled the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority to deliver another tremendous Kings Park Festival to the community.
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