By Mikayla van Loon
The finishing touches have been placed on Lilydale’s first major Street Fair, bringing together nearly two years worth of ideas and organisation thanks to some committed locals.
Event organisers Bec Rosel and Sharyn Manning are looking forward to seeing the community out and about at the Fair on Saturday 3 December after all the hard work that has gone into the preparations.
“We’re all so passionate about Lilydale, about our organisations and about the township,” Bec said.
“I’m very excited for the day to come…and to see all the smiles on people’s faces. It’s going to be an exhausting but exhilarating day and I’m just looking forward to seeing it all finally happen and to have completed it and be like ‘we did it’.”
Bringing together schools, scouts, 65 market stalls, roaming entertainment, local sporting clubs and more to the Main Street of Lilydale, it will be packed with things to buy, do and see.
So far the response to the Fair has been overwhelmingly positive, with Bec saying there could have been many more stalls but with limited resources and space, there had to be a cap of 65.
“Space was our biggest challenge but we do hope to grow it…we’ve literally run out of space, we could have had 100 stalls. We had so many people apply but we just can’t squeeze them in,” she said.
With support of volunteers and members from the Lilydale Township Action Group (LTAG), as well as a number of people and entertainers giving their time to the Fair, Bec said she was extremely grateful to have had the support of the town.
“When you first think of an idea, you don’t know if it’s going to take off or not and how people are going to take it on board and run with it and thankfully they have.”
As much as the Fair is about bringing people together and supporting the township of Lilydale, Sharyn said it’s also about teaching people what the town has to offer.
“We’re trying to bring people to Lilydale, to learn about Lilydale, attract them to Lilydale, teach them, if they don’t live here even, about the history of Lilydale,” she said.
“It’s people coming and going, ‘Oh, wow I didn’t even know this was in Lilydale. I didn’t know Lilydale had this club or this organisation’,” Bec added.
“Maybe they’re learning about the people and the businesses and the groups and organisations in Lilydale that they can connect with once they’ve learned about them and maybe be a bit of an aha moment that actually Lilydale is a lot bigger and more diverse than they initially thought.”
Creating a sense of pride of place is what Bec and LTAG president Neal Taylor said was an underlying concept of the Fair, to really help change the perception of Lilydale from ‘the end of the line’ to the ‘gateway to the Yarra Valley’.
“We know the benefit that fairs or festivals have from the other attempts there have been in running a street fair, they were very small, whereas I think this one’s a little bit more organised and a little bit bigger and more encompassing,” he said.
“The idea is that we want to get the community to recognise what’s here and to be passionate about Lilydale and to learn to love Lilydale.”
Neal said Bec’s passion was infectious and has been the driving force behind the Lilydale Street Fair and that vibrancy is something Bec wants to pass onto the community.
“We want it to be a really vibrant feel. We want people to come to the Fair and feel energised and feel motivated and feel proud of Lilydale,” Bec Said.
“We lack a sense of pride here from business owners, from residents, and unless we get that sense of pride, that sense of place and belonging from the people in the area I don’t think we can grow Lilydale the way that we see it could.”
The Lilydale Street Fair will kick off at 11am, starting with the parade through Main Street and Clarke Street. There will be live entertainment all day until 5pm.
