By Mikayla van Loon
Throughout summer Lilydale’s Melba Park has become host to some marvellous movie screenings drawing crowds and bringing people together.
With sometimes hundreds of people attending, the community events have been well received by local residents over the three weekends they have been held by the Lilydale Township Action Group (LTAG).
“We’re really happy because we wanted to do things for Lilydale and the community. Part of the grant was to help the community recover from Covid and the storms of June ‘21,” LTAG secretary and event organiser Sharyn Manning said.
“The fact that it’s free so that nobody would be excluded because they couldn’t afford it, that was very important to us.”
Despite a few hiccoughs with the weather, Ms Manning said the attendance has really depended on the film being screened.
“The most popular one was ‘The War with Grandpa’ and that was just over 200 people and 200 is about our maximum,” she said.
“‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ didn’t have as many but it was freezing that night and a few people left because it was so cold. I reckon at that one we probably had around 80 and last weekend was just over 100 [for Minions].”
Coming up to the fourth screening, Ms Manning said LTAG gained access from Roadshow to the 2022 film ‘The Bad Guy’ for 21 January.
Although having wanted to run one more before the end of January, Ms Manning said with Australia Day and people potentially going away, getting volunteers has been a challenge.
“So I think we’ll do another two later in the year in the next summer months, from October or something.
“We were going to do one for the Australia Day long weekend but it’s very difficult to get volunteers to come and help get it ready. Everybody’s going away. So we’ll probably do another two later in the year and they’ll still be free.”
Grateful to have received such positive feedback from those who have attended both in person and on social media, Ms Manning said it has been encouraging to know people want this to continue.
“We had people posting thank yous because we’ve got a safe place for young teens to go and have something to do.
“Last week, a woman said to me there’s three generations of my family here. We’re all here. We were all here last week, too. So people are really enjoying it.”
LTAG is hopeful it will be able to secure another grant later this year and Ms Manning said the plan is to run Fun and Films at the Park each summer.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get some funds for the following year so that we can do more. We plan to continue to use it, it’s just whether that will be free or not.”
Having had a busy few months hanging Christmas decorations, helping plan the Lilydale Street Fair and host the film screenings, LTAG members and volunteers are looking forward to a break but Ms Manning said it has been wonderful seeing so many people come together in Lilydale.
“It has stretched us a bit because we’re not used to doing something week after week but it has been well worth it.”
While not using the projector and screen, LTAG is willing to allow other local not-for-profit groups or clubs to borrow the equipment for a small fee to host events within their community.
LTAG can be contacted via email at ltag3140@gmail.com
