Page 1159 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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The iconic balloon spectacular lit up the skies in the heart of the city and great weather produced massive weekend crowds.
Sunday was a day of racing, with the Kamberra Wine Company Black Opal Stakes and ACTTAB Canberra Centenary Cup at Thoroughbred Park. The biggest crowd in years, more than 11,000, flocked to the track.
There was a huge display to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ACT Veteran and Vintage Car Club.
The Senate rose gardens were bursting at the seams when the National Film and Sound Archive presented the premiere screening of the newly restored footage of the naming of the foundation stone ceremonies from 12 March 1913.
It was all so popular that, regrettably, some people were turned away.
On the Canberra Day public holiday, Monday, 11 March, the most significant event of the weekend was held for the whole community—and visitors, of course—by the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. The event certainly lived up to its title, “one very big day”. And what a day it was—in brilliant Canberra autumn sunshine.
Multiple stages were positioned all around the lake, providing a mix of great music, from folk, jazz and contemporary pop and rock performances through to the best local and Indigenous performers. Local acts performed throughout the day and were joined by some of the great national performers, many with a strong connection to Canberra. I remember attending the event at Regatta Point in the late evening and seeing some of our older Canberra bands there, including the Falling Joys. It was fantastic to have those memories back in the ACT.
Some of the performers were on boats circling the lake to entertain the crowds on the lake edge, a new form of roving entertainment. Entertainer Paul McDermott studied in Canberra and got his start here. He was emcee at the centenary, and brought back popular musicians with a strong Canberra connection—as I said, like the Falling Joys, The Church and the Gadflys.
On the lake edge, at the bottom of Anzac Parade, 20 local multicultural groups decorated the word “home” to reflect their own culture and their own language, a reflection on the importance of diversity in our community, not just now but for 100 years.
For kids, there were human-size ants, eccentric hairdressing, storytelling, interactive sports, kite making and kite flying, and a home-grown kids orchestra.
That evening the crowds heard and saw, either on stage or on screens around the event site, the world premier of the magnificent Andrew Schultz centenary symphony, commissioned especially for the occasion. The huge crowd was then treated to a tremendous and unique display of fireworks, which fired along the original Burley
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