This Sunday, 13 April, gives residents the chance to celebrate the upgrading of the Neill St CBD.

A lot of hard work has gone in to organising the food and wine festival which will run from 11am until 3pm.

This event is about more than just the main street. It will provide residents a great chance for everyone to feel good about themselves, something that many of us are not used to doing on a regular basis.

Boorowa has the Irish Woolfest, Young the Cherry Festival and Cootamundra Wattle Time. Each of these events attracts thousands of people to the townships over the respective weekends.

This weekend gives us the opportunity to start something and build on it. There were plenty of people in Boorowa who thought celebrating sheep running down their main street was laughable; however it has been able to put the township on the map at a regional state and national level. There would have been many people in Young who thought that celebrating a small red stone fruit wouldnt get any visitors either. In Cootamundra they celebrate the Wattle tree which is regarded by many in other parts of the state as a weed; however, each of these events have become successes.

Being in close proximity to Canberra means that we have an enormous population just over an hour to our east. For the festival to be a success we must first believe in it ourselves. Then the rest of the region will come too.

There will be musical acts as well as food and wine from around the region. This year’s festival will have a Spanish theme and will be a chance to show the region how proud we are of Harden- Murrumburrah and its surrounding areas.

This Sunday, get to Neill Street and celebrate.