Last Thursday saw dancers, magic and activities from all over the world spill onto the streets of Harden for a multi-cultural festival that surpassed expectations. Neill Street was packed to the brim with either something to do or something to see, with people watching the street performers brighten the town for the night.

The Harden locals were treated to a number of performances during the party including a flamboyant dance performance by the Filipino Dancers, relaxing acoustic guitar set by Hovert Gonzales and a screening of In the Heights.

A spokesperson for the Hilltops Council thought the atmosphere was incredible,

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do these kinds of things. It’s very exciting to be able to host events again. The street party was a success, absolutely. The local community and the business community supported the event greatly. It was a very well supported event.”

The event saw a massive turnout from locals and people coming from surrounding areas including Riverina MP Michael McCormack who came to participate in the day’s events.

Our journalist Tim Warren even took part in the events, challenging Hard Rock Gym’s Glenn Stewart in a cycling competition, which Tim won after a fierce battle.

The multicultural street parties are not exclusive to Harden as another one was held in Young and Boorowa, those were also met with success. Plenty of local shops took part in the celebration by offering special promotions on the day. Hard Rock Gym held a special surprise performance by the dance class alongside its cycle competition.

The ice cream truck was very popular, gathering up a line that occasionally took up a large portion of the street.

“The State Government gave us some funding through the Festival of Place Summer Night Fund. This event was held in Young last year and in Boorowa the week before. We also joined funds this year to create the multicultural and youth feel given that it was multicultural funding as well. There were some Youth Fund Youth Week activities during that period, so we thought we’d join it all together and create one big event using that funding that we received from the three different spaces.”

“We’ll be doing a debrief and hope that we might be able to have some funding to provide these kinds of events in the future.”

The Festival of Places Summer Night Fund is a grant given out by the NSW State Government of $15,000 in order to support free events and programs for the council that receives the funding.

The purpose of the Summer Night Fund program are to,

“Support community wellbeing by giving people opportunities to safely return to public spaces, activate the evening and night time economy in public spaces in and around high streets across the state, support job creation for creative and hospitality sectors, and enable longer-term activation of public spaces through minor amenity upgrades and regulatory changes.”

Overall there was a big turnout in the hundreds, all coming down to see the best Harden had to offer for the day.