Bella Charles, Steph Cooke MP, Mayor Brian Ingram, Michael McCormack MP and Deputy Mayor Tony Flanery.

 

The 19th annual Harden Kite Festival saw the crowd up by 1000 people on Saturday in what turned out to be excellent kite flying conditions.

The morning started off rather still before a brisk breeze picked up mid morning and delivered enough for even the largest of kites to get up nice and high in the sky.

The Festival was officially opened by Mayor Ingram, deputy Flanery and local members Steph Cooke and Michael McCormack with the latter soon to be enduring a much wider electorate all the way from Lockhart to the ACT border in the boundary redistribution.

The Times caught up with Kat O’Connor the Chief organiser whose enthusiasm and willingness to get the job done really shone through on the festival in 2025. “The start of the day was really busy for me, but the market stall holders all knew where they were going and they all had a great day. “There was a lot of last minute set up things to do that you can’t do some of them until the Saturday morning, but it was all done and all went off smoothly. “As far as I am aware there were no issues, which is what we like to hear.

“All the community groups that came out on the day were fantastic. The whole community was behind the Kite Festival. It was just awesome. The final count for the day with the gate being staffed by the local rotary club was 4,000 people, up 1000 from last year.

“The whole highlight of the day for me was seeing everybody, from one year old to 98 years old looking up in the sky and that sense of wonder on their faces when they were looking at the big kites and smiling at all the kids having an awesome fun day running around chasing bubbles. Our bubble fairy was amazing. Just seeing the enjoyment on everybody’s faces and it all came together perfectly.

Kat gave a massive shout out to the Council outdoor staff who got in and prepared the racecourse immaculately. “A massive shout out to the Council guys from the Harden depot, the grounds guys, because they were total machines on the Wednesday and Thursday. They were just astounding, absolutely amazing. “They were all there on the Saturday, they helped with all the heavy lifting stuff on Saturday afternoon after it was all done. They made my job so much easier.

“This year for the set up it was mainly the Council guys, myself, my kids and David Munnerley. On the day the community groups chipped in to make the event what it has now become, a regional event drawing people from well over 100 kilometres away.

“All the community groups on the day, Rotary were on the gate and did a fantastic job, the SES were there, the Fire guys were there, school P&C’s, a shout out to Renee from the Public School P&C, she was out helping us set up before the event.

“I am already starting to think about next year now, although I did spend the whole day on Sunday on my couch relaxing. “There’s just a smidge more tidying up to do for the Picnic Races.

“I don’t think I ever stop thinking about ways we can improve it. “We do have a feedback survey, and I think there was a QR code on the program that was handed out. We wait for that feedback to come back and in a couple of weeks we will have that. “Last year there was quite a bit of feedback about not having shade in front of the rides and things, which is fair enough because it was a very sunny day like it was this year, so this year we got the big gazebos, one lent to us by Goldenfields Water and another one and we put them up so that people would have somewhere shady to sit while they are watching their kids on the rides.

“The Little Riverina Band was amazing and the Kapooka Band is always a highlight for me personally and the Lion Dancers were great too. “Miss Georgie Loiterton was fantastic as MC. She knocked it out of the park and we are so grateful that she MC’d for us this year and hopefully she will agree to it next year as well. “It was a lot of fun.

Kat mentioned some of the towns where people travelled from. “I spoke to people from Cowra, Canberra, Yass and a couple from Goulburn.

“We had some guys from the Eurobodalla Car Club bring some cars to have on display and it was great.

“Our next meeting is in March 2025, so we just jot down notes on how we can improve or if anything needs to be changed until that time. That’s a wrap on another fantastic event