THE region was in full bloom last weekend as the Renmark Riverland Rose Festival celebrations began.
The annual event, which was modified this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, held it’s opening fair, Rosie lunch, institute display and open gardens on the weekend with numbers and support exceeding the committee’s expectations, according to secretary John Chappel.
“The whole weekend was a success and everyone seemed happy and enthusiastic about the festival,” Mr Chappel said.
“The fair was a huge success, with a total of 1772 people coming and going at different times – our peak was 550 at once.
“We had COVID marshals, people counting those coming in and out, we had a sign in sheet and everyone had to sanitise.
“There were about 40 stall holders and we’ve had great feedback from them all.
“The dog agility display was a hit and is definitely something we will do again.”
Mr Chappel said the Rosie lunch was a sell-out event.
“Not only was the lunch a sell-out, people stuck around for a while after the lunch had finished,” he said.
“The music was fantastic and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.”
Mr Chappel described the institute display as “amazing”.
“Lorna Taylor, Jill Knight and the committee did a magnificent job,” he said.
“They had a few setbacks at first and had to basically start from scratch, but their enthusiasm was fantastic and they managed to bring it all together.
“It looked beautiful.”
Mr Chappel said the committee received positive feedback from the open gardens.
“The open garden feature has been extremely popular,” he said.
“A couple from Lyrup, who usually don’t get many visitors because they’re out of the way, said they were overwhelmed with all the visitors they had and were truly grateful.”
Mr Chappel said social media has helped spread awareness about the event.
“We’ve been quite active on Facebook and we’ve gotten lots of messages from people and we’ve been able to share lots,” he said.
“Other people and groups have also shared what we’ve posted and it’s been fantastic.”