A bigger and better Christmas eve festival is planned for next Monday night thanks to the increase in participation from the community and some changes made by the committee.
A highlight of the night will be a circus stunt show by Wackey Wombat, which will commence at 7pm. However, there will be lots to do before that and the committee urges families to head to Nicholson Street early to enjoy all the activities.
The festival starts at 6pm with lots of activities for children of all ages including the free jumping castle and bucking bull rides, a basketball shoot off run by Orbost Basketball Club and a dunking machine run by students from Orbost Primary school.
There will also be market stalls run by local businesses and organisations to keep the adults entertained.
Emergency services vehicles and equipment will be on display as usual. Vintage military cars will also be on show.
Santa will arrive at around 7.30pm. The committee will be issuing free numbered tickets to meet with Santa, which will be available from 6pm.
Once you have a ticket for your family you will not need to queue until your number is announced on the PA, which mean parents can enjoy all the activities instead of spending the night in a queue.
A number of buskers will entertain the crowds in the street during the night along with face painting and visits from Minnie Mouse, Paddy Platypus and the Snowy River Mail characters.
Judges for the best-decorated lights will be touring Orbost, Marlo and Newmerella this week for their difficult job of finding the winners in each section with winners to be finalised by the end of this week. See the map on page 21 for the location of many of the lights in the town and district. Organisers apologise if any houses have been missed, as they were not registered by the night the map was compiled.
There have been two weekly winners in the Chamber of Commerce lucky shopper competition to date and the major draw of $500, $200 and $100 will take place at the festival on Monday night.
To be in the draw all you need to do is to spend more than $20 at a participating business in town and fill out an entry form.
As usual the highlight of the night will be the fireworks, which will commence after dark at Forest Park.
Anyone with queries about the festival should contact one of the organising committee members from Rotary (Peter Van den Oever and Catrynes van der Vlugt) or Chamber of Commerce (Susan Hooper, Tracey Barnett, Garry Squires, Jane Crofts and Tric Christy).
