For the past 36 years, the Rotary Club of North Perth, WA, has run its Hyde Park Festival in iconic Hyde Park on the outskirts of Perth’s CBD. Held annually on the Sunday and Monday of the Labour Day long weekend, the family friendly event offers many attractions across the 15-hectare park, with activities and entertainment to attract all age groups.
More than 60,000 people attend the festival over the two days. Patrons enjoy non-stop entertainment on the festival stage, with bands, singers, acrobatics, dancing, a talent quest, fashion parade and even a best dog competition. With more than 200 sites, the event takes up the entire park, with food trucks, community sites, amusement sites, pony rides, side show alley, vendors selling homemade craft plus other sites that sell jewellery, clothing and various displays.
This year, however, the club added a new initiative to the festival lineup. Rotary clubs in the district were offered the opportunity to join the festival to promote what Rotary does in the district and worldwide. An area of the park was set aside for the clubs to come together and promote Rotary’s projects. Titled and signposted as ‘Discover Rotary’, eight projects were promoted including:
- Rotary WA – Promoting what Rotary is all about and what it does
- Rotary WA Youth Projects – Promoting National Youth Science Forum, Rotary Youth Leadership Award, Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment, Youth Exchange, Camp Opportunity, etc.
- Wheelchairs for Kids
- Australian Rotary Health
- ShelterBox
- Rotary Australia World Community Service
- Rotary WA Homeless Projects
- Path of Hope – A Rotary Perth project assisting women coming out of family domestic violence situations
From all reports, the Discover Rotary initiative was a great success and will run again at next year’s festival.
MAIN PICTURE: The Rotary Club of North Perth added a new initiative to this year’s Hyde Park Festival – Discover Rotary, which promoted eight Rotary projects to the more than 60,000 people who attended the two-day festival.
