Dancing in the streets, from left, Emma Dalton, 9, Lani Glennen, 9, Meghan Dwight, 10, Jessica Cady-Ellis, 9, and Tess Medew-Ewen, 8, warm up yesterday outside the Port Fairy lecture hall. They are members of the O'Shea-Ryan Academy of Irish Dance.
RAINY, cold and windy weather failed to stop people from attending Port Fairy's Rhapsody in June during the weekend, with one organiser claiming it had the potential to become as popular as the town's folk festival. Talented Port Fairy dancers, entertainers, artists and musicians took to the town's pubs, halls and galleries to entertain locals and winter visitors. The festival committee chairman Natalie Trengove said she was pleased with the attendance and diversity of performers at the Rhapsody, which she hoped would become as successful as the folk festival. "The folk festival has gone ahead in leaps and bounds and we hope to follow," she said. "People are starting to associate the long weekend with the Rhapsody in June. It's getting bigger and better every year." Musicians and performers, including young dancers from the O'Shae-Ryan Academy of Irish Dance, yesterday entertained more than 200 people at the town's lecture hall. Praising the community spirit in the town, Ms Trengove said a mixture of spiritual, traditional and popular songs kept audiences entertained and involved in the festivities. But Ms Trengove said the festival was about more than just music, with a 60km bike ride, fishing clinic, golf competition, indoor bowls, art exhibitions and historical walks through the town also forming part of the activities. She said the Rhapsody in June festival, which "ran on a shoe-string budget", aimed to cater for families and people with different tastes and interests. "We want to add as much diversification as we can so everyone has an event they are interested in." Ms Trengove said the number of visitors to the town for the long weekend was difficult to pinpoint but believed the Rhapsody would continue to get bigger and better and become a major tourist attraction for the town in winter. "People really love coming to Port Fairy. Give them any excuse and they'll be here," she said.
. . . (Report: MARY PAPADAKIS. Picture: GLEN WATSON)
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