The 2018 Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival
March 9th — 11th, 2018
After much discussion at the November 8th Open Public Meeting, and with a number of people coming forward and volunteering to assist with various tasks, the meeting voted to go ahead with the 2018 Rhythm n Rail Festival, which is the Festival’s Tenth Anniversary.
The Festival Committee confirmed that the Bush Dance will open the 2018 Festival on the Friday evening, but are relocating back to the Athenium Theatre. The Street Parade, which was held for the first time in 2017 and proved to be a popular highlight with many of the Junee Community getting involved, will be marching again on the Saturday morning. After the Parade, and continuing all the way into the early evening, will see Market Stalls, along with musical entertainment, in Memorial Park. Sunday morning will commence with the Community Church Service, once again be held in Memorial Park.
Sub-Committees responsible for organising the Markets Stalls, the Street Parade and Festival Sponsorship, were formed on the night with a mixture of both “new” and “existing” members becoming involved. At least one of these sub-committees have already met and started working on bringing some exciting attractions to the 2018 Festival.
A number of event organisers from the previous Festival were present to re-confirm that their events would be returning for the 2018 Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival. The team responsible for the ever popular Poets Breakfast, which is held annually at the Broadway Museum, are eagerly looking forward to hosting it again in 2018. There will once again be a variety of musical performances occurring in the Athenium Theatre. Pete’s Hobby Railway have indicated that they plan to have their locomotives operation and on display again and have hinted that they may even have a new project completed and ready to display at the 2018 Festival.
Representatives from a couple of local community organisations attended the meeting to obtain an understanding on how their organisations might be able to assist the Festival. Now that they have an overview of what tasks we require support with, they are reporting back to their own organisations to discuss how they might best provide some assistance. The Festival Committee looks forward to further developing mutually beneficial relationships with these groups and would welcome any other sporting clubs or community groups interested in becoming involved with the Festival to get in touch.
Junee Shire Mayor, Cr Neil Smith said, later in the week, that the Festival is “…a big event that draws people from outside. It’s an opportunity for Junee to showcase itself to the region, in that sense Rhythm n Rail is really unparalleled,” and it “doesn’t benefit one organisation, it’s bipartisan right across the whole community, the whole business sector benefited. I see it as quite different, quite special!” and he encourages the Junee Community to get behind supporting the event.
March 9-11 2018 will be the Festival’s Tenth Anniversary and we look forward to welcoming the wider Junee community, along with visitors from all over Australia (and beyond) to the 2018 Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival.
Volunteers still needed
As with the planning and organisation of any event, the more volunteers who come forward to assist with the numerous tasks, the easier it is on everyone involved. So while the Committee are thrilled that a number of people have come forward and taken on various essential roles, there is always a number of smaller tasks that would benefit from having handful of volunteers available to undertake.
Many of the tasks only require the commitment of one or two hours per week, often working from the comfort of your own home.
To find out which areas could still benefit from a couple more volunteers, please visit our Volunteer Page.
About Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival
For more information about the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival please visit our website www.RhythmNRail.com
The Second Weekend in March each year sees the township of Junee, NSW transform into a hive of activity with thousands of visitors and local residents joining the celebrations of Junee’s unique rail heritage and to dance to the rhythm of the tracks. In 2014 the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival was the winner of the NSW Inland Tourism “Community Festivals and Events” Award.
The Junee Rhythm and Rail Festival is a community-organised major event. March 9-11 2018 will be the Festival’s Tenth Anniversary.