Perth Voice Interactive

THE Angove Street Festival has been cancelled for this year.

Organiser North Perth Local says it will return next year, with smaller pop-up events like car boot sales and park concerts filling the void. The decision’s similar to Beaufort Street Festival being dropped as a big one-day event and the street playing host to smaller get-togethers  through the year.

The Angove Street festival’s run for six years and North Perth local chair Ida Smithwick says it’s time to try something different: “The festival is run by a small group of passionate and dedicated local business and resident volunteers and because of this, the vast scale means that we need a well-earned break, but we will continue to deliver a number of smaller, community based events throughout the year.”

She says such a big event requires a whole year of planning, corporate sponsorship and community support: “we spend most of our time trying to raise money, relying on grants from Lotterywest and the City of Vincent instead of focusing on building a stronger community.”

Mayor John Carey backs the move to smaller events, having known how much “blood, sweat and tears goes into organising an event of its size” after getting the Beaufort Street Festival established.

The first of Angove Street’s smaller events is a community car boot sale on Sunday May 22, 7am to 10.30am at the North Perth plaza carpark. Locals are asked to fill their cars with unwanted treasures and take it down. Check http://www.northperthlocal.org for more details on that.

by DAVID BELL