Entertainment
25 August, 2024
Indian festival left participants craving more
CAIRNS was left craving for one more taste of India after the roaring success of the first Cairns Indian Festival at Fogarty Park last weekend when over 6000 people gathered to celebrate Indian culture.
The organisers of the festival – Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO Cairns) – are still overwhelmed by the success of the inaugural Cairns Indian Festival last weekend (August 17) with people queuing before the event started, over 6000 people going through Fogarty Park, and food vendors selling out of their food.
“We had approximately 6000 to 7000 people on Saturday, which is way more than we anticipated. We were expecting 3000 to 4000 people,” said festival president Subash Chetry.
“The event was supposed to go until 9pm but the band was playing until 9.45pm and most food vendors ran out of food.
“We had lots of dignitaries attending like Cairns Mayor Amy Eden, candidate for LNP Bree James, David Crisafulli and Yolonde Entsch, councillor Cathy Zeiger and more.
“Westerners were dressed in Indian attire, everyone looked beautiful. There were people who came from Townsville and even Brisbane just to be at the event.
“Our sponsors were very happy and committed to extending their support for the festival to next year.
“The winner for the raffle tickets was a local man named Mark Peace, he was very emotional and said this was the first time he’d be going to India and was taking his partner.
“This was a great start to the festival, and we can see it becoming very big ...”
