New ‘Look’ For Tropical North Queensland’s Key Celebration

This year Festival Cairns begins a new chapter in its 47 year history. For the first time in many years it will be managed and directed by its founding organisation, Cairns Regional Council; who have unveiled details of its vision to deliver a reinvigorated, brighter and bolder event program.

Taking its cue from this year’s theme, “Telling Our Stories”, Festival Cairns’ will start with a bang and end on a high – rolling out over 16, action-packed days from Friday 21 August to Sunday 6 September 2009.
Festival Cairns top five highlights will be its Grand Parade and Tropic Wave Festival with special guest headliner, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (one of the largest regional indigenous art fairs in Australia), Cairns Amateurs Racing Carnival, Reggaetown and Father’s Day favourite, Carnival on Collins.

A stylised sun inspired by the licuala palm of Cairns Regional Council’s logo is the basis for this year’s ‘look’. A bright palette of colour gives life and movement to this graphic device while relating to the sensory feel of Festival Cairns.

“Our new identity has been chosen to be a fun and fresh representation, symbolising the revitalisation of Festival Cairns and the vibrant new programming our in-house ‘Festival’ team is creating. While at the same time, being respectful to the city’s event tradition - dating right back to the original grand parade and Fun In the Sun,” said Councillor Schier, Mayor of Cairns Regional Council.

According to Festival Cairns Coordinator, Belinda Griffin this year’s ‘look’ and ‘theme’, have evolved from community engagement undertaken last year as part of Cairns’ new Regional Cultural Plan. “Over 1000 members of the community gave us a good dose of local perspective on their thoughts about many issues, including Festival Cairns – and this reinvention is our response to that feedback,” said Mrs Griffin.

The opening of a new Green Island jetty on 26 May, 1962 was established as the first annual Cairns Tourist Festival, and renamed ‘Fun In The Sun’ the following year. Since then Tropical North Queensland’s most significant annual celebration, now in its 47th year, has experienced a number of changes including its re-launch in the early nineties as ‘Reef Festival’ before its dynamic incarnation in 2002 as ‘Festival Cairns’.

www.cairns.qld.gov.au