By Mitchell Clarke
The Upper Beaconsfield Village Festival was a huge success with over 4000 people turning out on Sunday 16 February to soak up the community spirit.
The day began with the hugely popular Tower Run, which saw 284 participants registered and 68 people who did the tough tower two laps.
The Upper Beaconsfield Tower Run, which began in 1997, involves participants completing a 6.5 kilometre course around the streets and tracks of Upper Beaconsfield.
The winner was Will Russell from the men’s 20-25 year age category, recording an impressive time of 27 minutes.
Gembrook MP Brad Battin vowed to donate $10 to the Upper Beaconsfield CFA for every person who beat fun run coordinator Tom Gibson.
“The Upper Beaconsfield Village Festival is a wonderful community event, the Tower Run is a challenging highlight for all involved,” Mr Battin said.
“It was great to put the challenge to Tom while supporting the Upper Beaconsfield CFA.”
Tom Gibson’s recorded time of 34 minutes 55 seconds saw 33 runners beat him.
“I always start and last and I did on Sunday, so Brad inspired many to run faster,” Mr Gibson said.
“Thank you to all the runners who participated and helped to make this a great run and congratulations to all the medal and trophy winners.”
Following the run, the community descended to the village festival, which was supported by favourable weather.
“After a few days of stormy weather and a muddy set up, the sun came out and it turned out to be a lovely day,” Upper Beaconsfield committee festival coordinator Nathalia Elsegood said.
“Local community groups and stalls had a very successful day, with most food vendors running out of food.”
A focus on being waste wise saw organisers work closely with the ‘Enviro Warriors’ from the Upper Beaconsfield Primary School, who sorted the rubbish in the bins and certainly made a difference to the amount of rubbish going to landfill.
Ms Elsegood thanked all volunteers and the entire Upper Beaconsfield committee.
“The ones that put in the hard yards for the entire year and the critical angels that come out the woodwork to help on the weekend – we couldn’t do it without them,” she added.
“It takes a whole year to organise this event from applying for grants to managing a whole range of different tasks and roles. It’s a huge effort.”
The Upper Beaconsfield committee will now begin working towards their Christmas in July fundraiser.
