Community and Culture - Reports
Ordinary Meeting - 26 September 2012
The KCC is a free event for children birth to 8 years and their families, providing a range of quality entertainment and activities in addition to the Characters. The Carnival is conducted in partnership with local businesses, early year’s service providers, volunteers, children and their families, though council officers spend many months organising the event and on the day. It is the only community event in Bendigo that specifically targets children from birth to 8 years of age. Initially the event was held in the Civic Gardens. Driven by the Carnival’s success and growth in attendance the KCC was moved to Rosalind Park in 2009. Although tickets are not sold for the event it is estimated the KCC now attracts in excess of 10,000 participants. Report The KCC is essentially a combination of entertainment, activities and early years service provider exhibitions. The Carnival aims to promote community connectedness, engagement and education. Additionally it aims to elevate the importance of play by providing creative play activities rather more traditional carnival pursuits such as rides. The philosophy guiding the KCC is a commitment to creating a long term investment into a more caring community that actively commits to children, social inclusion, healthy lifestyles and community capacity building. One of the key aims of the KCC is to help create a link between vulnerable families and service providers. The inclusion of free entertainment allows families with young children the opportunity to interact and socialise in a community event atmosphere as well as educating families about leading healthy, active lives and to encourage play rather than non physical pursuits. The focus on healthy food and spending quality family time in one of Bendigo’s beautiful outdoor spaces also promotes healthy lifestyles and communities. In 2011, officers endeavoured to survey those in attendance at the Carnival. However, this proved difficult given the competing exciting activities on offer and the need for those parents to supervise their young children. 97 participants including children were surveyed with an overwhelmingly positive response. Ideally, the majority wanted to see the continuance of a high calibre event. Those who worked or volunteered, said the priority was for an event which meets community expectations and ensures health and safety of all staff, volunteers and participants. However, with the increasing size and associated costs of the KCC there has been equivalent increase in reliance on volunteers and time contributed by staff and early childhood officers. Whilst skilled at early childhood program content these staff are not best positioned to organise and deliver on such a large scale event, nor is it the most appropriate use of resources. The KCC has been dependent on fundraising and sponsorship outside of the City of Greater Bendigo budget allocation. Expenditure to conduct the 2011 event totalled $48,582. The City of Greater Bendigo’s contribution was $12,500. In addition officer time of in excess of 26 weeks was taken to organise and conduct the event.
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