Is It Fake News on The Winter Festival?

The August edition of the Glenferrie Ward newsletter featured an article boasting that “The Glenferrie Winter Festival held in July was a resounding success” and included “...20 street projections...fire twirlers, musicians and entertainers”. From multiple trader’s accounts, the Glenferrie Winter Festival did not happen as the Glenferrie Ward article described. Confused about the festival, the Glenferrie Times contacted Cr Hurd, confirming that the festival did take place and that he was advised that there were 147 separate events and 18 workshops and the only event that did not go ahead were the projections. He explained that the article was approved by festival organiser Glenferrie Traders Association.

The July edition of The Glenferrie Times reported that the Glenferrie Winter Festival website was no longer available and general event information had been removed from the Glenferrie Hawthorn Website. When the festival website was briefly available in May, many events listed as part of the festival were regular events in the area such as: Jazz Nights and Feature Films at Lido, Guerilla Comedy at The Resistance, Whisky Masterclasses at The Kilburn, No Lights No Lycra at Hawthorn Arts Centre, Camberwell Rotary Art Show at Swinburne University.

Can a festival organiser simply pull pre-existing events together, provide seemingly no marketing and advertising for the festival, offer no obvious specific attraction organised by themselves and make the claim there is a festival? The festival organiser, Glenferrie Traders Association, is funded by Boroondara Council through a special rate charged on commercial properties. When The Glenferrie Times have approached the association for more information and clarification about various events and some of their work, they simply don’t respond to the queries. This is a similar experience for other traders whom they are supposed to represent.

With the wooden crate planter boxes in Glenferrie Hawthorn looking drab and unkempt, no Autumn 2017 Tag Mag released, the flop of the Glenferrie Winter Festival, what have the Glenferrie Traders Association been up to since the Glenferrie Festival one day event in March? What are the special rate funds going toward that all traders are supposed to receive benefit from? If just an updated website and some social media stunts is all, we sure hope to see more effort put into the area.

The Glenferrie Traders Association is currently conducting an online customer service survey to 'improve their marketing initiatives, events and overall communication'. Perhaps they can make improvements by communicating clearly and developing relationships with the traders whom they represent, following through on their commitments not to misrepresent their work to Boroondara Council and the public.