Carnivale tributes paid
Carnivale tributes paid
Friday May 2 2014, 7:43am
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the modern Port Douglas Carnivale a gala dinner was hosted at the RASA Restaurant within the grounds of the prestigious Niramaya Villas and Spa.
Legendary ex Marina Mirage and Mirage Country Club general manager, Kerrie Jamieson enthralled the assembled local VIP audience with tales from the early formative years of Carnivale.
She explained how the modern Carnivale was created and in typical style she cleared up any confusion about who was or more importantly who wasn’t under the Street Party beer tent in the morning after heavy rain during the night had caused it collapse in the Carnivale’s inaugural year.
She reminded everyone about many more amusing tales and the often spontaneous crazy stunts organised in a less controlled and carefree era. Current Carnivale general manager, Roy Weavers said how proud he was to continue the determined goals of his predecessors to ensure the Douglas Shire is showcased t the world through this amazing festive formula.
He then paid tribute to those of the first committee who were in the audience by way of a framed, ‘personal tribute,’ signed by Mayor Julia Leu and Phoebe Kitto, President of the Douglas Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the community.
These tributes were paid to Kerrie Jamieson, ex Events NQ owners Donna and Peter Anderson, Adrian and Andrea Falstein, Janette Walker from Jungle Road, Michael Gabour from Radio Port Douglas and Doug Ryan, executive officer of TPDD.
Quite rightly the assembled audience broke into a spontaneous three cheers for these innovative ‘Founding Fathers (and Mothers).’
Mr Weavers, then made a special mention for a more recent champion of the Carnivale.
He singled out Mr Ken Dobbs, ex President of the Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce, who he said was almost almost a saviour of the modern Carnivale with the help of then Secretary Paula Johnson and Vice President Sam Cullen, when back in 2007 they took over the reins after Event Cairns, who had been commissioned to run Carnivale 2008, went unexpectedly bust at Christmas just four and half months out from the Carnivale in May 2008.
Without his determined effort and enthusiasm, the Carnivale, as we know it, would have undoubtedly disappeared from memory.
Unfortunately Ken could not attend the gala evening but Mr Weavers will be catching up with him when he gets back from his travels during Carnivale 2014 to make sure he too receives a framed ‘Personal Tribute’ as a sign of appreciation and recognition for his hard work from the Douglas Shire Community.
Roy Weavers summarised, "Ken was almost the saviour of the Carnivale back in 2008 and it is only right that his efforts be recognised".
Mr Weavers said, "The Carnivale attracts a lot of visitors and showcases the area to both the rest of Australia and the world. Ken understood that and made sure it continued to keep on helping the region and that was wuite some effort at the time.
"From this year we’ll be using the Carnivale period to test and drive an ever expanding events strategy to produce an annual events calendar to provide visitors with even more reasons to visit our wonderful and unique part of Australia."
Full Carnivale 2014 Calendar of events available at www.carnivale.com.au.
