One of the first recorded annual festivals was the Blacktown Easter Festival taking place on 11th April 1879. It was a combined churches festival held at Prospect Church Grounds starting with a church service followed by 400 people gathering in the parsonage grounds for the festivities.
By the 1920s the festival became the Harvest Festival held annually in March at the Presbyterian Church in Campbell Street Blacktown. By 1936 the location moved to the Blacktown Methodist Church.
In 1975, an organising committee was formed to have The Festival of the Crafty Bunyip. The original committee consisted of Patricia (Pat) Parker, Sybil House, Del Hickie, Ross Macindoe, Arthur Pike, OAM, and Joy Kane.
The Crafty Bunyip Festival was held in December 1976 which was a weekend affair. Activities include a church service to commence proceedings; arts and craft exhibitions; and a fun run.
Pat Parker was the first appointed Council arts officer, and Blacktown Municipal Council was the first council in Australia to appoint a person to such a position.
Pat was instrumental in developing the idea of a city-wide festival concept embracing the community to participate in various event from arts and crafts to concerts and sporting events.
Pat was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for her vision and work with community development.
By 1979 excitement over the Blacktown Festival was growing with the event being held in the Village Green and now with a street parade, variety concert in the showgrounds on Saturday night with fireworks; and on Sunday having combined church services and an evening rock concert.
Blacktown was a declared a City in 1979 and the transition was beginning from the Festival of the Crafty Bunyip to the Blacktown City Festival.
The sports component of the festival was expanding to include the Blacktown City Fun Run; dry land regatta races; and tug-of-war competitions. The dry-land regatta had residents creating boats without bottoms that would be picked up and raced across the showgrounds.
Controversy was never too far away with the festivals.
1980 festival had a few controversies with a professional free-faller jumped from the top of the top of the Blacktown Council Civic Centre into stacked assembled cardboard boxes.
Unfortunately, the cardboard boxes where too far from the building and only half his body landed on the boxes which resulted in the man unfortunately becoming paralysed.
The Communist Party of Australia stall at the 1980 festival sold books and other material as well as running a petition against the construction of Parklea Jail, which led to Council establishing a policy to have political free festival events.
1980s saw the start of the street parade with a 1,000 strong contingent from HMAS Nirimba base after being granted Freedom of Entry from the mayor leading the parade.
They were challenged by the local police force, as was customary in the medieval period, to satisfy their identification and reason for the visit.
Circa 2005 the horse parade resulted in the horses exercising their normal bodily functions and leaving a massive deposit in front of the inspection main stage holding the mayor and dignitaries. This resulted in Council ensuring in future parades that the horses were always followed by the council street swipers!
Your Rights at Work campaign in 2006 saw the debate of whether unions providing awareness of Work Choices introduced by the Howard Liberal Government cutting workers’ pay and conditions was political or not.
The Union movement has a long tradition of having most residents as members of unions which led unions members marching in the parade led by a historical double decker bus.
The festivals could not have happend without the strong support of the councillors and mayors and ably organised by Council officers.
Pat Parker initiated the festival and handed it over to Paul Arundell, Ian Whitton, Leighton O’Farrell, Peter Filmer and modern-day custodian Kevin Poilly.
The 2025 festival has a range of events held across the month of May including medieval fayre; comedy night; concerts; sweet indulgence dessert festival; ghost tours; culminating in the Streets Alive Festival and Parade.
Congratulations on Blacktown Festival 50th anniversary and may the festival continue for many more years to come.
Images Courtesy of Blacktown Memories Collection, Blacktown City Council.
