Zac Standish
The inaugural Show Me Some Art Festival hit the Moe Botanic Gardens late last month with hundreds of people coming down to enjoy the work of more than 50 regional, national and international artists.
The festival ran across two days and featured a host of activities including the country’s largest inflatable obstacle course, food trucks, live music, a 5km colour fun run and a comedian.
Event organiser Steve Bechaz said he was happy with how everything ran across the weekend.
“I believe it was a huge success,” Mr Bechaz said.
“We got to see some great international artists and they have certainly left their mark on the town with some incredible art around the place.
“Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the rain was a bit of a hurdle and we lost a few volunteers and artists, but we were able to soldier on and put together a great weekend.”
A weekend filled with colour and enjoyment, Mr Bechaz outlined a few of the festival’s biggest highlights.
“The calibre of the artists was a major highlight, to see them down here in Moe showing off their great work,” he said.
“I’ve been wanting to do something like this for so long, so just seeing the smiles on people’s faces it was just fantastic especially after the year we have all had its always good to get out and enjoy yourself.”
One of the driving forces behind the festival was raising awareness for mental health in the region, with the proceeds from the weekend’s events going to supporting those in need.
Mr Bechaz said the support for the cause was overwhelming.
“The support we got from everybody was huge and we can’t thank the community enough,” he said.
“We reached our initial target of raising $5000 and we are still working on how much more we can do to assist the cause further.
“We still haven’t finished all the paintings and things around town and have still got the silent auction down at the Moe Library finishing on April 12, so we are hopeful we can get somewhere near $10,000.”
Complementing the events from the weekend, Mr Bechaz and a host of talented artists have stayed around in Moe to finish off a number of exciting wall murals.
He told The Express bringing colour to the town in this fashion was a great way to promote its features and bring tourists to local businesses.
“I’ve always wanted to bring some tourism into the town and brighten up some of these walls, so I made it part of the festival to get these artists down and liven up some of these old buildings,” he said.
“We get a lot of people bypassing and driving through that don’t really come into Moe.
“So if tourists can see these great works and be persuaded to come into town, do some shopping and pump some much needed money into our local businesses.”
Receiving extremely positive reviews from the public that came down, Mr Bechaz is excited to make the Show Me Some Art Festival an annual event.
“Everybody was rapt, we had people saying to the volunteers how nice it was to see all this colour and thanked the artists for their hard work,” he said.
“It has definitely been helpful for the community, I’ve had plenty of people come up to me and say do it again next year and asking how they can get involved with sponsoring and things.
“The artists also seemed to enjoy themselves so I will say let’s see them again next year.”
