By KATRINA BRANDON
FOR the third year running, the Show Me Some Art Festival is back up and running in Moe.
The event starts Saturday, March 16 from 11am at the Moe Botanic Gardens with a fun run, before venturing into town at 2pm at the back of the RSL and 7pm to the town hall.
Throughout the day, many activities and murals will go up around town.
“We have got a lot of activities. We have partnered with the youth group called the Drop Zone in the back of Shaw’s Arcade, but they do this every Tuesday. They get eight to 15-year-olds in, and they have lots of activities in there such as pool tables, table tennis, air hockey, basketball, and many things going on,” event organiser and local artist, Steve Bechaz said.
“We have the school open for kid art activities, and we have an art display, school art competition, which Yallourn Energy have sponsored, designing a mural which I will be working with them to come up with the mural, some animals, after party, we have got powdered fingers, Lara Anderson, some comedians, some bands from down Melbourne and still more ideas on the way.”
The event is to fundraise for mental health within the community.
Mr Bechaz told the Express that he is trying to keep the festival low cost for people because a big part of mental health is the cost-of-living. He also said the event is very community-based as many local businesses and organisations have been helping to get the festival on.
“We are a fundraiser, but we understand that part of mental health is the cost-of-living, and we are fortunate to have a lot of support from these communities and sponsors. They have made our job easier and giving back to the community,” he said.
“In the past events, we have raised about $16,000 for mental health. It started with me wanting to improve the town’s image and give hope that we would attract more tourism. There are lots of walls that need a lick of paint that are a little bit run down.
“For the town itself, I feel that it affects peoples’ mood, builds a story and an impact. People say they walked past this (a mural), and it made them smile. It’s all about mental health, and seeing all these untethered walls is ugly and brings you down, and when you see a nice mural, that’s what we try, and we get professional artists and try to make sure it looks good.”
The festival was started through COVID-19, as a means to try and get people outdoors when restrictions allowed.
Mr Bechaz said that a lot of hard work goes into planning events like this, and that something else always needs to be done no matter how much time you put into it.
“It is a lot of time-consuming and planning to be done. After the first one, I thought, ‘okay, all set, we know what’s done, and we will just continue doing similar stuff’, but there is always something else,” he said.
The event is all within walking distance, with activities for everyone, art and food trucks featuring food you can’t usually find in town.
For more information, head to the Show Me Some Art Festival Facebook page.
