2019 Preview Program Is Out!
December 2, 2018Message from the Chairman – January/February 2019
January 28, 2019Once Every Two Years, We Ask for Help.
The MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival is an enormously popular public event. We are proud of the fact that we’re free and accessible to all and that there’s something for everyone to enjoy. We have tremendous support from our volunteers, our sponsors, from State and local government. But the event gets more expensive to run every year, for inevitable reasons. Transports costs go up with the price of fuel. Hire costs for venues rise every year, compliance with a myriad of workplace regulations means more expenditure on things that are not sponsored, like technical services, equipment hire and security.
We are determined that this festival should remain free to the public and that registration fees for boat owners stay low so that everyone who wants to participate can afford it. Our exhibitors and our food & beverage vendors contribute their fair share. We spend almost every penny of our budget in Tasmania, supporting Tasmanian contractors, entertainers and small businesses. Our volunteers contribute a huge amount of labour, without which we could not produce the event at all.
So, once every two years, we ask for your help. If you enjoy the wooden boat festival and you want to see it remain free to the public, we ask you to dip into your pocket just a little to help us keep it that way. Your donation, however modest, will be carefully spent on the things that we need. You won’t see us running a fleet of cars or taking fact-finding trips to Paris. We keep it close to the bone. We keep expenses down and we’re pretty good at making quite a lot out of fairly little.
You can make a donation on our website HERE. You can drop into the office at the Salamanca Arts Centre, donate cash or cheque and get a written receipt. You will find donation boxes and pay-wave machines all over the festival site.
Thank You!