Australia Day Citizen of the Year – Adam Smith
Senior Citizen of the Year – Lorraine Musgrove
Senior Citizen of the Year – Joan Osmond
Young Citizen of the Year – Julia Dangerfield
Active Citizenship Award – Mount Gambier Men’s Shed ‘Toy Boys’
COVID and SA Health restrictions around large-scale events meant the Blue Lake Carols Organising Committee had to innovate in an effort to continue to bring the iconic event first held in 1947, to the community to spread some festive cheer.
The 2020 and 2021 events were recorded live on stage at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre and streamed via Facebook and YouTube in December.
In 2020, more than 5000 individual streams of the event occurred on the night, conservatively putting the viewing audience at more than 20,000 people.
The event was simultaneously broadcast on radio 5GTR FM and Lime FM in the South East and on 107.9 Life FM in Adelaide, adding thousands more to the total views.
“COVID has changed everything for everyone,” Blue Lake Carols Organising Committee Chair Rudy Furlong said.
“I keep saying we’re all in different boats but in the same storm and it has been a chaotic year.
“I think our community and our region beyond that need peace and hope and I think just having the Blue Lake Carols on again this time, like the previous year via livestream is incredibly important for all of us for our mental health.”
The committee moved the event from the Cave Gardens to a larger venue at the Rail Lands about eight years ago.
The event was then relocated to the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in 2019 due to COVID restrictions.
“We live in a digital world these days and you have got to remain relevant, and I think to remain relevant especially as a large community event, we thought we’d just use Facebook and YouTube digital platforms,” Mr Furlong said.
He said it took about four months to coordinate and package the entire festive family event.
“About a month out from the livestream event we’ll have two practice sessions with everyone on board and then we go to actually recording the event at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre,” Mr Furlong said.
“People have said you’re only as good as your team and we have got an incredibly talented team.
“Everyone that is giving their time is doing it for the love of the city because it’s all free and we have got quite a few professionals amongst the group, we have got an ARIA award winner, we have got a runner up in the X Factor and many others that contribute.
“We have also got five committee members including stage managers, emcees, a videographer and a music director that give their time in addition to the performers.”
The committee hopes to return to a live format at the Rail Lands in 2022.
“It’s our 75th anniversary and we’re looking forward to the event being live, back at the Rail Lands and we have got some ideas on how to make it much more professional as we’re always looking at improving,” Mr Furlong said.
Mr Furlong was pleased to receive a call to notify him the Blue Lake Carols event had won the 2022 City of Mount Gambier Community Event of the Year Award.
“I was really humbled to get a call from the council, we work very hard as a committee with all the artists and band members and it is great recognition from council and the wider community that it’s a worthwhile event, a real stamp of approval,” he said.
