Agroup of 15 Adelaide-based musicians and singers wowed the crowd at the second annual Christmas Fair and Community Carols at the Millicent Rotunda Parklands on Saturday.


Headline act Ngoma Music comprised a collective of talented creatives and artists from diverse cultural backgrounds.


Its members accepted the invitation of the Millicent Christian Churches Association to perform and their modern and upbeat versions of the traditional Christmas carols was welcomed by the gathering of 250.


The theme of the day was “In Search of Hope”.


Around 10 food and variety stalls began six hours of trading under grey skies at 11am while novelty events were held in the early afternoon.


The Community Carols began at 3pm with the first of three brackets from Ngoma Music.


Other highlights were the Mount Gambier Salvation Army Band, Mount Gambier City Band and a live nativity play with 30 performers jointly presented by St Paul’s Lutheran Church and St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School.


The comperes were two local radio station announcers: Triple M’s Ewan Grant and 5THE FM’s Arthur O’Connell.


Messages reflecting on the essential meaning of Christmas were delivered by Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll and Millicent Christian Churches Association chairman Pastor Shaun Mulik.


The pastor was pleased to announce the annual Millicent Christmas Hamper Appeal was a success with 316 hampers being given to local people in need.


Pastor Shaun thanked over 20 local organisations and businesses for their sponsorship and other assistance in staging the Millicent Community Carols and Fair.


To cap off the day, Father Christmas called by with a gift for every child.


The first Christmas Fair and Community Carols event was staged in 2022 after it became apparent that two other festive traditions of long standing in Millicent had gone into recess.


They were the Carols in the Millicent Showgrounds Shearing Shed and Millicent Lights Up at the Rotunda!