Today was the annual Harvest Festival Parade in Ballan. I’m sure that the number of parade participants is greater than the population of the town because it takes an hour and a half for the parade to pass.
There were a few thousand people lining the main street to watch and enjoy the food and craft stalls. This year’s theme was “living in the 70s”.Highlights included the slightly mental ladies of the Lioness Club dressed up as the village people and a group of primary school kids holding opposing Fraser and Whitlam rallies.
We were running a bit late because we had to feed the cat his cream cheese and clavulox morning cocktail so we missed the Ballarat Brass Band. But we did get to see almost everything else.
The parade ends with vintage tractors, trucks and cars from across the region – and this part of Victoria takes its vintage motors very seriously so there were some very impressive cars on display.
After the parade Geoff and I sampled some amazing ricotta and lemon doughnuts and then some gozleme that were being cooked up on the spot by some women who clearly had generations of gozleme expertise behind them.
It was a lot of fun and I look forward to it every year. Unfortunately the end of the parade usually marks the beginning of eight months of horizontal rain and freezing nights so it’s time to whip up a 14ply jumper and pull on the ugg boots until December.
