OPINION is divided about whether to keep the Altona Beach Festival in the suburb’s “heart” or move it back to what has been labelled the “arse-end of Altona”.
The community is also split on whether to keep the festival’s name, come up with a new one or revert to the 1976 original: Operation Recreation, later changed to Bayside Festival.
There is also disagreement about whether to hold the festival over a weekend or a single day. Further debate has arisen about the route of the street parade and whether the fireworks finale should be moved from the beach back to Cherry Lake.
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In 2010, the Hobsons Bay Council took control of the festival, shortening it from two days to one and moving it from Cherry Lake to the foreshore.
Altona Bay Basketball Association vice-president Peter Shepheard said that with three new councillors elected to the council last month, people should demand the Altona Beach Festival revert to Operation Recreation or “another just-as-catchy name”.
He also wants it to be held over an entire weekend and spread across the city with a focus on Cherry Lake.
Mr Shepheard said he understood “the need to be marketable in this day and age,” so he would settle for a compromise name such as Altona Festival.
“I guess Bayside [Festival] is also very confusing given that there’s half a dozen bayside suburbs,” he said.
“[The festival name needs to be] something that represents Altona or going back to a more traditional thing that the locals know it as: Operation Recreation.”
But trader and Altona Laverton Historical Society president Peter Weaver said the festival’s current name, location and format was the way of the future.
‘I think it is grand where it is now,” he said.
“We don’t want to go back to the past.
“It was great in the ’70s, worked well when I was a kid, but we’ve all seen it decline over the last 10 years.
“And it’s different now, people don’t have as much time.
“And it brings them down into the heart of the community. Pier Street’s alive and vibrant and I think the future is on the beach and in Pier Street, and Logan and Weaver reserves [the latter named after Mr Weaver’s late father and former mayor Harry Weaver].”
Last year, Mr Weaver told the Weekly: “Let’s face it — the festival has been moved from the arse-end of Altona to where it should be: its heart.” Operation Recreation president Therese McKenney-Campbell last week said her group had been just about to wind up but would likely hold off due to the “shake-up on council”.
“Obviously, with the new shake-up, there will be a shake-up also with the traders [in Altona].”
Next year’s Altona Beach Festival is expected to go ahead as planned on March 23.
