The fourth Brown Hill Community Festival was, yet again, a great success. With numbers estimated to be similar to last year, despite the cooler weather and a few drops of rain toward the end, 800 to 1000 locals enjoyed getting together to celebrate Brown Hill.

We enjoyed an uplifting performance from Sing Australia, wonderful singing by around 90 Brown Hill Kindergarten children and an entertaining dance and song by Caledonian Primary School students. These were followed by our old favourites, the Ballarat Highland Dancers on stage and Federation University Pipe Band marching across the oval in another fantastic performance.

There was a range of tasty food including sliders and soup from Brown Hill's Mama and Sons, Indian food and potato twists from Masala Valley Indian and great coffee from Julie in the Bean Me Up Mobile Espresso Van. The Brown Hill Lions Club reported the 'Annual Festival Sausage Index' being 600 (a little lower than 2018, but pretty good given the cooler weather) and the Brown Hill Uniting Church made a stack of pancakes and raised $340 for the Brown Hill Pool's 2020 Learn to Swim program.

Families enjoyed loads of great activities including those run by a few new groups - Eureka Gymnastics, Brown Hill Cricket Club and AFL Goldfields.

Thanks to the Brown Hill Uniting Church for their generous donation of $500 to the Festival and to Harcourts for promoting the Festival with three big signs. Thanks also to the volunteers who organised the event, representing several Brown Hill groups: Sarah, Jacinta, Geoff, Kate, Brendan, Brian and Megan. The organising team was well supported by volunteers from the Brown Hill Progress Association on the night, particularly Rhonda, Bernie and Peter - thank you.

See you again on Friday 30 October 2020 for the fifth Brown Hill Community Festival!

Sarah Greenwood-Smith Brown Hill Progress Association, Festival and Newsletter Coordinator