FIREWORKS, sporting celebrities, a life-sized maze, 18 seminars, clowns, motorbike stunts, BMX bikes and skateboarding, top-class entertainment, and lots of sideshow rides, food and drinks – and it’s all free.
That’s what is on offer at the 2008 Redlands Easter Family Festival, at the Cleveland Showgrounds on Easter Monday, March 24, from 9am to 3pm.
Premier Anna Bligh will open the festival at 12.40 pm.
The fireworks will usher in the festival the previous evening, as the climax to a prom-concert family celebration night.
The celebration, starting at 6pm, will include Toasted TV illusionist Christopher Wayne, who was a big hit in his inaugural Easter Festival appearance last year, and great live music.
Coffee and refreshments will be available, and patrons are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket.
On Easter Monday, the festival takes on a new look with a total redesign of themed areas and several new attractions, including a life-sized ‘‘maze of life’’ to get lost (and found) in.
Headlining the entertainment will be tenor Daniel Kay, who is returning to Brisbane from an appearance at the Sydney Opera House and nationally-acclaimed blues and gospel singer Steve Apirana.
Popular presenter of Talking Life on Radio 96five, Peter Janetzki, will be the master of ceremonies on the main stage during the morning.
Craft, four-wheel driving, bike-riding, dancing and fishing will be among the interest groups hosting displays on the main oval.
Special attractions for the youth will include appearances by Brisbane Bullets star C. J. Bruton, former Bullets player Ben Castle, V8 Utes championship driver Andrew ‘‘Fishtail’’ Fisher (who will bring a replica of his distinctive Jesus is Life racing ute), and a team of BMX riders and skateboarders showing off tricks on a half-pipe.
A mechanical surfboard in the Christian Surfers display, a rock-climbing wall, Xbox games and a golf driving range will also entertain the teenagers.
In the children’s area, illusionist Jay Jay, stunt rider and street theatre performer SupaTony, and dynamic dance troupe Higher Ground will top the bill in the entertainment tent, alongside the face-painting, mural painting, crafts, games, trackless train, petting zoo and rides for all ages.
Adjacent to the children’s area, the Pavilion of Hope in the Albert Morris Pavilion will offer 18 seminars on the half-hour throughout the day.
Issues being addressed include raising teenagers, women’s roles, marriage enrichment, safe celebrations and living debt-free.
The annual festival attracts up to 20,000 people in the Redlands’ biggest one-day event.
It is mounted by about 40 churches across the Redlands, supported by local businesses, the Redland City Council and the Queensland Government.
President of Redlands Easter Family Festival, Deborah Wagner, said with Easter not falling within school holidays this year, festival organisers had planned more attractions to cope with the larger-than-usual crowds.
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