Has the Multicultural Festival grown too big for Civic?

EPIC? Just something else that convienients the Gungahlinites and no-one else!

Remember that a year or two ago it was spread to Glebe park, but not much was there and it was difficult to know that there was anything going on over there from the main part.

I think consideration needs to be given to the layout and crowd flow. It seems as though the layout is done to purposely create choke points.

I dunno about EPIC, but they really need to do something. I used to enjoy going, but I’ve steered clear the last couple of years because it’s just become too crowded. When simply moving around is a massive pain, it really detracts from the fun of it. Spread it out more, move it to a different venue, but do something.

go back to the days of the alcoholic frolic in commonwealth park. its obviously a popular event, but you cant even enjoy it being cramped and crowded in civic.

EPIC blows. dont put it there.

Has it grown too big? Is it just me or has the multicultural festival consistently shrunk over the past few years?

By shrunk I dont mean that they are cramming the same amount of stalls into fewer spaces but that there is less on show.The first year I went (I think 2007) it extended into Glebe Park and has done a couple of times since and was still as packed in the centre of Civic.

I love the crowded atmosphere, the only suggestion might be to put the tents with the consistently big lines (Dutch pancakes, anyone selling Gozleme and the German beers) in more convenient locations for crowd flow.

@Krasny I agree that it doesnt make sense to deny local traffic when you could just move those three tents that were there to further up outside oporto’s.

The kids and parents had a great time on Saturday afternoon, eating around the world. What I want to know is though – did the restaurant / pub, whos name escapes me, near the merry go round, used to be Woodstock, has lots of outdoos seating…anyway, they had barricades up that almost shut off the walkway between their outdoor seating and their restaurant. Now I presume they pay rent for the outdoor seating but I am guessing the walkway is public area yet their barricades had closed it off so tightly so it was only barely enough room for people to squeeze by one at a time -created a real bottle neck…looked borderline illegal to me…

Commonwealth Park. Back to the Food & Wine Frolic of Olden Dayes…

The family & I went on Saturday night. Man it was busy, the kids loved it. One of my daughters was besotted by the pipe flute players near the Canberra Centre (the guys that are always at the Bus Depot).

I think the fact it was so busy & a bit disorderly is what made it the great event it is. We watched the bar tenders at the Russian food tent poison many a punter with shots of god knows what with cheering & banter.

Food on a stick was the order of the day, loved it. There was a spot you could get away from it all & that was at the fountain outside the theater, we had Gelati there on our way out. The souvlaki was great as well as the squid balls from Singapore (must be big squid……).

We will go again next year as best of all it was FREE!!!!!!.

I agree with Lin, there should be more of it.

Did anyone else not understand the layout?

Wouldn’t it be easier to group the stands by region rather than just what appeared to be random? It would be much easier that way for people to navigate to particular area if they’d like to try that food, rather than try to read small red dot on a map while squashed in with 100,000 other people

Skidbladnir said :

If only we could ensure the weather would be perfect every year, I would suggest taking over more City space.
ie: not only Garema Place\City Walk, but Bunda St\Glebe Park.

(ie: If we had a rainy weekend, would it have been profitable?)

That’s what I was thinking too. If the rain on Friday night had of continued on Saturday the whole event would have been a flop.
But I do think they need more space because it was far too packed on Saturday, you could barely move in some areas.