A Fair Day Out 2016

Now in it's 4th year, A Fair Day Out continues to create a inclusive space for celebration of all things Halloween!

A Fair Day Out, held Saturday 29th October 2016 was once again a wonderful exhibition of what we can do when we support each other. People with disability from around the Sunshine Coast provided the talent and volunteers, family, and friends came to enjoy the festivities and assist with all the hard work necessary for hosting an event of this size. Once again the event was proudly Supported by Sunshine Coast Council's grant program, providing invaluable assistance in providing the resources necessary for the wide range of free activities and attractions available to attendees on the day. The Halloween theme was once again a huge hit, providing a fun twist to the fairground experience and an opportunity to dress up in your most inventive costume and enter the 'best dressed competition' sponsored by Eumundi Markets. This day is special in large part thanks to the support of the Original Eumundi Markets, who support by providing the high-profile venue, a significant amount of logistic support and a superbly inclusive attitude towards all that we can offer to their markets.

Each year we welcome back old friends and once again this year, introduced new friends to the A Fair Day Out experience. Dave from The Off Beat came along for the first time and was a big crowd pleaser with a drumming circle in the new Come and Try tent. Another newcomer, Zen do Kai, a martial arts group were very impressive with their demonstration on the stage. The event is well supported by our local music and drama groups and the colour, energy and talent of all the groups up on the stage really brings home the dedication to the arts that is evident on the Sunshine Coast. Thank you to Capo, House of Sole, the Spiral Dance Company, Creative Moves, and the traditional closers, rockers The Outsiders for their outstanding entertainment gifts to the crowd. We also had two people up on the stage all day supporting these acts, Karen Finau our MC, and Ricky Barton, a new friend who donated sound and technical expertise on the day!

It is simply not possible to acknowledge individually all the people who contribute their time, energy and love to make this day happen, but rest assured we value you and hope to see you again at A Fair Day Out in 21017. We have received some excellent feedback on how we can improve the day and we will update the A Fair Day Out facebook page as planning gets into full swing in mid-2017.

We advertised the event widely with local schools this year and it was lovely to see so many young families come along and share our Halloween fun and games at our inclusive event.

The event grows in reputation each year and this year we were visited by Channel 7 Sunshine Coast who featured our event and our theme of 'Creating and Celebrating inclusive communities' in their Halloween news wrap up. A local budding film maker Gina also created a brief doco of the day (featured above) and we now have a YouTube presence.

Equity Works is proud to be a lead organiser of the day, along with our On Track partners, Inclusion Plus Family Support, Spiral, SCILS, and Parent to Parent and we are already looking forward to what improvements we can make to the event in 2017!