Inglewood Lions Club Christmas Party 20 December

Published on 17 December 2015

A FREE night of family entertainment has become a much-anticipated tradition at Inglewood each year.

Planned this time for Sunday 20 December, the Inglewood Lions Christmas Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a change of venue.

Club treasurer and organising committee chairman Terry Mangles said the festival started during the drought of 10 years ago, “when the Lions Club was giving food parcels out to farmers and people in the bush doing it tough”.

“Some of them were finding that hard to accept, so we rigged a couple of raffles and had a night where they won Christmas hampers,” Mr Mangles said.

“From there, the club decided to put on a free night and it’s stayed that way since.

“This is our 10th year coming up and everything’s free. We normally get 700-800 people there and this year, again, they’re coming from all over Loddon Shire.

“We’ve always run it at the town hall, but due to the rebuilding going on there, we’re holding it at the recreation reserve.”

Mr Mangles said any child 12 years or under who put his or her name down would receive a gift to the value of $20 to $25.

Names need to be registered at either the Bendigo Bank, the IGA supermarket in Inglewood or the Bridgewater post office.

“There’ll be bungee jumping, rock climbing, jumping castle, face painting and music from a local band, ‘501’,” Mr Mangles said.

“They play for our sing-along carols as well as performing during the night.

“There’ll be a monster raffle and lucky door prizes, as well as a free barbecue, snow cones, slushies and fairy floss.

“We have 23 members in the Lions, but we get some wonderful support from groups such as Helping Hand, the Salvos and Loddon Shire, as well as from our local businesses.

“It’s a marvellous night.”

The festival starts at 5.30pm and runs through until about 10pm.

For more details, phone Mr Mangles on 5438 3614.