On Friday 25 and Saturday 26 May St Margaret’s hosted its biennial MAYO Arts Festival celebrating the creative arts.
The MAYO Arts Festival was first established in 2008 in honour of renowned Australian sculptor, art educator and St Margaret’s Old Girl Daphne Mayo MBE who made a significant contribution to the arts in Queensland.
This year’s festival was the sixth time the event had been held and featured more than 40 artists, designers and sculptors.
The festival launched with an evening cocktail party set within the gallery exhibition space. Guests had the opportunity to hear from special guests Graham and Judith Bell, meet many of the artists and appreciate the fine work on display, with the potential to invest in a piece for their own collection. Furniture store Cult Design partnered with the event to provide designer furniture pieces to enhance the gallery exhibition space.
On Saturday 26 May, the grounds of St Margaret’s were transformed with the bustling and vibrant family-friendly festival component of the two-day event.
Market stalls lined Circular Drive and Eton Hall showcasing a range of wares including handcrafted gifts, clothing, artworks, plants and unique homewares.
The smell of delicious gourmet food wafted through the school grounds tempting taste buds with everything from wood fired pizza to steamed yum cha and the extremely popular donuts and cronuts topped with all sorts of sweet treats.
The crowds arrived early to enjoy the glorious sunshine and shop the stalls and gallery exhibition.
By lunch time, an audience had gathered in front of the stage on Circular Drive to enjoy the various student band and ensemble music performances as well as the energetic dance displays.
The Barley Sugar Garden was a hive of activity throughout the day with swarms of festival goers enjoying all this precinct had to offer. Lob a choc, Golf Central putt putt, decorate a Vanilla Pod cupcake, lucky dip plus the Oxlades face painting and coloured hair stall were all popular, as were the sideshow alley games. The Tennis Support Group’s strawberries and ice cream stall was also a delightful new addition to MAYO this year.
Workshops including creating a living terrarium log, sun catcher and bracelet making all proved popular as was the Ear Candy earring making workshop. The carnival rides on Petrie Street and Bubble Buzz on the nearby tennis court were also popular on the day.
As always, the MAYO Arts Festival raffle was a highlight. First and third prizes were donated by platinum sponsor Ocean Dynamics and included two fantastic Whitsunday Holiday packages. Both prizes were coincidentally won by the same St Margaret’s parent who is very much looking forward to her first ever trip to the Whitsundays at the end of this year. Thank you to Ocean Dynamics for supporting this year’s MAYO Arts Festival.
Second prize was a stunning getaway at Hinterland House in the Byron Bay Hinterland. An historic 1906 mansion set on a private 20-acre estate, it is a dreamy holiday house offering luxurious accommodation just minutes from Bangalow and Byron Bay. Thank you to Hinterland House for supporting this year’s MAYO Arts Festival.
The list of donors and sponsors who contributed to the 2018 MAYO Arts Festival is long and each supporter helped to ensure the festival was a resounding success. We are very grateful to the support of this year’s sponsors including:
Platinum Sponsor – Ocean Dynamics
Gold Sponsors – Cult Design and Hinterland House
Silver Sponsors – Barambah Organics, Print Media Group, Brisbane City Council and Italiquore
Bronze Sponsors – Vanilla Pod, Racecourse Road Dental, The Van That Can and The Standard Market Company
Supporting Partners – Cruise Whitsundays, Sea Star Apartments, Mirage Whitsundays and Fishi
Stall Sponsors – Strathmores, Clear Insurance, Oxlades, Golf Central and Stone & Wood
We would finally like to thank all our community who supporting the event in a myriad of ways: donating goods, buying raffle tickets, purchasing artworks, manning a parent stall or simply attending the festival and enjoying all the fun of the fair.
You can view photos from the 2018 MAYO Arts Festival on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StMargaretsAGS/.
We are already looking forward to 2020!