Murtoa's Big Weekend

Murtoa’s Big Weekend 2020 Event Cancelled

Two extremely difficult committee meetings were recently held for Murtoa’s Big Weekend 2020 (MBW2020) and the Murtoa Show. These meetings both eventuated in the deciding vote to cancel this year’s event that was to be held 2-4 October 2020, due to the uncertainty of current times.

With the enormity of the usual Big Weekend’s program, there were many elements to unpack and come to the hard decision to cancel the event. Elements such as abiding with the current COVID-19 rules and risk measures; putting volunteers, family and friends at risk; and the uncertainty of ‘what the world will look like’ in early October, were the underlying factors in the decision.

Many ideas were put on the table to keep MBW2020 alive, including a ‘Virtual Program’ which involved having various elements of the program filmed and live streamed on Facebook. All ideas that were discussed had the potential to deflate the unique Murtoa experience – where only physical experiences could come close to the real thing.

Credit should go to all of the enthusiastic and hard-working committee members with the sheer fact that the cancelation of the event was such a hard thing to do, as it reinforced the joy of bringing this major event of Murtoa’s Big Weekend to the community and beyond. The event committees respect that it is only natural to grieve for an event which has been delivered uninterrupted for over 20 years, along with the need to respect lifestyle normality, of which will be a long and ongoing process with the current pandemic of COVID-19.

Looking forward, the MBW and Murtoa Show committees are already planning a bigger and better Murtoa’s Big Weekend in 2021. Next year will mark the 25th year that this 3-day event began, and Murtoa Show will celebrate its136th year.

If you are keen to be involved in MBW2021, please contact the committee: murtoabigweekend@gmail.com . A survey will be circulating shortly to understand the community’s thoughts about the usual MBW program, so please look out for this survey on the Murtoa and Murtoa Big Weekend facebook pages and send your responses through.

Please note that the MBW2020 Virtual Gallery Community Collection will remain open for entries, so if you wish to continue a project you have started (or yet to start), please continue and enter. This Collection will be a valuable keep-sake of the current times and will be launched at next year’s event of MBW2021.

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Looking forward to MBW2021.

The program includes tours of the National Heritage-listed Stick Shed, the 136th Annual A&P Agricultural Show, Saturday morning’s Monster Street Market and Show’n’Shine, Murtoa Cup Race Meeting, Dunmunkle Sumpoilers Historic Engines display, the Water Tower Museum, as well as a host of other attractions. Murtoa’s Big Weekend also provides an excellent opportunity for all to experience the beautiful Lake Marma and Rabl Park surrounds.

Please watch for updates throughout this website and by visiting facebook.com/Murtoa Big Weekend … plus we are always looking for fresh ideas and new members for Murtoa’s Big Weekend Committee.