Photographers love Floriade. Photos: Michelle Kroll.
Who doesn’t like to see splodges of colour emerge after a freezing Canberra winter?
It takes a couple of weeks into September, but spring does finally arrive along with floral displays along our avenues and in suburban gardens.
The intensifying light sharpens the hues and unburdens us of our coats, at least until a stray cold front inevitably moves through.
But the icy mornings are mostly behind us and the air hums with fresh activity.
This week, Canberra’s annual festival of flowers taps into this seasonal uptake, and what better way to celebrate the confirmation of nature’s eternal promise than strolling among beds of designer colour in the green heart of the capital?
Floriade has its critics. Some see it as an ongoing European cultural cringe or a kaleidoscope of kitsch.
But for a month, we are treated to a free festival that lifts our spirits, where we can have a bite to eat and something to drink and do a little shopping.
Throw in a bit of entertainment and community involvement and it’s a formula that’s worked for decades.
For those wanting more and prepared to pay for it, there’s Nightfest.
But the days are beneficently free.
A certain chief minister once thought some cost recovery was needed, proposing an entry fee, only to back down in the face of popular revolt.
No one has ventured to make the same mistake of establishing a barrier, no matter how modest, to what has always been a community event.
But it has become much more than that.
Dubbed Australia’s Biggest Celebration of Spring, Floriade is also a massive tourism money spinner for Canberra.
According to the ACT Government, last year it contributed a total economic impact of $62.4 million, a 22 per cent increase from the previous year.
This included $48.8 million attributed to visitors, the highest visitor economic impact recorded in Floriade’s history.
A total of 470,422 people attended, with visitors to Canberra contributing 216,651 (46 per cent) of the total attendance.
Visitor nights in Canberra also increased by 31 per cent, with 221,866 recorded, providing a welcome boost to Canberra’s accommodation industry.
That’s a fair return on the government’s investment.
Floriade has its challenges. It takes a toll on the venue, Commonwealth Park, which has floated the idea of permanent garden beds to manage the strain and a bigger Stage 88 amphitheatre to attract more shows.
Other venues have been considered, but none seem better than the current one, although the government has developed community floral displays in the suburbs and satellite sites like Lanyon.
Keeping the event fresh without losing its community feel and central focus – the flowers – must also be a challenge.
Not to mention coming up with the floral design themes every year.
Still, the grinches complain it’s the same each year.
Yet in such an uncertain, unstable and at times depressingly dark world, that can also be a boon.
Knowing that as winter tarries, one can look forward to a stroll through a myriad of tulips and other blooms under a cobalt blue spring sky, not just to celebrate the new season but also to appreciate the precious peace this city offers, is a saving grace.
