Clarence Street stole the spotlight - and people's imagination

 

A long lunch on the Buller Street bridge, permanent stage for free concerts and mini Venice on Koolonbung Creek were just some of the ideas to surface from last Friday’s highly-successful Clarence Street Food Festival.

From an overwhelming crowd of 2,500 people, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s Place Making team collected more than 1000 ideas from festival-goers keen to have a say in the future of the Clarence Street niche restaurant precinct.

 “It was fantastic to see and hear thousands of people raving about the food and enjoying everything Clarence Street has to offer,” Community and Economic Growth Director Tricia Bulic said

“It was also a great opportunity for people to share what they love about Port Macquarie (great cafes and shops, the weather, community spirit, our history, the beaches and the people) and how they’d like to see it evolve in the future,” she said.

Feedback was collected via large calico message boards, surveys and public votes on images of other alfresco areas across Australia. The resounding message was: “we should do this more often”.

Ideas included: more ambient night lights; art projection on buildings; outdoor chess games; ocean pools; bicycles for hire in the CBD; higher, softer public seating; a vegetarian food festival; waterfront promenade and; more family-friendly events.

“The festival was a real inter-generational event, with families mingling with business people straight from work and elderly couples enjoying the live music, food, street art and giant games,” Ms Bulic said.

“We were so pleased to see lots of community buy-in, including a flash mob thanks to Wauchope and Port Macquarie Performing Arts and art created by Hastings Public School and Port Macquarie Community Preschool students, which really helped to set the Friday the 13th scene.

“It goes to show that something simple like that is possible, with benefits flowing on to business owners and the wider community.

“It was like a pop-up event and traffic and trading was back to normal by 10.30pm.”

Following the sell-out success, council Place Makers de-briefed with business owners on Tuesday.

The next step for council will be the creation of a ‘self-sustaining street party kit’ for local business people to duplicate the idea and the development of a concept master plan within the next three months.

“The concept master plan will be all about building business and cultural connections, injecting vitality into public spaces and creating a distinct precinct for restaurants and eateries,” Mrs Bulic said.

For more information visit Port Macquarie-Hastings Council