THE Chinchilla Melon Festival is set to deliver a multi-million dollar injection into the town’s economy this weekend as more than 12,000 revellers roll into town.
While the Melon Festival committee has traditionally pushed its profit margins razor thin to deliver the most for the least, Chinchilla as a whole benefits from the event.
Over the last few festivals, visitor numbers have built up to around 12,000, and since 2009 many businesses have become involved with the melon theme to expand it to cover the whole town.
For Lyn McCullough, who runs The Bakery on Heeney St, the Melon Festival weekend represents a chance to triple her sales and make an impression on new customers.
“We usually double the staff,” she said.
“Everyone looks forward to it; the locals like getting involved, and so do the businesses. This puts us on the map a bit more.
“This year, with the weather being so good, we think it’s going to be a bumper weekend.”
By the week leading into Melon Festival, the showgrounds and most of the powered sites at the polocrosse grounds have been booked by caravaners, and getting a room in town is next to impossible.
Even rooms usually reserved for gas workers were thrown open in January, filling up in a matter of weeks.
The festival crowd will provide a welcome reprieve for many moteliers, who have experienced a sharp downturn in the number of industry worker bookings in recent months.
The Melon Festival grew out of a simple idea in 1994 which had fewer than 3000 people turn out for a weekend of improvised fun in an effort to help lift spirits during the drought.