ANNUAL REPORT 2019 AGM Sunday 21.7.2019 Revesby Workers Club Poster design competition “Celebrating 20 Years of Children’s Festival” Annabelle Samuel 10 years old Poster competition “A lot of different flowers make a bouquet” Lainey Quynh Lam 10 years old President’s Report Dear Members, Friends and Supporters of the Children’s Festival, Can I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land and pay my respects to the elders past and present. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of the Advisory Committee and the Management Committee, and particularly, the attendance of Mr. Wally Mehanna, CEO of Canterbury Bankstown Chamber of Commerce, our guest speaker today, as well as the representatives of our co-operating groups. I warmly welcome you all to our AGM in this beautiful environment thanks to the generosity of Revesby Workers Club who has provided the facilities without charge. It is with much pleasure that I present the President’s report for the year ended 31 May 2019 at our Annual General Meeting here today. It has been a wonderful year of achievements for our Children’s Festival Organisation. Our Twentieth Children’s Festival in Bankstown on 16.9.2018 attracted thousands of participants thanks to your great support. At this Festival, we were honored to welcome the new Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Hon David Coleman MP, dignitaries from Local, State and Federal governments, sponsors and many other community leaders. Our sixth Children’s Festival in the City of Sydney on 10.3.2019 was again a great success in beautiful weather with a big crowd, and particularly the presence of the NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Hon Ray Williams MP and the Federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. The resounding success of the Inaugural Children’s Festival in Campbelltown was a wonderful step forward, thanks to the great support of the Macarthur Region, particularly the tremendous efforts of Brian and his team. May I congratulate Hiep Ho, Mai Ly, Mark Burfield and Brian Laul and their respective teams for their tireless efforts in making our events so successful? The details of our three Children’s Festivals during the year 2018-2019 can be found in the reports of our Chairpersons. Apart from the above-mentioned three events, CFO has also participated in the United Nations Day Multicultural Festival held on 24.10.2019 at Martin Place, Sydney and organized our annual celebration of Friendship and Thanks on 11.11.2018 in Bankstown. Our up-and- coming events are the 2nd Children’s Festival in Campbelltown on 25.8.2019, our 21st Children’s Festival in Bankstown to be held on 15.9.2019 and our 7th Children’s Festival in Sydney scheduled to be held on 5.4.2020 at First Fleet Park, next to Circular Quay, Sydney. Despite our excellent work in organizing the three Children’s Festivals, our events last year were a little under-funded due to significant reduction in some grant programs, coupled with the amazing expansion of our activities. Thanks to the strength of our accounts we were able to overcome this difficulty. This will be reported on in detail later by our treasurer, Gurmeet Kaur. Fortunately, the NSW State Government promised last March to give us $100,000 funding support over four years. Furthermore, we have been working hard on fundraising and cost saving, at the same time. A big thank you to everyone who has been committed to our fundraising concert, to be held on 4.8.2019. We are sure that this will improve the finances of our Organisation. In the last 21 years, we have successfully staged thirty-three Children’s Festivals in Bankstown, Canterbury, Marrickville, Campbelltown and Sydney, attracting approximately a quarter of a million participants. The success of our concept has proved that it meets the expectation of the communities in some ways. Our next step is to improve and strengthen our social platform to bring the Children’s Festival experience to wider audiences and to co-operate with people who can help make our dream come true. This is apart from continuously improving the quality of our Children’s Festival. To do that, we need to do more in marketing and fundraising for our Organisation in the years to come. Due to his family and other personal commitments, John Pestana has decided to step down as CFO Vice President. Please join me in congratulating John Pestana for his tremendous contribution to our Organisation. Kana Phung has also decided to step down as Vice President due to her work and family commitments. Please join me in congratulating Kana Phung for her great contribution to our Organisation. I wish to express my sincere thanks to the members of the Advisory Committee, the Management Committee, particularly the Chairs and Co-Chairs, and our tireless volunteers for their commitment throughout the year, to all of our sponsors, Federal and State Governments, the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, the City of Campbelltown and the City of Sydney for their faith in the Children’s Festival and for their generous support. We are also indebted to those children and adults who contribute so much on the day. These are the schools, community groups, youth clubs, marching bands and the charities that create outdoor activities and the wonderful entertainment program. Thank you so much. I would also like to particularly thank our long-serving volunteers for their dedication to the vision of our Organisation which is to bring all children from every culture into an environment where they can play and live together in harmony in this wonderful country of Australia. I look forward to another great year of achievement and growth. Please accept my deep appreciation for your continued efforts. Thank you very much for your attention. Thuat V. Nguyen, OAM Inaugural Macarthur Multicultural Children’s Festival a resounding success Campbelltown’s iconic Koshigaya Park was turned into a kid’s kingdom on Sunday, August 5th last year, as the Macarthur Multicultural Children’s Festival was born. “This festival provides opportunities for children and adults to join in many exciting activities that go a long way towards garnering harmony within all our communities,” Greg Warren MP, State Member for Campbelltown, told the huge crowd present. In a local first, participants from 60+ community groups marched in the grand parade through the park as well as proudly shared their culture through activity stalls. From Scottish Sword Dance to Maori Hakka to Punjabi Bhangra and Columbian Salsa, children of all cultures came together to have fun, understand other cultures and show off their talents and their cultural specialities on the main stage. They also enjoyed participating in a Cultural Scavenger Hunt by visiting stalls to discover colours, tastes and sounds of the world, collecting stamps along the way and winning prizes. “This event is an excellent opportunity to bring us together to celebrate our community’s most treasured assets: multiculturalism and our children,” said Dr Mike Freelander MP, Federal Member for Macarthur. This Festival is also a unique family event whose aim is to inspire members of our community to embrace our shared values and cultural traditions at a grassroots level. I feel both humbled and honoured to chair an absolutely amazing committee of local leaders – all popular Macarthur identities - drawn from across the community from business, politics, the arts, education, indigenous & community groups. Most of all, I wish to thank Mr Thuat Nguyen OAM, Founder-President of the Children’s Festival Organisation for daring to dream of the very first Children’s Festival in Bankstown 21 years ago. He is a wonderful mentor, and we proudly carry forward his vision of social cohesion and creating harmony in our community. In April, as an extension of the Festival, we launched the very first Macarthur Young Champions Awards to recognise the achievements of our Under 18s and celebrate the fantastic contributions they are making to Macarthur. The gala awards evening was a house full event at West Leagues Club and well attended by a significant number of local community leaders. The Young Champions Awards will not only become an annual event in Macarthur, but will now be held in other parts of Sydney during the coming year. Of course, following its unprecedented success, the community has made Macarthur Multicultural Children’s Festival a fixture on the local events calendar. This year’s Festival will be held on Sunday 25 August at Koshigaya Park, Campbelltown. We are looking forward to a day filled with new, exciting and meaningful activities as we walk forward together as one. Stay in touch with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macarthurmulticulturalchildrensfestival/ Brian Laul, Chairperson #weareone Photo credits: Brett Atkins Children’s Festival in Bankstown Paul Keating Park, Sunday 16.9.2018 The Festival at Paul Keating Park on 16th of September 2018 was blessed with beautiful spring weather. The preparation of the ground started as early as 6:00am when Festival Hire arrived and began to set up the stage, marquees and stalls. By 7:00am our volunteers arrived and helped to decorate stage, setup information stalls, receptions…Over 100 volunteers donated their precious time for the event, among them were SES, St John Ambulance, Scout Groups, 20 High School Students from Al Noori Muslim School, 6 Students from Birrong Girls High School and 7 students from Vietnamese Language School in Bankstown. By 11:00am, the ground was filled with colorful festival