“People flock to St Kilda to enjoy its natural beauty, home-grown talent, vibrant community spirit, family-friendly fun, and wonderful food, so let’s hope it continues to be a success for another 40 years.” Micky Ahuja https://maservicesgroup.com.au/who-we-are/diversity/
They say the best things in life are free and that certainly seems to be true judging by the fact that more than 400,000 people regularly visit the St Kilda Festival. It just so happens to also be Australia’s largest FREE community festival.
Sunday, 9th February 2020 was a special day for St Kilda. Not just because it was holding its annual festival but because it was celebrating its 40th anniversary. A day many people thought would never happen when the festival was cancelled in 2006 due to a lack of finance.
Since its inception in 1980 the festival has changed beyond recognition. Starting out as a two-day event it was initially designed to help shift the public perception of St Kilda. which had by this stage experienced over 70 years of steady decline.
Since then, St Kilda has undergone a ritzy development program and so too has the festival - gradually expanding to become a week-long, multi-programmed event. This has culminated in the St Kilda Festival becoming Australia’s biggest outdoor cultural event.
After cancellation in 2006, 2007 was a turning point in the festival’s history, securing both private sponsorship from a major investor and significant investment from the Victorian State government. In addition, new programming initiatives encouraging local businesses to participate, enabled it to re-establish itself as a festival offering something for everyone.
One of the biggest days of the St Kilda event is Festival Sunday, where the emphasis is on live music and in particular, showcasing new artists by placing them in front of the vast crowds that attend each year.
Festival Sunday also provides multiple entry points for community participation across a wide range of activities including dance, sport, carnival rides, kids entertainment, workshops, markets, shopping, food and a whole lot more.
As a free, open-access event, the St Kilda Festival has few Australian equivalents in terms of government investment and attendance numbers. These numbers include a diverse social demographic especially in relation to income, capacity and age.
The outcome is a strong mix of multi-generational and multi-cultural festival-goers who interact with others in ways that they are unlikely to encounter through ordinary everyday circumstances.
This eclectic mix of people brings about many security and safety challenges and one which experienced security group MA Services are proud to be a part of.
MA Services Group (https://masecurityguards.com.au/) did what they do naturally and were able to take much of the stress away from the event organisers using their previous experience of handling security for large scale events. These include more recently, the Melbourne Cup Carnival, the Midsumma Festival Pride March and the Moomba Festival. As such. the large team spent the day ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the the 400,000 strong crowd, checking ID’s, and helping those in need.
Micky Ahuja, founder of MA Services Group had this to say
“We were all gobsmacked, amazed, and truly inspired by the 2020 St Kilda Festival. We’re proud as ever of our involvement and would like to extend a huge thank you to all our staff who worked exceptionally hard.”
“People flock to St Kilda to enjoy its natural beauty, home-grown talent, vibrant community spirit, family-friendly fun, and wonderful food, so let’s hope it continues to be a success for another 40 years.”
