The Tweed Valley went bananas at the weekend – literally as thousands flocked to Murwillumbah for the annual Tweed Valley Banana Festival parade and family fun day.
Festival organiser Carol Mudge said, with the last bit of voice she had left , that this year’s event seemed to really fire up the region’s imagination.
“We had 3-5000 people in town on Saturday,” she said in a raspy voice.
She said while crowds in the street were slightly down on last year, the family fun day at Knox Park was really well attended.
“It was a fantastic event for the whole community,” Carol said.
“There seemed to be more participation, more enthusiasm for the festival – it really has been a fantastic year.”
Saturday’s main day also included the crowning of this year’s banana festival royalty with Jessica Mattners winning the coveted title to be named the 57th Festival Queen while Miss Personality was Emily Colleton, Teen Queen was Layce Andrews, the new teen personality title went to Rhen Francis, Senior Princess was Taylah Brown, Prince was Rollie Dyer and little Keira Paddock took out junior princess. On Friday night at the Banana Festival Ball at Plantation House, Duranbah here on the Tweed Coast, Liz Davis was announced as Charity Queen. Liz, a pre-school teacher, raised $8,000 for her local charity (the Murwillumbah Hospital Rehabilitation while combined all the girls raised $22,000 for local Tweed charities.
