Community & Business
28 September, 2022
Festival to flow millions into region
MILLIONS of dollars will be poured into Mareeba over the Savannah in the Round weekend as organisers prepare to host thousands of people across the three-day music festival.
Last year’s event injected nearly $3 million into the Mareeba Shire in overnight visitor expenditure with over 4000 visitors flocking to Mareeba to spend the weekend – this year, around 50 per cent more are expected.
These visitors either spend the night out at the grounds or in Mareeba, with the Cape Gateway Motel reporting that 35 of their 37 rooms are fully booked out just with Savannah staff and festival attendees.
The Jackaroo Motel has been fully booked, housing the artists over the weekend and regularly rotating them as some acts play their set and leave and another takes their place.
Mareeba enjoys the flow-on benefits of Savannah long after the festival has finished as the money spent by visitors and the festival organisers, mainly remains in the town and in locals’ hands.
Mareeba Mayor Angela Toppin saw last year’s festival as a major success and is looking forward to what this year’s festival will bring.
“Savannah in the Round was extremely successful last year, it provides an opportunity to showcase visitors this incredible part of Far North Queensland and over 4,000 people attended the three-day event in 2021,” she said.
“I look forward to welcoming the festival back to our town at the end of the month, our shire reaps the benefits of the festival long after it concludes and it is wonderful to see how the event continues to grow.
“As Mayor I would like to acknowledge the significant efforts of the organisers, volunteers, members of the community and businesses who make this great event possible.”
Mareeba Chamber of Commerce president Joe Moro said the festival injected money into local cafes, shops, motels and more.
“There is no doubt that Savannah injected a lot of money into the local economy and we see festivals, especially big ones like this, have a lot of spin offs to the local community,” he said.
“Even though a lot of people will be camping out there but it is a number of days so they will come into town, restock on certain things they need and the town will get a lot of benefit out of it.”
Mr Moro said the chamber had been eager for an additional event to for Mareeba to follow on from the other two major annual events and he believed Savannah in the Round had now filled that gap.
“We wanted another festival around this period, it sort of fills the gap that comes after the Mareeba Rodeo and the Multicultural Festival have been held,” he said.
“We are excited and we think it is going to bring a lot of business to the town and on top of that, it is going to bring a lot of national and potentially international exposure to the area
