History
The first Gala Day was held on November 3, 1916, to raise money for the Red Cross Society at the height of World War I. Described by the Geelong Advertiser as “the biggest fete the city had ever seen, the most perfectly planned function, they gayest spectacle, and the highest in patriotic purpose”, the first parade raised 5500 pounds - a staggering amount for the day.
After the success of the first festival, Gala Day was adopted as an annual event, the second festival being held on November 2, 1917. It was not until 1927 that the Geelong Hospital took over responsibility for running the festival. The festival has been traditionally held on a Friday weekday, students at local schools are often given the day off. Some schools missed out, receiving the Friday of the Royal Geelong Show off instead, while others received both days off in November.
As of 2006 the festival was changed, being renamed the Gala Appeal "Family Fun Day" and moved to the first week of December. The festival is now held in Johnstone Park, and has been accused of being "watered down" from the old event by some.
In 2008 the event was again changed, with the Gala Day Parade and Family Fun Day moved to a Saturday. Schools, community groups and corporate groups can enter a float in the parade. The Family Fun Day return to the city’s spectacular waterfront at Steampacket Gardens, featuring market and food stalls, rides, show bags and roving performers.
Read more about this topic: Gala Day
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)