[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s a real buzz around Campbelltown on the first Saturday of November.
Fisher’s Ghost Festival gets into full swing from early afternoon and the carnival mood continues well into the night.
You just don’t see that many people walking around the heart of the own – from Broughton Street to Art Gallery Road and across to Bradbury Oval – at any other time of the year.
There’s an inner city vibe around the place that you wish you could bottle.
Well, not so much bottle but replicate a little more regularly throughout the year.
Especially around our old main drag, Queen Street, which comes to life once or twice a year.
There was a time the main street was buzzing every Thursday night and Saturday morning and didn’t need much help.
There was a lot more retail back in the day, which brought the punters in on a regular basis.
And while restaurants and cafes seem to be what’s mainly in store for Queen Street in the next 10 years or so, I hope a little bit of retail returns too.
If I was running the business chamber, lobbying on behalf of the main street would be my number one priority.
There are some great business people in Queen Street trying very hard to succeed.
They deserve our support and much more besides, including a regular program of events that bring people in.
There a lot of residents who only see the main street and what it has to offer once a year when they line up next to their fellow citizens to watch the Fisher’s Ghost festival parade.
I wonder how many of them liked what they saw in Queen Street to return before the next parade in 2019.
Obviously I cannot answer my own question, but the point is that the festival, and the parade in particular, are pointing us to a course of action that could make a difference.
