A drone show that will tell the story of Fred Fisher’s ghost from 200 years ago almost got the chop at last night’s Campbelltown City Council meeting.
Confronted by a total bill of more than $800,000 for this year’s festival, some councillors raised concerns that such expenditure during a cost of living crisis could be perceived as insensitive.
A proposal by two councillors, Adam Zahra and Cameron McEwan, to drop the drone shows and use some of the money to make the planned fireworks even more spectacular was defeated when put to the vote.
Mayor Darcy Lound, who came up with the idea for drone shows, told the council before the vote that while he understood the push to cut costs, he would have been very disappointed if it won through.
Eventually every councillor present fell into line for the final vote, which approved the proposed expenditure for the 70th Festival of Fisher’s Ghost.
Indeed the final vote to endorse the funding for the festival was unanimous, which made the Mayor happy.
“The drone shows is about something different in a milestone year for the festival,’’ he said.
“These shows will tell the story of Fred Fisher’s ghost, and I think it will be a wonderful addition,’’ he said.
Deputy mayor Jayden Rivera (Greens) was all in for this year’s expanded landmark festival program.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate something that’s so iconic for our community, and to mark the 200th and 70th anniversaries,’’ he said.
Councillor Josh Cotter, who along with Councillor Warren Morrison launched a campaign during the last council elections to bring back the traditional festival parade, also welcomed the endorsement of the budget for 2026.
“It’s good that we’re working together – some of you may have seen that the Mayor and I met yesterday and had a chat about supporting the festival,’’ Cr Cotter said.
“I am proud that we will deliver such a great festival together as a council.’’
The 2026 Festival of Fisher’s Ghost will be held during the first two weeks of November.
Funny we didn’t have drones, but we had our wonderful street parade and festival every year when I was a kid, I’m 80 now, and things were hard economically, we didn’t waste money on drones, but we sure had a great time.
100k for a drone show – are they for real? It will probably fail like the Vivd one.. Fred will be shaking his head over this one…
$100,000 seems expensive for a such a short entertainment . Would it be better to spend that much money on other things that we can see over a longer period? Fixing the roads, hospital etc. would be better.
Really!!! What are you thinking council? There are people living in tents and you can’t find a better use for ratepayers money than a drone show?
How about you spend the money cleaning up the area and mowing council owned land?
You rely on the ratepayers to mow the nature strip which is council land and yet you can waste money on something like a trivial drone show?
There at so many more things the money could be used for, things that would benefit the community for years to come instead of a flash in pan…..once seen, forgotten drone show.
If you want to commemorate Fishers Ghost how about you rebuild the bridge? Many of us spent time in our childhood waiting to see the ghost….perhaps the younger ones would appreciate having something that actually represents the legend.
Very wasteful. How about a reduction in rates if we don’t see the show?