Schoolies festivities on the Peninsula has come to an end we look back on a few busy weeks on the Peninsula, especially in and around Rye.
This year saw our inaugural Peninsula Schoolies festival launched. A two-day festival on Rye foreshore on 27 and 28 November for school leavers who graduated in 2020 and 2021. Our festivals and events team worked hard to stand this festival up in just three weeks in partnership with Hardware Corporation, with support from our Youth Services team, Red Frogs, DanceWize as well as Police and Ambulance and the Rye Community Group Alliance along the way.
The festival was a big hit with 1800 schoolies in attendance on Saturday and nearly 5000 in attendance on Sunday. Festival goers enjoyed some of the country’s most celebrated electronic acts and DJs such as Peking Duk, John Course, Running Touch and Hot Dub Time Machine – the atmosphere was electric and celebratory all weekend with lifelong memories made!
The collaborative approach to event management between the Shire, emergency and harm minimisation and support services ensured that the festival was delivered safely and incident-free. We are looking forward to building on this success and potentially expanding the offering for next year!
Our Youth Services team provided ongoing wellbeing and safety support for the entire week of Schoolies alongside Red Frogs and DanceWize. Our team was out and about until 3:30am every night and supported young people with transport home, first aid if required, a listening ear, food and water.
Schoolies’ behaviour generally over the last few weeks was as expected. There were some clashes and disagreements between party goers, but it is our impression that the schoolies behaved relatively well this year. We appreciate that the Police worked very proactively and most of the kids were well behaved.
Quote attributed to Mayor Councillor Anthony Marsh:
“Rather than brace for the inevitable impact of schoolies, we’ve decided to really embrace it this year. Our Peninsula Schoolies festival was a huge success, with almost 7,000 people attending across the two days.
“Providing for fun and entertainment in a safe and controlled environment also reduces the likelihood for other mass gatherings, house parties and antisocial behaviour.”
Quote attributed to Seawinds Councillors Susan Bissinger and Sarah Race:
“We are so lucky to be a small part of the successful 2021 Schoolies Festival in Rye, the carefully considered set up was amazing with everything well organised by our fantastic events team. We thank all the schoolies for an “incident free” weekend, and wish them well for their first year out of school.”
