Juniors perform well at 3 Rivers Festival

Narrandera sent a strong contingent across to the 3 Rivers Festival this year. The festival, which has been going strong for five years, is held at Echuca-Moama.

The 3 Rivers Festival combines music and dancing with a two day touch carnival.

This year the festival welcomed four tribes on to the field, which is held on traditional Yorta Yorta (Wolithica) lands; the Wemba Wemba, the Dja Dja Wurrung, the Gunditjmara and the Wiradjuri.

There were dancers from every tribe who took part in the festival.

“There were also kids from here who were dancing,” said Kelly Bamblett, who attended the festival.

This year, there were teams participating in the Men’s Touch carnival and the Open Mixed carnival.

The Mens’ team were playing in jerseys this year which paid homage to former Narrandera footballer Ian ‘Bulldog’ Matthews; according to Shaurntae Lyons, the team were unofficially known as the Uncle Bulldog Memorial Side.

“Uncle Bulldog’s Memorial Side went to the semi-finals, but they lost in the end. I think they were a bit disappointed; they wanted to bring it home for him,” Ms Lyons said.

There were also a contingent of about 30 kids who went down to play in the under 13s sides.

“It was an all-round good weekend,” said Ms Lyons.

According to Ms Lyons, a lot of the children who attended were supervised by her parents, Tommy Lyons and Donna Spencer.

“The kids loved it, Mum loved it, Dad loved it.”

On top of the touch carnival, festival goers were treated to performances by X Factor winner, Aussie Eurovision representative and Moama local Isaiah Firebrace, as well as dance crew Brothers In Arms, Mildura hip hop legend MC Philly and singers Lillie Walker, Echuca’s Chris Cooper and Jida Gulpilil.

However, the trip to the festival wouldn’t have been possible without help from the Narrandera community.

“We got a lot of support from businesses in the community,” Ms Lyons explained.

“Some paid for shirts, cartons of water, fruitboxes – stuff that we needed for the kids. The Narrandera Bakery gave us heaps of rolls.”

“It was all round, really good support from the community. I just want the businesses to know that we really appreciate it. It really was appreciated by the kids,” Ms Lyons said.

Narrandera Bidgee Boxing, Coles Narran-dera, Narrandera Aboriginal Lands Council, Precision Irrigation, Hutchins Engineering, Whiby’s Betta Electrical, Bel Air Pizza Wagga, the Murrumbidgee Hotel, Close Pharmacy, Popular Fish and Chip Shop, Narrandera Bakery and Sameera Bashir all gave their support through donations to the teams, and the team behind this year’s 3 Rivers touch sides would like to express their gratitude.