Mountain Folk Festival 2024

Congratulations to local Mountain Guide Mark “Macca” McDonald from Falls Creek Guiding who delivered the inaugural Mountain Folk Festival thanks to receiving $10,000 through the Community Fund Scheme. Around 100 community members joined Macca over two days at the Falls Creek Hotel to watch Warren Miller’s “All Time”, Women’s Adventure Film and Reel Rock. This was complemented by a community engagement project led by Macca which welcomed participants to produce their own short films based on the themes Young Folk, Working Folk and Good Folk. These films were presented as part of the festival. Macca liaised with the Falls Creek Primary School and spent time on-site with the students to explore what makes the mountains of Falls Creek special to them and how to capture this in a short film. Connection to place (specifically Falls Creek) and connection to each other were both disrupted in the wake of the Bogong High Plains Road landslip event and this project allowed a community-led approach to promote social recovery through a share passion for the mountains.

Economic renaissance has been another focal point of the recovery program following the landslip. The road closure saw all summer events closed, loss of access to the summer operators in Falls Creek and diminished confidence in some holiday makers for the winter 2023 season due to the rectification works still being in progress at the time. The Mountain Film Festival provided an avenue for economic support through the collaboration with local operators and businesses.