THE HERVEY Bay RSL Carols by Candlelight was the single largest community engagement event across the Fraser Coast last year, by a distance.

To put some context around that, over 8,000 people crammed into Seafront Oval to enjoy this free family event.

That’s more than the Whale Festival and Seafood Festival (sorry Flavours Festival) combined. The Carols is the king of locally produced events.

But here’s the problem. Growing pains have emerged.

There are scales to events. Levels that require more investment to maintain the audience’s expectations.

The Carols have doubled in size, it needs significantly higher levels of sound and lighting production, more toilets, more security, a larger traffic plan, and the list goes on.

Many areas of the event budget have doubled. This is a not-for-profit event. The organisers and volunteers take zero money away from this.

It is community in every sense of the word.

The same cannot be said for the money Council financially contributes for touring concerts via Fraser Coast Tourism and Events, a sum that dwarfs their contribution to the Carols. Those events take all the money and head for the hills.

The Carols are at a crossroads and are two weeks away from waving the white flag and cancelling for this year. That would be a tragedy.

The RSL Club are underwriting the event with a significant cash sponsorship, alongside Prime Agents and Fraser Coast Mates.

Carols event organisers have visited countless businesses, looking for additional local financial support, to keep the event alive.

Two things are blatantly obvious.

This cornerstone event needs reform from a manpower and commercial perspective, with a sustainable plan that can stretch years into the future.

Council needs to support it with an extra $15,000 this year, for the region’s single largest community event or tell Fraser Coast Tourism and Events, a wholly owned business unit of Council, to immediately cough up $15,000 in sponsorship from the $2M in funding they get every year.