Following the successful publication of the Children's Festival Book I -“Playing together and Living in Harmony”, the Children's Festival Book II - "How to successfully organise Children's Festivals” provides a clear and solid understanding of how we have successfully staged these events in the past. It aims to bring the Children’s Festival experience to wider audiences and to encourage like-minded people to hold a festival in other parts of the state and across the country. The work will be a great reference for organisers, and we are hopeful that it will help the Children’s Festival concept to keep growing long into the future.

We are fortunate that the contributors who have also been our key volunteers for a long time come from different professional areas: youth leaders, teachers, lawyers, event organisers, social workers… but all of them have the same vision: “to contribute to social harmony and cohesion, starting with children, because as we always acknowledge Children are our future.”

We strive to achieve that vision by bringing joy to children, their families and the community at a Children’s Festival, because “Those who play together stay together”.

However, our world is changing rapidly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and many things in our lives are different, including in the area of event management. Therefore, our Children's Festival Book II will be updated following the completion of this year’s Children’s Festivals to reflect the changes that we will discover are required to run such a cultural event in the years to come, and also add more interesting details to the Book.  

We sincerely hope you find in this work not only the guidelines to successfully organise a Children’s Festival but also that you learn something of the heart and soul of the many unwavering volunteers who work together with the hope to contribute to building a better world for all of us and the next generations.

 Children’s Festival Organisation Inc.  

The eBook "How to successfully organise Children's Festivals" can be downloaded here

Ross Leighton, although not being directly involved in the CF, is not a stranger to these celebrations. As one of the longest serving officers with the NSW government’s multicultural agency, starting with the Ethnic Affairs Commission, then later Community Relations Commission and finally Multicultural NSW - Ross has had a close look at these celebrations over the many years and has kindly provided his assessment in the form of a book review as follows (Kim Vo)

From simple beginnings in Bankstown in 1999 the Children’s Festival has evolved to become an important event in the calendar of multicultural events in New South Wales. Children’s Festivals have since been held in Bankstown, Canterbury, Marrickville, Sydney and Campbelltown. This commemorative publication covers the history of the Children’s Festival since 1999 and is intended as the first volume of a comprehensive record of the event. A second volume will deal with the steps involved in organising the Children’s Festival.