Whether you’re new to the city, or have been here since forever – you have been invited to join in on a beloved tradition celebrating all things local.
This year, around 50 floats will again roam local streets as part of the Beenleigh Cane Parade and Festival, greeting eager onlookers and raising funds for some of the city’s most vulnerable.
Running this Saturday 10 May, from 3pm to 6.30pm, the community staple is again being organised by the Rotary Club of Beenleigh.
Club member and former president Rachelle Mulraney said the parade was a celebration of the old and the new.
“The cane festival is a time for our community to get together and celebrate our heritage,” she said.
“We have the cane history in this area, but it’s also a chance to just celebrate everything that is still good about being in our community today.
“We’re a really resilient community. We go through a lot… But we always band together.
“[The festival] is about being able to celebrate those important things that make Beenleigh a great place to live.”
While the day is intended as a “party for the community,” Ms Mulraney said it was also about doing good.
Throughout the day, and the gala ball to be held a week later, parade organisers will be raising funds for local charity Nightlife.
“They do incredible work in our community for the homeless,” Ms Mulraney said.
“Those guys are working really hard. Anything that we can do as the Rotary Club and community to support those guys is really important.”
According to the latest data by local organisation YFS, there are currently 358 people sleeping rough in the city – including 64 families, 198 individuals, and 31 youth.
The cane parade will kick off at 3pm this year, starting on George Street at the Zander Street roundabout, moving into Main Street and finishing at the Bellew Street intersection.
“Then everyone will head back to the Beenleigh Showgrounds, where the festival will kick off,” Ms Mulraney said.
“We will have live entertainment, kids rides, face painting, different stalls and food trucks.
“We will wrap up with a big laser show finale at 6pm.”
The parade was relaunched in 2021 following Covid-19, and has since been hit.
“We get feedback every year that people love seeing it,” Ms Mulraney said.
“People that have grown up in the community, and knew the parade from when it was happening decades ago, get that sense of nostalgia seeing it back in the community.
“You also get people who are new to our community who are really excited to see that we have something like this – it gives us that small-town feel and that sense of community which everyone really likes
“The festival has had a really long history in the community and… the Rotary Club has been really glad to be able to pick it back up and make it another annual event in the community calendar.”
Organisers are continuing to accept applications for floats from community organisations, schools, local businesses and more.
