The two-week light and sound show at Horseshoe Lagoon was free to attend and opened on May 8, with more than 15,000 tickets registered.
The results of a post-event survey presented to Murray River Council at its meeting on Tuesday, July 27, showed 84 per cent of more than 1200 respondents said the show exceeded their expectations.
More than a third of visitors live outside 50km from Echuca-Moama, 62 per cent said the main reason for their visit to town was to see Moama Lights and a third stayed three to four nights in the twin towns.
“With an overwhelmingly positive response to the event, council’s economic development and tourism team recommend that this event become a permanent fixture on Echuca Moama’s event calendar,” community and economic development manager Sarah Ryan said.
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The event was produced by Mandylights, a Sydney company with credentials including a New Year’s Eve show in Dubai and an installation in Vivid Sydney.
It was funded through the NSW Government’s Streets as Shared Spaces program, with $72,000 spent on top the grant funding covered by $35,000 in sponsorship and $37,000 from the council’s tourism budget.
“The event itself was by everybody’s reports spectacularly successful — more so than we anticipated,” Mayor Chris Bilkey said.
“What was gratifying was to see that everybody thought it was fantastic as well.
“It’s given us encouragement to make an application for the grant for rebuilding parts of the Horseshoe Lagoon infrastructure and to extend it from the Moama wharf right around to the beach.
“If successful that will add much more to the footprint to the event in the future, should we generate the support for it to continue,” he said.
Overwhelmingly, 98 per cent of survey respondents said they would attend if Moama Lights returned bigger and better in 2022.
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“We all know what an amazing event this was, I would suggest there was hardly a negative apart from there not being enough tickets for everyone to attend,” Deputy Mayor Nikki Cohen said.
“People came from far and wide, and I’d like to thank everyone who sponsored the event especially considering the sponsors are probably going through deep hardship at the moment with COVID.”
Cr Ann Crowe said it was a “phenomenal return on investment” and Cr Geoff Wise said the $4.4 million into the motel community — an indication based on the survey — came “just when it was needed”.
“I think sometimes it pays to take risks, and that’s what [community and economic development director John Harvie] has done here,” Cr Wise said.
The council will receive a report at its next meeting with recommendations to host Moama Lights in 2022.
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