Winter in Mandurah is going to be all about ice skating, innovative pop-up food stalls, live entertainment, prizes and world-class estuary views this year, with the region’s first Winter Wonderland gearing up to put on a show.
The event, a joint venture between business owners, Shape Mandurah and the City of Mandurah, will take over the foreshore between August 4 and 27 to make winter days more enjoyable.
The idea of bringing a winter event to Mandurah was first conceived by local business owners a few months ago, who hoped a family event would help boost winter trade around the foreshore.
“With the change of weather, it’s just a fact that when it’s raining and cold outside no one really wants to venture out,” DPM owner Sophie Price said.
“Hopefully with the winter festival up and coming it will encourage people to stick around Mandurah and actually do activities with their family around here rather than travelling to other places.
“Usually a lot of businesses around here don’t get much say in what does go on, so we all spitballed thousands and thousands of ideas and quite a few of them actually come to play now which is really really awesome.”
Shape Mandurah’s David Snyder said the event will feature the first 25-30 metre ice rink outside the metro area, pop up spaces for local businesses, and family activities around the foreshore.
“I’m really hopeful that people are going to come down,” he said.
“We’ve got more than 90 prizes that we are giving away if you purchase your ticket before August 2, from restaurant vouchers to coffee, we are giving away a surfboard.
“It’s going to be really nice.”
Mr Snyder said the project was the perfect example of what Shape Mandurah was trying to achieve in town.
“What Shape Mandurah is all about is facilitating businesses to come together and to create this grassroots growth of the local economy and the local identity,” he said.
“This project really encompasses what it’s all about.”
Ms Price agreed, and said staff members at DPM were really excited to be part of the initiative.
“I think what Mandurah needs is innovation and we need to compete with these other places, we need to be doing something innovative and different and something that’s new to Mandurah to keep people interested and keep people staying here,” she said.
After encountering some patent problems in the past, the team will be finally launching their new coffee in a cone at their pop up stall during the event, a serve of espresso inside a purposely-made waffle cone.
“It’s really exciting, because it’s the first one in WA,” she said.
Peel Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) officer Lindsay Stacpoole said the chamber was very excited to be supporting the project, which he believed would set a benchmark for other events in the future.
“The chamber is very supportive and really excited to see local businesses in the private industry get together and actually make the best of a situation that can’t be changed,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be a big turning point for the area, for the businesses and for future events to come.”
Tickets for the event are now on sale at the Mandurah Winter Wonderland website.
Attendees who purchase their tickets before August 2 will enter in a draw to win several prizes including a trip to Bali, several food vouchers and a brand new surfboard.