VACSAL - Carnival event management, web design, videos, marketing

The VACSAL Sports Carnival is the largest yearly gathering for the Victorian Aboriginal community, and has up to 6,000 attendees.

Highlights of the project:

We were invited to event and project manage the VACSAL Football & Netball Carnival in 2018 at Mars Stadium Ballarat and event manager for the 2019 Carnival at Marty Busch Reserve. The VACSAL Carnival is the largest event for the Aboriginal community in Victoria.

This was in collaboration with the Carnival committee, making up important members from the Aboriginal community, representatives from VACSAL and BADAC, the Aboriginal liaison officer from the Victorian Police and Ballarat City Council, and Grampians Community Health.

The goal of the event was to create a positive space for the Victorian Aboriginal people to come together. The secondary goal was to promote a healthy lifestyle from within the community. During the event, we interviewed attendees, and the overall consensus was that the event goals had been achieved very well. The very positive outcome resulted in our being awarded the winner of the 2018 VICSPORT Community Event of the Year.

The Carnival is a 3-day event with elements such as a stage with local performers, football and netball games, children’s activities, craft market, massage and chiropractic treatment, food stalls and workshops. 

Performers, craft market and workshops

We collaborated with various local performers, artists and groups to run activities during all 3 days. Victoria Gymnastics ran free gymnastics classes, Netball Victoria ran netball workshops and we had a stage with local performers, football and netball games, children’s activities, craft market, food stalls and workshops. Hands on Health ran free chiropractic and massage services.

Winner of the 2019 VICSPORT Community Event of the Year

Our event was a great success and a source of pride for the community. It has a great community effect in encouraging healthy living and a healthy lifestyle in the Aboriginal community. People are also encouraged to join a netball of football team whatever age or ability and join in the fun. As a result, we were awarded the winner of the 2019 VICSPORT Community Event of the Year, for the 2018 Carnival held at the Ballarat Mars Stadium and Ballarat Basketball Stadium.

Reaching the community through social media, email marketing, community collaboration

For the 2018 Carnival, we created a new event website for registrations of teams to play in the Carnival. Teams and community members were reached by very successful Facebook ad campaigns, and we had a record amount of teams register to play. The Facebook page was increased by 50% and an Instagram account was created.

Video ad and event video

We created an ad for promoting signups that was shared via social media and was used to promote signups. The event brought 7,000 visitors over the Saturday and Sunday to the Ballarat Mars Stadium and Basketball Stadium. The event video on Facebook was very successful with over 5,000 views.

Securing Sponsorship with Various Organizations

While major sponsorship was obtained via the Ballarat And District Aboriginal, we secured minor sponsorship with Hands On Health who offered free massage and chiropractic services, Netball Victoria, Wilsons Fruit & Vegetables/Safeway, and Central Highlands Water.

Media, PR, VIP’s

We created 2 media releases which were sent out to our local newspaper, TV and radio stations. As a result we were featured in The Courier newspaper and other media. On the event day we had WIN TV attend and interview participants. To open the Carnival we had government officials from the local and federal government.