Gladstone Harbour Festival Welcomes the Easter Boats

The 54th annual Gladstone Harbour Festivals programming is looking to be 'the best ever'. This will celebrate the Easter arrival of the yachts for the 2016 Redcliffe to Gladstone Race. The 2016 festival starts with opening night on Wednesday the 23rd of March, with:

Spy Wednesday (23rd March): Evening Festival opening 6pm till 10 pm.

Maundy Thursday (24th March): Evening Festival

Good Friday (25th March): All day from 10am till 10pm

Holy Saturday (26th March): All day from 10am till 10pm

Easter Sunday (27th March): All day from 10am till 10pm

Three stages operate producing a variety of music and show events. There is fun, side-shows, fireworks, talent quest, and more. In 2015 there was a spectacular jetpack display. What secret event will enthall this year? Join the Great Raft Race, the Lanterns, The Lights Street Parade and the Junior Harbour Festival Queen Quest. Have fun on the rides, and eat interesting chow!

At the festival, the holy aspect of this week is the Christian Blessing of Fleet. This will take place probably just after the raft race on Good Friday, but might be delayed till Easter Saturday.

The race fleet starts from Redcliffe at 11:00 am on Good Friday, with the first yachts being seen off Gladstone around 7:30 am on Easter Saturday, with the main fleet arriving in time to welcome the glorious resurrection of Lord Jesus early on Easter Sunday morning.

The Gladstone Festivals and Events committee's honorary chairman is Raymond Lewis. Ray is well known with his Departure Point travel agency (see 'Travel Agents')

The festival was started in 1963 by Douglas Norris. He wanted a fun welcome for the race fleet, which had already had annual events since 1949. This 308 nautical mile 2016 Race is number "67". A nautical, or sea, mile is 6,076.12 feet, whereas a standard mile is 5,280 feet. There are 1852 m in a nautical mile. Originally, this was one minute of arc on a meridan of longtitude.

Working out the date of Easter is probably more difficult than winning this yacht race. (See Table Below)