After making a successful debut last year, WinterFire had been set to return on June 25 until last week’s floods carried away the firewood and left the showgrounds buried under water. 

WinterFire organisers met on Saturday to take stock of the situation and reschedule the event.

Event co-ordinator Jaqui Stacey said while the floods had been unfortunate, the event committee was ready and willing to get the event back on its feet before the beginning of spring.

“It washed all our bonfire wood away, which is now saturated, and the waters went through the two kitchens at the showgrounds so they’re all going to have to wait to be dried out and then the electricals checked and possibly replaced,” Ms Stacey said. 

“We’ve had to put everything on hold but we’ve now got a tentative date of August 27 and we’re going to start contacting all our community groups that are involved and we’ll be contacting our performers and people who are doing the catering and then we’re going to rebuild.” 

Ms Stacey said the new date would be confirmed on the event’s Facebook page over coming weeks, along with details regarding the event’s lineup of belly dancers, fire twirlers, drummers, musicians, dancers and fireworks displays.

Lantern workshops are also set to continue in the leadup to the event’s lantern parade. 

“Our theme is about fire - I suppose what we were trying to do was to capture what most people loved about cracker night or Guy Fawkes night where you had your bonfire and your fireworks and you toasted your marshmallows and had your hot chocolates.

“What we’ve tried to do is to not have anything that was artificial in any way - so we don’t have glow lights or laser lights or a jumping castle; this is all good old-fashioned fun.”

WinterFire is a team effort from Arts Deloraine, Deloraine Fire Brigade, Apex, Lions, SES, Meander Valley Radio and the Deloraine Show Society.