By Josip LONCARIC

MELBOURNE - A packed grandstand, standing ovations and an entertaining day overall. These are scenes not often associated with the Melbourne Knights (in recent times). But over the weekend, things changed as the third annual Croatian Folklore Festival, held last Sunday at the Knights' stadium in North Sunshine, proved to be the most successful ever.

Organised by the Mladez HDZ Melbourne branch and jointly hosted by the Melbourne Knights Soccer Club and Melbourne Croatia Social Club, the fun filled day ended up being the best attended edition of the annual event.

"Everything was perfect last Sunday, from the weather, to the great community turnout, to the performances of the dancers", said Mladez HDZ secretary Marica Vugdelija after the event.

Official figures claim the afternoon long event attracted approximately 1,200 people, although rough estimates from both the Melbourne Knights and Melbourne Croatia committees suggest around 1500-1700 people were in attendance throughout the entire day. Either way, these figures surpass the attendance figures of the previously held folkloric festivals quite comfortably.

MHDZ President Marko Bajer was delighted with the entire event, singling out the co-operation between parties the key to the festivals success.

"It really was an excellent day, the organisation from all three parties (MHDZ, Melbourne Knights, Melbourne Croatia) was first class", said Bajer.

As for the performances, everyone put on a fine show, especially the interstate guests from Perth, HFG Zagreb.

"Zagreb were outstanding and they really brought the house down", said Vugdelija.

The Perth based group performed "Eros s onog svijeta" to perfection and recieved rapturous applause from the crowd.

Apart from the Western Australians, the other groups which performed at the Festival included Geelong's 'Lado', 'Hrvatska Zora' from Sunshine, Fawkner's 'Antun Mihanovic', Springvale's 'Zvonimir' and 'Mladi Hrvati' from Clifton Hill.

By moving to the Melbourne Knights, the MHDZ were for the first time able to have an undercover grandstand to cover patrons from the rain, not that they needed it. Melbourne put on a fantastic summer's day for the event, but the grandstand gave people an excellent view of the dancers and the crowd sitting there generated a lot of noise, which added to the atmosphere.

Special guests on the day included (amongst other leaders from various Croatian community organisations throughout Victoria), the deputy Mayor of the City of Brimbank Dr. Kathryn Eriksson and her partner, former Labor MP and great friend of the Croatian people, Dr. Andrew Theophanous, both of whom addressed the crowd with a few kind words of support not only for the festival, but for the club itself and the Croatian community in Victoria.

As for next year, a similar collaboration with the soccer and social club is looking like a distinct possibility, according to Bajer.

"Both the social club and soccer club benefited from the day, as did the MHDZ, so we hope to do the same thing again next year", said Bajer.

A special thanks was saved for the event's main sponsors, Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Croatian Community Credit Union, whose generous support was greatly appreciated by the organisers.

Finally, a special mention goes out to the main organisers, the members of Mladez HDZ Melbourne, who included Marko Bajer, Marica Vugdelija, Vesna Radisic, Mary Dobran and Jasmine Budisa.

FROM THE EVENT ORGANISERS.....

- The sponsors of the 3rd Annual Croatian Folklore Festival were the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Croatian Community Credit Union

- Sponsors of the raffle draw: Steve Mandekic, Melbourne Croatia Social Club, Melbourne Knights Soccer Club, JMJ Timber & Hardware (Ivan Jacmenovic), Cro Travel World (Josip Cuk), Istra Smallgoods Daylesford, Sambar Australia (Tony Dobran), Franjo & Nevenka Bajer, HDZ Ogranak Newcastle.

- Mladez HDZ Melbourne & Melbourne Knights SC donated to each dance group the following amounts:

HFG 'Zagreb' Perth - $600.00,

HFA 'Hrvatska Zora' Sunshine - $350.00,

HFG 'Zvonimir' Springvale - $350.00,

HFG 'Mladi Hrvati' Clifton Hill - $350.00,

HKUD 'Lado' Geelong - $350.00.

- Mladez HDZ Melbourne would like to thank firstly the committees of both Melbourne Knights Soccer Club and Melbourne Croatia Social Club, their respective club presidents, Stanko Bilic and Steve Mandekic, not to mention groundkeeper Mirko 'Rus' Rastocic, as well as all those involved in both the organisation of the event and the running of the event, including the following: Franjo & Nevenka Bajer, Amanda Malkoc (HDZ Newcastle), Stjepan Novak, Josip Boros, Petar Gelo, Mate Barun, Bozo & Mara Balta, Ante Grasic, Zdravko Kapusta, Zarko Sango, Ecija Fijamengo, Johnny Vugdelija.

- Thank you also goes out to the local HDZ branches in Victoria as well as the HDZ Coordination of Australia & New Zealand for all their support in the preparation for this festival.

- HFG 'Zagreb' Perth donated a framed shirt from their dance group signed by all of it's members to the Mladez HDZ Melbourne committee in appreciation of all their work with the organisation of the festival and to thank them for inviting them to Melbourne and giving them an opportunity to perform in front of such a big crowd.

-Mladez HDZ Melbourne committee

Source: www.croatianherald.com - February 2, 2007