Aim of ’Spring’s here’

Press, 1 August 1986, Page 17

Aim of ’Spring’s here’

Providing the setting for a relaxed atmosphere is the aim of this year’s “Spring’s Here” festival, to begin on September 7 at the Botanic Gardens.

The festival.will be one of the last two activities organised by the Arts Employment Scheme before it is wound up, with other temporary work schemes, on October 31. The

scheme has also organised the “Out to Lunch” programme which will begin on August 25. Entertainment planned for the festival programme to be held each Sunday ‘during September would be relaxing and complementary instead of “combative,” said the coordinator of the Arts Employment Scheme, Mr Martin McPherson. People would -be encouraged to bring picnics and blankets for the daf-

fodil lawn. The musical themes planned so far would include jazz, popular, country and western as well as some classical music. Finding a sponsor for the festival’s $l5OO programme had been a problem because many businesses had already made up their budgets in June for the coming year, said Mr McPherson. A sponsor had been found, but had yet to be confirmed. Once the scheme is

wound up, the 14 remaining staff will have to look for other jobs. A number of the 60 people who were employed on the scheme before Christmas had now found employment in unsubsidised jobs, said Mr McPherson. More than 55 per cent of the people who had worked on the scheme were now employed in fields relating to their original employment with the scheme.