Event: Dapto Community Carols
Church: Dapto Anglican Church (plus Dapto Baptist, Dapto Uniting and Crossway churches).
When: Friday December 8, 5:30pm " 9:30pm.
The activities: The first two hours are a "carnival' with jumping castles, horizontal bungee, face painting, outdoor video games and cheap BBQ food. The last two hours are focused on stage-based entertainment including video messages and carols.
Where: Dapto Showground.
Attendance: 3000.
Elements that worked best
Two developments that worked well this year were better advertising and a different approach to proclaiming the gospel.
"We had advertising signage all over the suburb and spot on local radio, so there is really good community awareness about the event," says event organiser and Dapto assistant minister the Rev Peter Hutchinson.
"We used video clips with short messages from church leaders and vox pops from the community instead of a sermon or drama as we had in previous years. It seems when someone does a monologue on stage people switch off, but once someone is on screen, people's eyes are glued and ears to them."
What could be improved?
We would like to do more with the nativity scene next year and have more movement rather than just the participants standing there. We would also like to use real animals. We also plan to hire a production manager for the event to help the flow from one item to the next."
