af 1997

The first one-day festival without a queen competition was held in 1996. Sunday, March 30, 1997 saw the first one-day festival with a Queen competition. This was run by a committee under the very capable chairmanship of Terri Sharp with Sue Godsell as co-ordinator. The Apple Festival Ball was held on the Saturday night and that was the start of the festival. Four university students had been given the job of promoting the festival this year. They were Steve Palmer, Lisa Wylie, Natalie Dunn and Hayley Kirby and they came up with the concept of "Donny Applebrook". He was an animated, happy little character that was used as a motif and also a costume was made so he could appear at different events. The theme for this festival was a "Country Fair" so Donny was featured this year as wearing a country fair hat. In future years Donny's costume could be changed to suit the different themes. Donnybrook dressed up for the occasion and the Mainstreet Committee co-ordinated the design, the making and the erection of colourful welcoming banners at the entrances to town.

Because of the number of different events being staged at Egan Park, the oval was divided into several parts with different programs happening simultaneously. Also events were held at the railway station and on South Western Highway through out the day. The Recreation Centre Committee had taken over from Rotary in the running of the Ball. The Ball had always been one of the big money raisers of the festival and other organisations had felt that they should have their turn to cash in on the ball. However the balls had always been so successfully run by Rotary that the Central Committee had been reluctant to change the organisation. The Recreation Committee however felt that as the ball was to be held in their venue they deserved a turn. Many people also felt Rotary's approach to the ball with old time dancing was a bit dated. So the decision was made and the Recreation Centre set, about organizing the Ball. Their biggest change was to hire the Troupadores, a very popular and expensive up-market Perth band that played more contemporary music than the bands Rotary had hired. A Rotarianne, Jenny Dix, organized the decor for the ball. She set up a variety of decorations in the stadium to create the atmosphere of a country fair. The queen competition attracted ten entrants, which was very good considering that none of the service clubs entered a contestant this year. They were:

CONTESTANTS SPONSOR; Kerry Butler Butler Electrics, Michaela Pike Orchard Improvement Group, Melanie Atherton Donnybrook Football Club, Natalie Sommerville Rural Youth, Kymie Betti Trigzz Boutique, Rosie Licciardello Dawesville Group of Companies, Leanne Kirkpatrick Donnybrook Recreation Centre, Jodie Emberton Donnybrook Foodland, Lorelei Mitchell Donnybrook Newsagency, Samantha Valli Graphic Hair Studio. (Courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals")

Apple Queen Entrants (L-R) Kerry Butler, Melanie Atherton, Jodie Emberton, Lorelei Mitchell, Rosie Licciardello, Samantha Valli, Michaela Pike, Leanne Kirkpatrick, Kymie Betti & Natalie Sommerville. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Katja Humphries with Apple Queen Lorelei Mitchell, & Apple Princess Kymie Betti. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"

Rosie Licciardello on Dawesville Plumbing's winning float. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"

We invite people to provide us with photos of previous apple festival queens and floats. Anyone who has photos can drop them into "Crendon Machinery", all photos will be returned.

The Donnybrook Apple Festival 1997

The next Donnybrook Apple Festival is in Easter 2010