af 2000

The next festival with queens should have been held in 1999 but because of a shortage of contestants and their young age it was decided to put the queen competition off until 2000. Judy Byatt was president in 2000 and with the help of Brian Byatt, Pam Slaney, Joan Hetherington, Tim Sheehan and others, set about organising the Festival. Mention must also be made to John and Joe Licciardello for their tremendous work with the organisation of the fruit marquee. This year's theme was "Past, Present and Future". Although a one day festival, Saturday Markets were held on the main street and were well attended- some people came expecting the Festival to be on due to some confusion with the advertising. Lions ran the ball that year which was held on the Saturday night. Building on the success of the last ball they again engaged the Troubadours and enlisted the help of Jenny Dix in decorating the Recreation Centre. She transformed the interior into a cavern of fairy lights, autumn leaves, balloons and decorations. This was the first festival since Apex started the Donnybrook festivals in 1978 that I hadn't photographed and the central committee got Siam Studio in Manjimup to come and do the ball photography. There were nine queen contestants this year and they were:

CONTESTANTS SPONSOR; Fiona Kirkpatrick Donnybrook Football Club, Fiona Smithson Rural Youth, Fiona Torrisi Lions Club, Danielle Chapman Dimasi's Fruit & Vegetables, Tamara Forward Donnybrook Real Estate, Elizabeth Licciardello Trigzz Boutique, Melonie Pringle Maree's for Hair and Beauty, Lisa Patane Alf s Machinery, Gemma Benson Donnybrook Football Club. (Courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals")

Apple Queen Entrants (top) Danielle Chapman (centre) Melonie Pringle (front L-R) Gemma Benson, Fiona Smithson, Tamara Forward, Fiona Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Licciardello & Lisa Patane. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"	Apple Princess Danielle Chapman with Apple Queen Elizabeth Licciardello. Photo courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals"

Apple Queen Elizabeth Licciardello on Triggz Boutique 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 2000

The next Donnybrook Apple Festival is in Easter 2010