A Beechworthian has fun memories from stumbling upon the Golden Horseshoes Festival some years ago as a teenager when growing up in the gourmet region of Milawa.

Kelly Clarkson had wondered why the Easter weekend had been so busy at the time she visited.

“It was a great experience,” she said.

Kelly put her hand up to volunteer for the Golden Horseshoes Festival the year after she moved to Beechworth in 2019, having lived in Melbourne for two decades.

“I volunteered during Covid when the festival had to take a slightly different look back then, did two years volunteering, had the next two or three years off and then back this year,” she said.

Kelly said she volunteers to make sure the community still has events and things to do due to her fond memories of the Easter festival as a teenager.

“I've always been involved in a lot of different volunteering, whether work or community related,” she said

“I believe that if everyone does little bit a lot can be achieved, and it means that we can get more things to happen."

Kelly said she returned to be a volunteer this year from a call for people to join the committee to keep the festival going and took on the role of vice president.

She said the vision is for the festival to be a community event.

“The festival relies on the community participating in the parade as well and is a central focus of the weekend with everything else built around that event," she said.

Kelly said the highly dedicated and small band of committee volunteers has people with different backgrounds and skill sets.

The committee vice-president and volunteer also said strong sponsorship has been received from local businesses despite their struggles from bushfire impacts and cost-of-living demands.

“It has been great to see businesses still supporting the festival and helping us out,” Kelly said.

“This ensures that we can have the road closures for the parade as well as entertainment on the day and all weekend.

“We hope visitors to the town have a good time and come back at some other point during the year.

“Even if people can't help throughout the year with planning or joining the committee, they might be happy to help out if they have a couple of hours on the day or over the Easter weekend.

“It helps makes lighter work for the rest of the volunteers.

“The festival is a great thing to have for the community, it's unique, and we should preserve it.”

Kelly said she manages to balance her volunteering with part time work as a chartered mechanical/project engineer.

This year’s festival with its theme ‘Gold, Grit and Pioneers: Resilience through Time' is being held over the Easter long weekend between 3 – 6 April and the Grand Parade is on Saturday, 4 April.

Volunteer enquires can be made to by email at goldenhorseshoesfestival@gmail.com or contact Golden Horseshoes Festival committee member Sharon Stribley on 0418 621 351.