THE tallies are done and now it is time to shed some light on the winners. More than 1800 people have cast their votes on Lake Macquarie City Council’s Facebook page to determine the inaugural People’s Choice Award winner in the 2017 Float Your Boat festival.
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Twenty-three boats joined the festival flotilla’s two-night voyage through lake locations such as Warners Bay, Valentine, Belmont, Toronto, Coal Point and Wangi Wangi on June 16 and 17.
Floating nests of fairy lights putted at four knots alongside neon depictions of turtles, whales and other creatures.
The parade was exclusively for boats five metres or longer that could participate both nights, but onlookers threw balcony parties as the Lake Maquarie council organisers had urged.
Community members then had until Thrusday, June 22, to vote for their favourite boats.
The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Marmong Point Marina, goes to She’s Electric; Best in Show, sponsored by Lake Macquarie Business, is French Connection; Best Boat (10m and over), sponsored by Belmont 16s, is TRIM and; Best Boat (5m-10m), sponsored by Lake Macquarie Tourism, is She’s Electric.
The council’s manager of cultural services, Jacqui Hemsley, congratulated the winners.
“We would like to thank all of the boaties for putting in an incredible effort for the first Float Your Boat event, as well as all of the people who came out to watch the parades and voted for their favourite boat afterwards,” Ms Hemsley said.
She thanked the event’s sponsors and said there was a lot of community support for the parade.
“We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback we received from the community following the event and we look forward to delivering an even bigger and better event in years to come,” she said.
