The Kernewek Lowender (officially the Kernewek Lowender Copper Coast Cornish Festival) is a Cornish-themed biennial

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

held in the

Copper Coast Copper Coast is a region of South Australia situated in Northern Yorke Peninsula and comprising the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina, Moonta, Paskeville and Port Hughes. The area approximately bounded by Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta is also known as ...

towns of Kadina, Moonta and

Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'', and not a portmanteau of the words "kangaroo" and "wal ...

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Str ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. 'Kernewek Lowender' means 'Cornish happiness' in the Cornish language. It is held in the late autumn starting on the second Monday of May, in odd-numbered years. The Kernewek Lowender claims to be the world’s largest Cornish Festival outside Cornwall.

Activities

The festival is held over seven days with the highlight being 'The Big Weekend', featuring three large fairs: the Village Green Fair, Fer Kernewek, and a Classic Cavalcade of Cars (with over 500 vintage cars and motorcycles). Traditional Cornish food, such as

Cornish pasties A pasty () is a British baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, South West England, but has spread all over the British Isles. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetab ...

and Swanky beer is served during the Festival. maypole performances, furry dancing, and the selection of a

May Queen In the British Isles and parts of the Commonwealth, the May Queen or Queen of May is a personification of the May Day holiday, and of springtime and also summer. The May Queen is a girl who rides or walks at the front of a parade for May Da ...

are also included. Other events include a street parade, a bake-off, the Gathering of the Bards and the Dressing of the Graves. The event has grown in popularity, and the 2013 (40th anniversary) festival attracted an estimated 37,000 people from intrastate, interstate and overseas, and included a record 43 events and 15 associated activities. As of 2017, the region now hosts more than 45,000 visitors during the festival. A number of participants also dress up in traditional costumes as Cornish Jacks and Cornish Jennies.

History

The festival was instigated by local businessmen such as

Keith Russack Edwin Keith Russack (2 April 1918 – 26 February 1999) known as Keith Russack, was a politician in the State of South Australia. History Russack was born at Kadina, South Australia, the youngest son of Alfred Hermann Russack (1879 – 5 Novemb ...

, and Premier

Don Dunstan Donald Allan Dunstan (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for th ...

in the early 1970s as an initiative to boost the then economically depressed Copper Coast. The original Cornish Festival committee formed Kernewek Lowender Incorporated in 1972, and chose the May long weekend for the festival. The first festival went ahead in 1973 with the assistance of a A$1000 grant from the South Australian government and exceeded the organisers' expectations. The region hosted 20,000 visitors during the festival, with 11,000 attending the Fer Kernewek (Cornish Fair) in Moonta, 15,000 visiting the Moonta Mines Museum, and 8,000 Cornish pasties consumed. Dunstan himself later recalled: "When I proposed the establishment of a Cornish Festival, in Australia's "Little Cornwall", people of Cornish descent came flocking." Traditionally the festival culminated in a 3-day long weekend with events in each town for one day of the long weekend. However, when the Adelaide Cup Day public holiday was moved, difficulties were experienced in scheduling events with only two days for the three towns, and concerns were raised over whether Wallaroo received enough focus. Early in 2011, the ability to market

by that name at the festival was cast into doubt, following a trademark ruling by the European Commission. The Cornish pasty was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status and it was unclear whether the European ruling would force Australian retailers to rename their pasty products to comply.

Festival dates

*2011: 9–15 May *2013: 21–26 May *2015: 17–24 May *2017: 19–21 May *2019: 13–19 May *2021: 17–23 May *2023: 15–21 May

References

External links

Kernewek Lowender websiteKernewek Lowender Cornish festival 2017 , Moonta
(YouTube)
Yorke Peninsula website
{{coord, 34.119763 , S, 137.491150, E, format=dms, display=inline,title Festivals established in 1973 Festivals in South Australia Cornish-Australian culture May events Cornish festivals

Activities

History

Festival dates

See also

References

External links