Warrnambool's Wunta Fiesta could be revived in 2024

But it won't be easy with lots to do for just a handful of people.

After being abandoned during the pandemic and cancelled in 2023 due to dwindling committee members, the call went out for more helpers.

But only about a dozen people turned up to a meeting on Wednesday night.

Committee spokesman Alan Barnett said they were working on a plan for next year but they still need more volunteers.

Whether the popular jazz in the gardens, Friday night on Liebig Street or Lake Pertobe bands on Sunday will be returning is yet to be decided.

"Nothing's in concrete yet," he said.

"We're really keen. It's a big thing for Warrnambool. Wunta's massive. I don't know whether it will have the same flavour it's had or whether we'll change it up.

"It might look a bit different but all that is to be discussed."

After 11 years, chair Donna Gladman is stepping off the committee - a decision tinged with both sadness and hope for the future of the popular community event.

But it's something she has been trying to do for about seven years.

She said the year her son was born six weeks early was the year she decided she needed to step down but instead she ended up being the chair.

"I'd had a Caesar and I was at Wunta carrying around a tiny newborn unpacking tables and chairs two months later and a month after he got out of hospital," she said.

"I loved it. It has been a really hard decision for me to make.

"I get really excited about the things that we could make Wunta be if we had the manpower."

Ms Gladman joined the Wunta committee in 2011 to help organise the 2012 event.

"The reason I joined was because it was no longer in the main street and I wanted it back in the main street," she said. "And we did it."

While Ms Gladman did what she set out to do, she said times had now changed so much and the thing people were the most passionate about was the jazz in the gardens.

"I'm really excited to see what somebody else does with it," she said.

"The new Wunta might be in the shape of something we've not seen before.

"With somebody new running it, it's a good opportunity to create a whole new Wunta. The same festival at the heart of it but an opportunity to do something new."

Darrell Hose has stepped onto the committee and straight into the chair role.

The festival dates back to 1985.

IN OTHER NEWS

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: