Dear Australian Festival Enthusiast:

I am very excited to announce that our upcoming Australian Festival shall take place in Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County from November 2-4 2007 in the C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines. A Business Forum with key speakers and many high level visitors, is planned to take place on November 2, details can be found on the Business Forum page. We have a very varied and fun School's Program planned for the schools in Broward, an art contest and many other events. 

We have built a strong relationship with the Broward County who has supported the idea of hosting a Festival in their area with enthusiasm and great warmth. Without their trust in us we would not have been established so quickly in their beautiful and well-run County. As our principal Charity Partner we are very fortunate that the SOS-USA (international Fundraisers), belonging to the 450 Children's Villages worldwide, head-office in Austria, came aboard and we are looking forward having our silent Auction commencing in October and running thru the festival to benefit their SOS Villages-USA. We also shall support by donating a percentage of our gate/entree fees, the SOS Children's Villages - Florida, the local SOS. 

We are fortunate that we have met with the President of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, who gave us ideas how to promote and showcase our best Australian artists for nights at their theaters not only in 2007 but for at least 3 years from this date. The President of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau and some of her top-staff, met up with us to discuss the Tourism and Business Forum possibilities which enables us to help many Australian visitors and businesses. The Directors and Staff of the Broward County Public Schools are so interested in our G'Day Mates Schools Program that they identified a market of 120,000 children to cater for. Together with the school boards brilliant involvement, we shall certainly do our utmost to give the Broward County children an unforgettable Australian event. We also have become a *Green* Festival, and you can find all about that close to our heart topic on our *Green Down Under* site. 

Since my first *letter of the Chairman* I wrote in beginning of 2007, many things have happened. We worked very hard, and thanks to the love and guidance from Broward County and from our own Australian Embassy and Government, we have come far and are very grateful with the opportunities being given.

We have our three days program ready and the artists lined up. The artists that shall come to Broward are all Australians. We have rock, guitar , new age, Indigenous, country and Australian ballads. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of groups that had contacted us and wanted to join this *new* Australian Festival, in Florida. We have dance groups from the islands around Australia and we have Indigenous artists, we have visual artists, we have educational artists. The food section has a great variety of Australian food, and at the Jackaroos Pub (not for kids of course), we shall have the best wines and constant music sessions, from beginning to end.

So much to tell but this is the Chairman's letter and should be therefore short and sweet. I shall write regular updates and have those updates published on the website a bit closer to the Festival dates.

We are very much looking forward having you visit the website as often as you can. Many new things shall start, like the possibility to buy tickets on line and also an on-line marketplace to order CD's , T-shirts and baseball hats. And of course the Auction we plan to launch end of August till the last day of the Festival, so very important to raise as much money as we can for the SOS-USA, to help as many children we possibly can, giving from our heart.

Before I go, I want to thank you, the United States of America, for giving us, a group of Australians, the chance to share with you our Aussie spirit and 3 days of wonderful entertainment and new friendships. We shall make sure you shall have the best time of your life and looking forward to find out more and more about Down Under and all we represent.


Many blessings and warmest wishes,

Brigitte von Bulow, 
Chairman & CEO