A momentous day for Orange

As we saw in the lead-up to the meeting, the city's Rainbow Festival sparked a broad range of emotions among the Orange public.

Councillor Kevin Duffy moved a motion to pull all support and funding for the event.

"If my motion is successful, there won't be any festival. It will be canned," Cr Duffy told our council reporter Will Davis in the lead-up to Tuesday night.

Some, like Cr Duffy, wanted it cancelled completely. Others demanded change.

While support, too, for the festival grew to an almost unbelievable level. Registrations doubled overnight.

As such, the interest in this council meeting was unparalleled.

But more than the decision, the process should be celebrated.

To be able to have two sides stand up and present their reasons as to why the festival should go ahead, or shouldn't, is a fundamental part of a democratic society.

There were some concerns the meeting would become boisterous. In the end the banning of clapping after each speaker was only implemented to speed up the meeting. That was about as boisterous as it would get.

In the end, the Rainbow Festival garnered enough support from sitting councillors for it to go ahead come March 22, albeit with some slight changes.

The elation in the chamber and then downstairs in the foyer of the council civic theatre was palpable.

Of course, there was a large portion of the crowd there on Tuesday who would have walked away from the meeting disappointed.

However, regardless of which side of the chamber you sat on Tuesday night, Orange should be proud of the process.

If both sides walked away with a tiny bit more understanding of the other, than even better.

But there's now no denying in a little over a week's time one of the biggest, and brightest, festivals Orange has seen is about to wash through the city.

And, just like Tuesday night, we can't wait to be there to cover it all.

Nick McGrath, editor