A day of fun, a playground for years: Holy Spirit Community Fete 2026

If you drove along Oban Road in Ringwood North on Saturday, you couldn't miss it. Blue sky, more than 30 stalls, rides, performers and families everywhere. The Holy Spirit Community Fete, running since 1982, filled the grounds at 120 Oban Rd from 10am to 5pm.

So what's it all for? A brand new playground on the school grounds. And as the day showed, this is a fete built by its community, for its community.

The fun started before you even got to the gate. A clown in a rainbow costume, holding a big smiley-face lollipop sign, ran the pedestrian crossing out front, waving families across with a grin. Kids laughing, parents relaxed, everyone across the road safely. A small touch, but it set the tone straight away: a happy day, and a safe one.

Here's something you don't see much any more. Holy Spirit runs most of its own food stalls rather than handing them to outside vendors. That takes a big volunteer team. But guess what? The money stays with the school, and prices stay family-friendly. The queues at the community burger and sausage stalls said it all.

The cake and bake stall was a highlight. Everything baked by locals, sold by volunteers, neatly wrapped and labelled, with a simple colour-coded price board from $2 to $10. You pick up a home-made slice and you're straight back to how grandma used to make the biscuits.

Inside, the Devonshire tea cafe had numbered tables, gingham cloths, little vases of flowers, and scones with jam and cream. Behind it, a volunteer kitchen crew cooking, serving and cleaning to feed the crowds. It's an old-fashioned canteen experience that's getting harder to find, and it's lovely to see it alive and well.

Are books dead? Not at Holy Spirit. Tables of cheap, well-organised, donated books drew a steady crowd all day. And the unsold ones don't get binned. They're passed on to other fetes and charities to raise funds of their own. So one donated book can help more than one cause. That's a little circular economy, spreading reading well beyond Ringwood North.

The pre-loved soft toy stall worked the same way, with donated toys from $1 for the tiny ones up to $15 to $25 for the giants. Leftovers are stored for next year or donated on. Nothing wasted.

Have a look at the silent auction and you see how deep the local support goes. Long tables of donated items, from framed sporting prints (Nick Watson of Hawthorn and Patrick Cripps' 2024 Brownlow among them) to memorabilia and hampers.

A lot of it was in-kind giving. Not every business can hand over cash, so they donate a service or an offer instead. Rensei Karate in Ringwood, for example, donated a two-week karate pass with a free gi for new members. The school gets a prize, the business gets to meet new families. A win-win.

Careen Dance Studio, established in 1986 by Carol Booth and Maureen Cole and now teaching in Ringwood and Lilydale, brought a big team of young dancers to the oval stage. Then Rensei Karate followed with around 20 kids and teens in white gis, belts from yellow to black. Discipline, focus, and plenty of proud parents watching.

The CFA's South Warrandyte Fire Brigade brought its truck and tent. On Ringwood North's leafy bushland edge, that's a timely reminder that preparedness matters, and that our brigades rely on volunteers.

Etheridge Ford's Community BBQ trailer ("Grilling for a great cause") and the Community Bank Ringwood East and Croydon (Bendigo Bank) trailer were on site too. Both provide BBQ facilities to help community groups fundraise.

Entry was free. And for thrills and spills, Action Events of Bayswater supplied the rides, including the Viking Pirate Ship and Laughing Clowns. Unlimited-ride wristbands also covered the animal farm, where the lambs and baby goats were a big hit.

Here's something Holy Spirit does really well. It looks after its sponsors. Their banners lined the Oban Road fence, right where the traffic and the foot traffic go past all day, and they got shout-outs on the fete's social media before and after the day. So the support goes both ways. Businesses back the school, and the school makes sure the whole community sees who backed it.

So to every local business, sponsor and supporter who donated cash, prizes, time or a service: thank you. You know who you are, and so does Holy Spirit. A fete like this doesn't happen without you.

Nicole Werner MP, a 2026 sponsor, was there alongside Principal Duncan Arendse, and Nick McGowan MP donated a raffle prize.

Want the full buzz? Come late morning to early afternoon, when it's at its busiest and the food stalls have the longest queues. Prefer easy strolling and no lines? Come after about 2:30pm.

None of this works without the volunteers. The bakers, the book sorters, the kitchen crew, the stallholders and the clean-up team. One of the main organisers, Kieran Dole, event manager, was spotted mid-afternoon wheeling a waste bin through the crowd. No job too small, no job too great.

So here's why it all matters. The money raised goes to a brand new playground on the school grounds, being built in stages. Part of it is already in place, more is to come, and fete funds help finish the job.

You can see the difference straight away. The old equipment, with its chipped yellow ladder and tired blue frame, has done its time. The new sections, with a purple rope net and a black nest swing, are bright and inviting.

Principal Duncan Arendse says the students have been at the heart of it. In an email ahead of the fete, he wrote:

"Our students have been integral to the design of the playground so it's been built for and by our students. The opportunity to replace 25+ year old equipment means we have an inclusive and age appropriate playground. One for the ages even."

Built for and by the students. Paid for by a community that turned up. A day of fun, and a playground for years. Well done, Holy Spirit.