Pako Festa train being run by Seymour Railway Heritage Centre. Photo: Stephen Baker

Seymour Railway Heritage Centre invites patrons on a special vintage diesel haul heritage train tour to Geelong on Saturday, February 23. Passengers can enjoy a family day out at Geelong’s annual Pako Festa, with complimentary Devonshire Tea.

Pako Festa, is Geelong’s free, annual community street festival – the biggest of its kind in Australia. It incorporates an extravagant street parade featuring around 90 floats and hundreds of performers representing forty-five affiliated ethnic communities and around 60 other community groups and organisations.

The street will be lined with stalls selling traditional foods, arts and crafts. There will be six separate stages in the precinct offering performances of music and dance, as well as interactive workshops and exhibitions.

Pako Festa offers a unique opportunity to celebrate in an arena of ethnic diversity and harmony, as well as gaining an appreciation of the great variety of artistic and cultural expression within Geelong’s multicultural community.

Also available is a coach transfer to Lorne. Set on the Great Ocean Road alongside the picturesque waters of Loutit Bay, Lorne has a cove of indulgent  pleasures, promising an affair of endless romance.

The heritage train will be hauled by blue and gold heritage locomotives. Passengers can travel in comfortable 110-year-old wooden compartment style carriages. The train will also have a kiosk on board for purchase of food and drinks.

For details and bookings visit www.srhc.org.au or phone 0477 707 411.

– Stephen Baker