Expanded sport program for ChillOut

This year’s ChillOut Festival features an expanded four-day program of arts, entertainment and community events, and there is also a swag of sporting activities on offer, from gentle bush jaunts to more taxing physical events.

ChillOut president Adam Wright encouraged people heading to Daylesford for the Labour Day long weekend to plan which sporting activities they might want to take part in before they arrive.

“Depending on what you’re into and what your interests are, it’s well worth going through the guide and planning your sporting activities in advance, because a lot of the sports activities have limited places available and tend to fill up fast,” Wright said.

The festival’s sporting centrepiece is the two-day golf tournament taking place across Hepburn Springs Golf Club and Novotel Forest Resort, but if you’re not a keen golfer, there are plenty of other sporting activities to get involved in.

Festivalgoers have several options for exploring Daylesford’s lush surrounds: they can embark on one-hour horse trail rides through bushland, go on an organised bush walk from Hepburn Springs along the Dry Digging Path, or bring their mountain bikes for a ride through the Wombat State Forest.

Also on offer are bocce, a roller derby, and a special ‘gourmet horse ride’, riding through the bush to a hearty meal at the Swiss Mountain Hotel.
One of the festival’s last sporting events also promises to be one of its most relaxed — after the exertion and excesses of the previous night’s dance party, on Monday the Daylesford Bowling Club plays host to barefoot lawn bowls.

“We think that could be quite hysterical — watching anyone who went to the dance party the previous night and didn’t get to bed until the early hours of the morning, then try their best to play lawn bowls, should be quite funny,” Wright laughed.

info: www.chilloutfestival.com.au