Melva Elvey


Kylie Minogue, aka Lucy Holmes,
and one of her fans, Emeli

“This year’s Festival was the biggest and best we’ve ever had,” says Melva Elvey, “thanks in large part to the help and contribution of Pilbara Iron. It’s their 40th anniversary in the Pilbara and as it’s also the 34th anniversary of the festival, I think they saw a connection.”

Melva is the Corporate Liaison Officer for what must be one of the strangest-named festivals around — FeNaCING —which is a composite of the three sources of mineral wealth in the Pilbara: Fe—Iron; NaCI—Salt; NG—Natural Gas. The initiator of the Festival was the local Lions Club, which remain its principal organiser

“We had 40,000 visitors over the two days,” Melva enthuses, “which, when you consider the populations of Karratha and Dampier, is a spectacular achievement. This year people stayed and played, not only because we had James Reyne as our headliner but also because we had the spectacular act of ‘100% Kylie’, aka Lucy Homes, who, with her glitzy act and troupe of dancers, had scores of people up on the stage dancing.”

“The excellent sound system,” Melva continues, “which was paid for by Pilbara Iron, also made an enormous difference to people enjoying themselves at the event; in fact, dealing with Pilbara Iron during the whole organisational stage of the Festival was a pure joy. Their response to thought-out ideas and suggestions was always, ‘OK Melva, that’s good. Run with that.’ And always, when I made suggestions, they said, ‘Not a problem’. Their attitude was constantly positive.”

Another major contribution to the festival by a Rio Tinto business unit was ‘Salty the Lion’, a cartoon-type lion costume inhabited by Rio Tinto Minerals Training Co-ordinator WA, Tony Smyth, who for two days strode around the Festival in 38 degree heat inside the suit.

“Almost every group in Karratha was involved in the festival,” Melva says “but at the heart of the honeycomb was Rio Tinto. Even now, weeks after the event, people are still talking about it.”