UPTown festivities boast a future you can bank on

There’s no doubt that, even in times of celebration, the future is on everyone’s minds.

“Living in Harmony: the People and the Planet in 2020” is the theme of this year’s Ultimo Pyrmont UPTown Festival, held on March 21 at Pyrmont’s Quarry Green.

Coinciding with National Harmony Day, the festival will feature a multicultural display of talent from African percussion groups Kai Feech and Team Beat, to Indigenous hip hop act Liv ’en Truth.

Team Beat will be getting the kids into the rhythm of things while Kai Feech promise not a crowd member will be sitting during their performance

But with talk of recession on everyone’s lips, the unexpected attraction may be the Pyrmont Bendigo Bank, the inner city’s first community bank.

Designed to boost profit to local businesses, the Pyrmont community bank is becoming an exciting prospect for potential shareholders and residents alike.

Its organisers are talking of the success of community banks worldwide: “Unlike the major banking institutions, which rely on foreign inflows of capital, community banks tend to have their financial base on deposits from the local community,” said Charles Perry, secretary of the board for the Pyrmont community bank.

While local shareholders get an annual return on their investments, most of the bank’s profits will go to fund community projects. One Victorian community recently bought a fire truck with its revenue.

“Pyrmont community bank is the means towards making a better 2020 for the Ultimo-Pyrmont peninsula,” said festival organiser Ken Saunders.

But Saunders said the Pyrmont-Ultimo community would be showing it’s dedication to harmony in other ways, including some ‘guerrilla gardening’ by the Urban Landcare Group, and a few lessons in solar energy.

But most important thing for the harmony of the community is that all children’s rides will be free, said Saunders.