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Speaker 1: Well, as I mentioned just a moment ago, we know

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Speaker 1: that tomorrow's the last chance to catch the sunset and

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Speaker 1: enjoy a luxA or whatever other beautiful food really you

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Speaker 1: want there at Mindele Beach with the markets wrapping up

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Speaker 1: for the year. The final market also happens to fall

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Speaker 1: on Halloween this year, which is going to no doubt

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Speaker 1: be embraced by bands and market stall holders. And joining

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Speaker 1: me in the studio to tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more is the general manager, Elana Aldridge. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Hi Katie.

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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, lovely to have you in the studio. Now,

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about what is planned

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Speaker 1: for tomorrow night.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be an extravaganza of performers throughout the markets,

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Speaker 2: including stilt walkers, some comedy, some bands, some fabulous local acts,

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Speaker 2: a whole lot more than people would usually be used

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Speaker 2: to and dressing up. There'll be competitions for the kids.

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Speaker 2: The stalls are all getting decorated. Ye, so yeah, we reckon.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be a ripper.

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Speaker 1: That's such a cool thing to do. I reckon because

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Speaker 1: I know some people kind of go, oh, Halloween's such

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Speaker 1: an American thing, but I've like my kids now are

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Speaker 1: at the age where all they want is to kind

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Speaker 1: of be involved in Halloween stuff.

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Speaker 2: Well, did you know here's an interesting fact. Halloween's actually

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Speaker 2: Irish in origin. It's a Celtic I like it.

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Speaker 1: I like, you know, the kids being able to walk around,

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Speaker 1: to get dressed up and to you know, to sort

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Speaker 1: of interact with people that within the community that they

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Speaker 1: may be ordinarily wouldn't and that's what's going to be

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Speaker 1: wonderful at Mendel as well. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think every culture has a similar thing. I

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Speaker 2: think it's about honoring of the dead. But I'm really

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Speaker 2: excited about how much fun it's going to be tomorrow night.

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Speaker 2: It'll be lollies and trick or treating if people want

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Speaker 2: to also, So come on down now.

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Speaker 1: Well, I know you've touched on the performers there and

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Speaker 1: plenty of music and what's going to go on, But

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Speaker 1: it does sound like there'll be plenty of stool holders

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Speaker 1: getting into the spirit too.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. Look, the Final Light's a really big night

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Speaker 2: for them. People work so hard for the six months

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Speaker 2: of the year and you know, it was a bit

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Speaker 2: it was a bit of a low turnout year for

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Speaker 2: tourism this year. I think that sector is taking a

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Speaker 2: while to recover from COVID, although I've got to say

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Speaker 2: we had fantastic support from tourism, top En tourism and

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Speaker 2: tourism and tea who brought you know, I can't even

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Speaker 2: count the number of international journalists from travel magazines to

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Speaker 2: the markets, and you know, it's promoted all over the world.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing how well known Middle is because you know,

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Speaker 2: it was it was registered recognized by the National Trust

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Speaker 2: as a national icon a few years ago. And you

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Speaker 2: know for visitors today, and it's a must see, a

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Speaker 2: must do event, it truly is.

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Speaker 1: And even as a local, I just think it's such

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Speaker 1: a fantastic thing to go and just enjoy the sunset

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Speaker 1: but have a beautiful meal as well, and it's so iconic,

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Speaker 1: right just sitting down watching the sunset, having something nice

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Speaker 1: to eat and just being amongst that.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's also a whole lot more than that.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's more than just a market. We employ

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Speaker 2: more than a thousand people, so that's hundreds of Darwin

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Speaker 2: families who are making their livelihood through the markets. We

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Speaker 2: pump fifteen million dollars into the anti economy. That's probably

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Speaker 2: a big under calculation, and you know, it's just it's

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Speaker 2: a wonderful combination of entrepreneurship and community, you know, and

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Speaker 2: the creativity, the artisanship, the fabulous food of course, and

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Speaker 2: it's a community. It's a really passionate community for the

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Speaker 2: most part, a really harmonious community.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. No, look, I think it's wonderful. It's one of

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Speaker 1: those real, real bucketlest items as well for a lot

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Speaker 1: of people that come to the NT. But as you've

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Speaker 1: touched on there, it's such a huge part of the

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Speaker 1: fabric of the Northern Territory I think, and wonderful, wonderful

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Speaker 1: ongoing event. It's an enormous amount of work really when

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Speaker 1: you think that it goes on for the whole dry

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Speaker 1: season and every Thursday and every Sunday you're putting on

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Speaker 1: a massive event that's outdoors. You know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well we've got to you know, thank some key

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Speaker 2: people and entities, particularly the City of Darwin for letting

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Speaker 2: us utilize the place. And they're fantastic crew who you

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Speaker 2: know come and clean up and look after the grounds

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Speaker 2: and you know, they're just gold. We have a lot

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Speaker 2: of the market infrastructure and the way that it runs

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Speaker 2: is enabled by Progia security and operations. They've got an

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Speaker 2: operations crew and a security crew, and you know they're

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Speaker 2: also utilizing NDIS people, you know, learning valuable work skills

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Speaker 2: and working one on one with able workers. And I

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Speaker 2: just think that's that's fantastic. It is and they do

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Speaker 2: they do a huge job. It's a hard job too.

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Speaker 2: And remember that's setting up up from ten in the

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Speaker 2: morning through till when the market opens at four. It's

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Speaker 2: been really really hot this season.

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Speaker 1: It has.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not an easy gigs. It's a wonderful one.

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Speaker 1: Alana, what happens now kind of once the markets, you know,

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Speaker 1: once we wrap up tomorrow night, in terms of the

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Speaker 1: off season, because I know that it doesn't mean that

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Speaker 1: work sort of stops. I would imagine that there's a

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Speaker 1: heck of a lot of planning that then goes in

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Speaker 1: to next year. You kind of take a look at

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Speaker 1: the different things that have worked really well. Maybe some

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Speaker 1: of the things you might modify. Is that the type

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Speaker 1: of thing that happens.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely we do. It's a time for planning, apart from

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Speaker 2: a little bit of a rest, and people really deserve

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Speaker 2: a rest after the season. Some of the stallholders will

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Speaker 2: be replenishing their stocks, taking the time to make new

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Speaker 2: because lots of the things for sale they are handmade

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Speaker 2: by local people. So the market infrastructure, we need to

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Speaker 2: have a really good look at that and see how

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Speaker 2: we can make it better. And yeah, certainly planning mega

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Speaker 2: entertainment works for the next season that that's going to

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Speaker 2: be really interesting as well. You know, we also and

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Speaker 2: increasingly have really big corporate bookings coming in, so the

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Speaker 2: month of May is already just huge and you know

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Speaker 2: the planning that goes into you know, an event that

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Speaker 2: has you know, nine hundred people or five hundred people,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of work in planning. Yeah, it's going

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Speaker 2: to be a big year.

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Speaker 1: Good on you guys, and congratulations on what's been a

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Speaker 1: massive season, you know, or a massive year this year,

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Speaker 1: and no doubt a wonderful celebration tomorrow night. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: it's going to be lots and lots of fun and

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Speaker 1: very very busy for you guys, and then you'll have

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Speaker 1: maybe a small moment to put your feet up for

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Speaker 1: a little bit and then back into us.

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Speaker 2: That's absolutely thank you so much, daddy, you all down

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Speaker 2: there

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Speaker 1: Lovely, good on you, Thanks so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning,