With this year's Henry Lawson Festival feature poem being “The World is Full of Kindness” there is no more fitting special guests than Deidre and Terry Carroll OAM for the 2025 festival.
When Lithgow girl, Deidre married her husband, Terry in 1962, his parents asked if Deidre would stay in Grenfell for 12 months.
That 12 months has quickly grew into 62 years and now Deidre and Terry are both beloved members of the Grenfell community and have experienced many Henry Lawson Festivals together.
The couple have been heavily involved with the festival over the years with Terry being the festival secretary for around 11 years and he was also once the Festival Monarch for raising money for charity.
Deidre has coordinated the woodchopping for many years and was also once the Festival Queen for raising $10,000 for Care Flight.
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Both of their daughters have also been entrants in the charity fundraising with both being awarded Festival Queen for their efforts.
One of Deidre's favourite parts about the festival has been the number of special guests that have came to Grenfell for the festival over the years.
"We have had a lot of special guests come to our town like Lorraine Bayly, Gordon Chater, Inga Simpson, Leonard Teale and his wife, Bill Peach, Alison Bell and Jan Lehane," Deidre said.
"We've had so many famous Grenfell people, some wonderful artists and sports people come to town."
Now a special guest herself Deidre said she and Terry were absolutely floored and honoured to be invited as special guests.
"Terry and I were just absolutely honoured to be asked to be the special guests."
Deidre said everything about the Henry Lawson Festival is wonderful and it brings people back to town for an exciting weekend.
"We find that Grenfell is a wonderful place to come back to. The festival brings families home, it's great for the community, it's great for businesses and it's great for everybody. It's like a great big party," Deidre said.
Every event on the festival program is Deidre's favourite but noted she does miss the guinea pig races.
"This year's program is wonderful and I commend the few on the committee that are organising it all. We know how much work goes into it and know the committee are in need of more volunteers."
Each year Deidre has seen the festival grow bigger and better and has watched the continued success of running the festival for so many years.
"The Henry Lawson Festival brings people back to Grenfell, showing the rest of Australia what our little community has to offer," Deidre added.
