Last Sunday's Ratha-Yatra parade in Newcastle's Mattara Festival proved to be a great success again, after 4 years of being invited to take part in the city's annual cultural festival. Devotees from Sydney, Newcastle and New Gokula Farm attended the festival, and many thousands of people in the city received the great mercy of the Lord of the Universe as He enjoyed His pleasure pastimes.

Aswell as the cart being pulled through the main street, a lively kirtan of the Holy Names resounded for the liberation of all souls, plus profuse distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books, flyers advertising 'Krishna's Cafe' in the City Centre, and bags of popcorn prasadam.

Thanks to everyone who took part, and especially to Kunja-bihari Prabhu for operating the cart, Jivananda & Madreya Prabhu's for organising the event, and Gaura-nataraja & Visnu-priya for cooking a wonderful feast afterwards.

We hope to see everyone again next year!!

The cart standing near Hunter Street, waiting for the parade to begin at midday

The cart was transported from Sydney Temple, as was the murti of Srila Prabhupada – Their Lordships Jagannatha Baladeva & Subhadra were brought from the farm

Pulling the ropes as the parade begins – the 4 fibreglass horses adorn the front of the cart

Parama-karunamayi Prabhu leads a sweet kirtan as only Bengali's can, as Viraja-Krishna Prabhu plays mridanga

Sydney mataji's Damodara-rati, Manjulali & Priyadarsani dance for the Lord's pleasure

Priya and Amber hold sticks of balloons adding even more colour to the festival event

Bhaktine Olivia, Amber, Damodara-rati & Manjulali chanting and dancing before the Lord's cart

Laxmivan & Jivananda Prabhu's chant and play djembe and mridanga drums

Lord Jagannatha extends His causeless mercy to some of the other entrants on motorbikes!

The parade begins down the main street as the devotees pull the ropes of the cart and sing in kirtan

A real transcendental event for all the family!

In the heart of Hunter Street Mall, close to 'Krishna's Cafe' where devotees prepare the after-event prasadam feast

Young Sandesh Prabhu helps pull the cart with his mother and fellow devotees

A 'birds eye view' of the event as the kirtan races down the street past curious onlookers

Father and son working hard for Krishna – even the old lady is feeling the ecstacy!

Mataji's left to right: Malati devi dasi, Bhaktine's Amber & Olivia, Tulsi devi dasi, Priyadarsani devi dasi, Manjulali devi dasi, and Radhika-nupura devi dasi.

Thanks again to everyone who made it such a special day. Lets pray for a bigger and better festival in the coming years so Krishna consciousness can benedict many more souls of this fallen age. Jagannatha Ratha-Yatra ki jaya!!