LAKE BOLAC - Seventy years ago in August 1938 the Lake Bolac community came together to celebrate the switching on of electricity with a grand debutante ball.

Seventy years on, there won't be a 'deb set', but a community event will be held to celebrate and ladies are welcome to dress in debutante dresses.

On Saturday August 2 the Lake Bolac Hall committee is holding a Grand Ball and would love to have a grand parade of debutante dresses. Girls and ladies are welcome to bring their dresses along and if it's not a deb frock from any generation, it can be any after five wear, or your favourite ball gown, and if it's not you wearing it - perhaps someone else can!

The ball committee is working towards re-enacting the momentous occasion of electricity arriving in Lake Bolac.

Hurricane lamps and candles will be the only illumination early in the evening, which will start at 7.30pm with a complementary drink from the bar, operated by the Lake Bolac Golf Club.

Music for dancing, from the 1930s through to the present day, will be supplied by well known Ballarat band Eureka Rebels.

As was the way 70 years ago, the local ladies are being asked to bring a plate for supper and if you're lucky girls, the men will buy the drinks.

A photographer will be in attendance and we hope to be able to photograph the whole community in the hall, as a re-enactment of the souvenir photo from the original ball in 1938.

Bring your partner, your family and friends and help the Lake Bolac community celebrate the 70th anniversary of the switching on of electricity to the town.

You never know, you could be the Belle of the Ball or Star of the Evening.

Numbers are limited. Contact the Lake Bolac Information Centre on 5350 2204 or email: lbibc@bigpond.com to reserve your tickets.

This is a great opportunity for the whole community to join in the celebrations.

Anyone with memorabilia they are willing to loan for display on the evening should contact the Lake Bolac Information Centre.

Any profits from the evening will be donated to the Heart Research Centre at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

For further information please contact: Tom Atkinson on 5350 2217 or 0428 502 217, Lake Bolac Information & Business Centre on 5350 2204 or lbibc@bigpond.com