Channel 7 Crabfest 2025

 
 

Capturing one of Western Australia’s largest free regional events

Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest is one of Western Australia’s biggest free regional festivals, bringing locals, visitors, sponsors, performers, food vendors, tourism operators and major stakeholders together across Mandurah’s waterfront.

For an event of this scale, content is not just about documenting what happened. It needs to support event visibility, sponsor value, tourism promotion, stakeholder communication and future event marketing.

Overland Media has captured Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest since 2021, providing ongoing photo and video coverage for the City of Mandurah and supporting the event’s broader promotion across City of Mandurah channels, Channel 7 platforms, sponsor communications, paid advertising and future campaign activity.

The work has included hero recap films, event photography, drone content, food and vendor coverage, sponsor activations, crowd atmosphere, entertainment, family moments and quick-turnaround imagery for next-day release.

The goal has always been clear: capture the energy, scale and community impact of Crab Fest in a way that helps Mandurah continue building visibility as a major events and tourism destination.

The Business Problem

Crab Fest is more than a weekend event. It is a major tourism, community and stakeholder platform for Mandurah.

With large crowds, major sponsors, media partners, local businesses, tourism operators and public-sector stakeholders involved, the event needed content that could serve multiple purposes at once.

The challenge was to create visual assets that could:

  • Increase event visibility

  • Promote Mandurah as a destination

  • Showcase the scale and atmosphere of the festival

  • Capture sponsor activations and partner value

  • Support City of Mandurah and Channel 7 communications

  • Provide fast-turnaround imagery for media and next-day release

  • Build a library of assets for future event marketing

  • Help communicate the economic, tourism and community value of the event

The real problem was not simply capturing the event. It was capturing it in a way that helped prove why the event matters.

For a festival of this size, the content needed to show scale, energy, community, sponsors, food, entertainment and destination appeal — all while moving quickly through a busy, live public environment.

The Strategic Approach

The strategy was to treat Crab Fest as both an event and a destination marketing opportunity.

The content needed to communicate the feeling of being there: the crowds, the waterfront, the food, the entertainment, the family atmosphere, the sponsor presence and the energy across Mandurah.

But it also needed to work commercially for the stakeholders behind the event.

That meant capturing content through four strategic lenses:

Event visibility
Show the scale, excitement and atmosphere of Crab Fest so it could be promoted across social media, paid advertising, future campaigns and public communications.

Destination marketing
Use the event to showcase Mandurah’s waterfront, lifestyle, food culture, community and visitor appeal.

Sponsor and stakeholder value
Capture sponsor activations, branded moments, crowd engagement and event participation so partners had clear proof of visibility and involvement.

Future event promotion
Build a reusable asset library that could help market future Crab Fest events, support sponsor packs, promote attendance and strengthen long-term event positioning.

The approach needed to be fast, flexible and commercially aware. In a live event environment, the best moments are often unscripted, so the production had to balance planning with instinct — capturing key deliverables while staying alert to real moments happening across the festival.

The Execution

Overland Media has captured Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest since 2021, with the 2020 event awarded but cancelled due to COVID restrictions.

The work has included event-wide coverage across the festival footprint, capturing the major moments, sponsor activations, crowd energy, food culture, live entertainment, family experiences and the broader atmosphere of Mandurah’s waterfront.

Deliverables have included:

  • Hero event recap films

  • Event photography

  • Drone footage

  • Food and vendor coverage

  • Sponsor activation content

  • Crowd and atmosphere imagery

  • Family and community moments

  • Entertainment coverage

  • Quick-turnaround imagery for next-day release

  • Content for paid advertising

  • Assets for sponsor packs

  • Future event marketing material

  • City of Mandurah and Channel 7 promotional content

A major part of the execution was speed. For large public events, content is often most valuable while the event is still active or immediately after it finishes. Quick-turnaround imagery allowed the City of Mandurah, Channel 7 and event stakeholders to communicate momentum, attendance and atmosphere while public interest was high.

At the same time, the hero video and broader asset library created longer-term value, giving the event strong promotional material for future campaigns, sponsor conversations and tourism marketing.

The Outcome & ROI

The content has helped support the ongoing visibility and promotion of Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest as one of Western Australia’s major regional events.

By capturing the event consistently since 2021, Overland Media has helped build a long-term visual record of Crab Fest’s growth, atmosphere, community impact and sponsor value.

The outcomes include:

  • Stronger event visibility across City of Mandurah and Channel 7 channels

  • High-quality sponsor content and activation coverage

  • Fast-turnaround imagery for immediate public communication

  • Reusable assets for future event marketing

  • Content to support paid advertising and promotional campaigns

  • Stronger destination marketing for Mandurah

  • Visual proof of crowd scale, community engagement and event atmosphere

  • Ongoing media and stakeholder communication support

Crab Fest continues to be publicly recognised as WA’s biggest free regional festival, with past editions attracting crowds of more than 100,000 people and delivering tourism and economic benefits for the Peel region.

The result is more than an event recap. It is a strategic content library that helps the City of Mandurah, Channel 7 and event partners promote the festival, prove sponsor value, communicate community impact and build excitement for future events.

Overland Media’s role has been to capture the scale and spirit of Crab Fest in a way that keeps working long after the weekend ends.