AN EVACUATION of Ararat Town Hall overshadowed the crowning of the Golden Gateway Festival's Queen on Friday night.
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Ararat's Katelin McDonald was crowned the recipient of the crown at the festival's opening ceremony.
But the festivities paused after a false alarm evacuated Ararat Town Hall about 11pm.
Ararat Rural City Council chief executive Tim Harrison said despite the fire alarm sounding, there was no emergency. He said the fire alarm was tripped by an as-yet-unknown person.
"Ararat Rural City Council takes the safety of people using its venues extremely seriously," he said.
"All fire equipment and alarms in the Ararat Town Hall meet statutory and legal requirements.
"I am happy to talk to anyone who has any suggestions or concerns about safety at the Town Hall."
CFA District 16 operations manager Bernie Fradd confirmed firefighters attended the call for assistance.
"The brigade attended and it was a standard call for a false alarm," he said.
"About 100 people were evacuated on the night.
"Police were called and the incident was thought to be malicious or a prank."
Senior Constable Steven Repac of Ararat said he also attended the call-out on Friday night.
"We aren't entirely sure if the incident was malicious or a prank obviously we think it may be the case," he said.
"There's no real way for us to prove it. We attended purely for the management of patrons. When we arrived, it was pretty well cleared and most of the patrons were entering back into the venue.
"We were told from the CFA it was a false alarm and that was as far as we were taking it at that stage."
Golden Gateway Festival organisers declined to comment.
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