Tuned to festive fun

WITH 2017 officially in the books, more than 16,000 weary party people will head home from Marion Bay today after a scorching New Year’s Eve party at the Falls Festival yesterday.

While a small number of patrons will regret — or possibly not remember — some of their actions over the past three days, police and event organisers have praised the behaviour of the vast majority of the capacity crowd.

But there’s still a chance for motorists to blow it with police promising to be out in force this morning on the roads leading from the festival site.

A long day in the sun kicked off for many yesterday with a long trek to the beach, with thousands of swimmers and sunbakers briefly making Marion Bay look more like Bondi Beach.

But the real action was back on- site where revellers shook off their Saturday night cobwebs listening to Valley Stage acts such as DRAM, Julia Jacklin and Tasmanian bands Luca Brasi and A Swayze & The Ghosts.

And it was only slightly less hectic over at the Field Stage, with big crowds turning out to see acts such as Camp Cope, Bad//Dreems, Winston Surfshirt and Methyl Ethel.

Things really ramped up as the sun finally went down, with Liam Gallagher sparking mass Oasis singalongs before Peking Duk led the countdown to 2018.

But not everyone made it that long, with the 90- strong team of St John Ambulance volunteers kept busy throughout the day.

An ambulance spokeswoman said total presentations were up slightly on last year’s event — which was to be expected, given the larger crowd — but the number of drug- related presentations actually fell.

She said about 50 per cent of cases they treated were minor, avoidable maladies such as sunburn and blisters.

Patrons are urged to take advantage of free on- site breath testing before attempting to drive this morning.