Festival praised

Overall crowd behaviour was praised as the fifth edition of Beyond the Valley festival attracted 20,000 revellers to Lardner Park to bring in the new year.

Reports indicate local businesses benefitted from an influx of festival goers who sought refuge from the heat at local cafes, pubs and the cinema.

Organisers labelled the four-day music festival a huge success although attendees faced some tough weather conditions. The music stages all ran to schedule and buses were put on to allow patrons to escape the heat in Warragul and Drouin.

Victoria Police reported 45 drug-related arrests across the four days whilst Ambulance Victoria transported eight people from the site to hospital for both medical and alcohol or drug related issues.

Whilst happy with the conduct of the majority of festival-goers, police were disappointed with the number of people driving away from the site under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Lardner Park chief executive officer Craig Debnam praised everyone who came together to enable 20,000 young people to have fun across four days, labelling it a “huge success” and “a real windfall for the towns”.

Mr Debnam said some patrons had been stuck in lines waiting entry due to stringent searches. Free icy poles and water were handed out to those people.

However, Mr Debnam said these searches were the right thing to do to mitigate any risk to the wellbeing of those attending and the result was no loss of life.

“We did everything we could to ensure everyone who came in healthy, left healthy,” he said.

As temperatures soared to 34, 38.9 and 39.2 degrees over the first three days of the festival before a cooler 21.8 degrees on New Year’s Eve, Beyond the Valley organisers said the crowd displayed patience and goodwill.

With high winds forecast, organisers urged those attending to secure tents and take down marquees and shade cloths on the Monday. However, all music stages still ran to schedule.

Mr Debnam said extra buses also were put on, at the cost of promoters, for patrons wanting to escape the heat in Warragul and Drouin.

“Another fantastic initiative from the promoters,” he said. “If they wanted to get out of the heat, then that was certainly encouraged.”

“The event was coordinated in a very, very professional way,” he added.

As a result, Warragul and Drouin townships noticed an increase in festival revellers in town, with cafes and pubs kept busy. Warragul Cinema Centre also provided an air-conditioned refuge with double the normal admissions.

Whilst the mess left behind has attracted criticism, Mr Debnam said the clean-up crew, at the cost of BTV, was on site undertaking a fiveday clean-up to restore the Lardner Park site back to normal.

A spokesperson for the festival labelled the event a success with the “small city of revellers” all welcoming in the new year in joyous fashion.

Tyler, The Creator was a huge drawcard and gave a show worthy of his status as a leading light in the current hip hop scene. Local stars Rufus Du Sol also had the crowd in the palms of their hands, dancing until the countdown and beyond.

Other music highlights included big sets from Dom Dolla, Lion Babe and Skepta.

Asked about future improvements, the spokesperson said, “every year Beyond the Valley takes all feedback and uses it to inform ways to improve the experience, our sixth year at Lardner will also benefit from this”.

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