WELCOME TO COUNTRY
RECORD crowds flocked to the Broadbeach Country Music Festival over the weekend, with the final figure expected to top 50,000 – an incredible 20,000 increase on the previous biggest turnout. Performer Shane Nicholson shows his appreciation on the main stage.
BIG crowds, big performances, a new big top stage – and a big cowboy hats off to organisers of the Broadbeach Country Music Festival.
A record crowd looks set to cement the status of the free three-day feast of music in the streets, venues and parks of Broadbeach as one of the biggest country music shindigs in the country.
Festival organisers Broadbeach Alliance expect the official crowd figure for this year’s fifth annual event to top more than 50,000 – an increase of almost 20,000 on the festival’s previous attendance record.
“That’s an extra 15,000 to 20,000 people coming for the first time and they will go home and tell their friends what a great time they had,” Alliance CEO Jan McCormick said.
“It’s only our fifth year – we are still growing.”
Perfect weather, strong word-of-mouth referrals, the event’s first-ever international headline act (US group America) and a bill featuring some of the biggest names in country music performing 110 shows across 12 stages combined to make this year’s three-day feast of free music a stellar success.
All of the 2017 festival’s official merchandise – including hats and T-shirts – had sold out by yesterday morning.
“We’re selling 2015 and 2016 leftover merchandise now – and they’re still snapping it up,” Mrs McCormick said.
She said the festival had big plans for 2018.
“Post Commonwealth Games, our mission is to not let the city have a hangover,” she said.
“We’ll go straight into Superhero Weekend (April 27-29), Blues on Broadbeach (May 17-20) and then this (July 27-29, 2018) – and we plan to spend a lot of effort and money on country next year.
“We have to sit down and work it all out but we’d love to get sponsorship and put more high-profile acts on and extend the size of the tent in Kurrawa Park.”
The new big top stage in Kurrawa Park hosted some of the weekend’s most memorable performances. Envy Hotel also operated a small licensed area alongside the tent.
“The tent was at capacity for Troy Cassar-Daley’s Ted Dubbo show on Saturday and it was great to have a rocking band go off and see everyone dancing and having a great time when The Wolfe Brothers played on Saturday night,” Mrs McCormick said.
Organisers weren’t the only ones impressed with the turnout across the weekend.
Gerry Beckley from last night’s headliners America said: “We’ve been hanging around all day – what a great day of music.”
Saturday night headliner Kasey Chambers took a picture of herself in front of a crowd of thousands during her show in Surf Parade – her first show on home soil following US tour.
“Wow, what a crowd,” an incredulous Chambers said when she took the stage to a huge roar. “I didn’t expect to see so many people.”
While a big police presence kept watch over the crowd, Senior Sergeant Troy Lehmann said patrons had been well behaved.
Almost 30,000 people attended the three-day festival last year, injecting more than $6 million into the economy.