REMEMBER WHEN

Saturday, June 12, 2010 GOLD COAST BULLETIN

WHEN a parade of hot-rods and rock’n’roll performers arrived into Marine Parade, twilight descended on Wintersun’s twin towns reign.

By the following week, the sun would set, even though a new festival was already being planned for 2011.

As the event – first run as a small local event in Tweed Heads in 1978 – prepared to leave home and head to Port Macquarie, tens of thousands were expected in Coolangatta and the Tweed for the Queen’s

Birthday event’s last hurrah.

Having helped to grow the festival into a formidable rock’n’roll and nostalgia extravaganza worth $25 million to the region, organiser Barry McNamara said he was expecting to leave town with a bang.

“From all the indications we have so far, the weekend will be an absolute monster," Mt McNamara said.

"The numbers are already up on last year and we’ve had a lot of things work in our favour.

"It’s in the back of the mind, the fact we are moving and is a bit sad. We’d love to bring the festival back home if invited."

As the punters prepared to farewell Wintersun, a group working to get a new festival up and running had gone into overdrive.

Over the weekend, the committee of the temporarily named Cooly Rocks On festival handed out thousands of flyers spruiking Wintersun’s replacement.

Banners advertising the event were placed at locations around the festival site. Committee chairman Phil Archdeacon said he had been overwhelmed by support for a new event.