Music fans buoy Tarwin Lower
MORE than 5000 heavy music fans from across Australia and the world swamped Tarwin Lower at the weekend for the Unify heavy music festival.
The festival attracted punk, hardcore and metal fans to hear such big names as Aussie groups Parkway Drive and Tonight Alive, Neck Deep from London and State Champs from New York.
Organiser Aidan McLaren of Unified said more the community benefited from the massive crowd, with a total of 5500 people including fans, artists and volunteers at the Tarwin Lower Recreation Reserve.
“We had people come from London, Austria and Darwin. Parkway Drive, the headline band, is popular in Europe,” he said.
“Parkway Drive is one of the biggest bands in the world. They’re the second biggest heavy band to come out of Australia other than AC/DC.”
The festival attracted a massive following in the wake of the successful first event last year.
“Last year’s event was amazing and the challenge was how could we make this year also amazing,” Mr McLaren said.
“We could not have asked for a better event and a huge part of that goes back to the volunteer team and the Tarwin Lower community. That is what makes it a community event.”
The festival is held at Tarwin Lower as a result of the McLaren siblings’ link with the community.
The McLaren siblings grew up at Krowera and were schooled at Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College in Leongatha where they met friends who are now involved with the Tarwin Lower Football Netball Club.
The football club, together with the Venus Bay, Tarwin Lower and District Men’s Shed, ran two of five catering stalls throughout the two-day festival.
Netballers catered for performers, while the Venus Bay Life Saving Club helped clean up the site.
The Tarwin Lower Recreation Reserve and Pony Club permitted use of the ground, and local shops, businesses, suppliers, tradespeople and residents helped make the event possible.
Funds raised from last year’s event enabled the football netball club to erect solar panels on the clubrooms and run a bus to collect players.
“The average person would spend $150 to $200 throughout the festival,” Mr McLaren said.
Based on those figures, the injection of funds into the community could range from $750,000 to $1 million.
The festival will be permanent fixture at Tarwin Lower, with a sign promoting the festival erected above the scoreboard at the reserve.
Pumping sounds: music lovers party on at the Unify heavy music festival at Tarwin Lower. Photo: Neal Walters.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jan 19 2016. Filed under Arts & Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
