Music festival to stay

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Music festival to stay

 

TARWIN Lower’s heavy music festival, Unify will be on again in January and has already sold out 2000 early bird tickets.

The first act, In Hearts Wake, was announced last Friday and the full line up and a further 3000 tickets will be released in late September.

According to event organiser Rhett McLaren, the event was the first ever camping heavy music festival held in Australia.

Mr McLaren addressed South Gippsland Shire Council briefing session last Wednesday, to update council about the event.

He said there was an opportunity to create a new music festival focused on heavy music and thought South Gippsland would be an ideal setting.

“This year was the first time the event was held and we sold out 3000 tickets in three minutes, which was a phenomenal response,” he said.

“It showed there was demand for the event and is promising for the future.”

The event was held at the Tarwin Lower Recreation Reserve this year and the reserve is expected to be the site for next year’s event.

Mr McLaren said of the 3000 people who attended the first event, 1100 were from interstate and two from overseas.

“It also engaged a lot of young people from the local community, who either attended the event or were involved as volunteers,” he said.

“Many of them thanked us for bringing the event to Tarwin Lower, which was a really proud moment for me.”

Mr McLaren said the event itself injected around $35,000 directly into local businesses and contractors.

“We estimate each of the 3000 attendees spent around $30 each in the local area during the event as well,” he said.

Council’s director corporate and community Jan Martin said it was a great event, but the organisers needed to be mindful of emergency management.

“It is held during a high fire season and there are a lot of people in one place, so it needs to be a considered aspect of the planning,” she said.

Mr McLaren said they had attempted to involve the local fire brigade in this year’s event, but they were unavailable.

Deputy mayor Cr Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks said it would be worth considering the Pound Creek brigade if Tarwin Lower was unable to help for next year’s event.

Cr Jim Fawcett said he was supportive of this sort of event, even if heavy music was not his forte.

He said problems can occur when council and event organisers do not understand what the other is doing.

“We want to avoid not knowing what you are doing, so we need to keep the lines of communication open. I think it is a great event,” he said.

Horns up: from left, South Gippsland Shire Council deputy mayor Cr Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks, Unify event organiser Rhett McLaren, Cr Bob Newton and Cr Mohya Davies are looking forward to the heavy music camping festival’s future in South Gippsland.

Horns up: from left, South Gippsland Shire Council deputy mayor Cr Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks, Unify event organiser Rhett McLaren, Cr Bob Newton and Cr Mohya Davies are looking forward to the heavy music camping festival’s future in South Gippsland.

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Posted by on Sep 22 2015. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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