Organisers of the Burnett Heads Music Festival are already making plans for next year after the success of last night’s inaugural event.
About 800 people flooded the main street of Burnett Heads to hear a mix of visiting and local acts, headlined by The Wolfe Brothers.
Lighthouse Hotel manager Gavin Hales said he couldn’t have been happier with how the very first festival went.
“It was a great night,” Gavin said.
“It was an awesome atmosphere. Everything worked out a treat.”
Before the music even started festival-goers were blown away as they entered a fully transformed Zunker Street.
“It just felt surreal. It felt like you weren’t even in Burnett Heads.
“It had an electric feel.
“As soon as The Wolfe Brothers came on the whole dance floor was just packed.
“There were blow-up balls bouncing around, it really had that festival feel.
“We did it right the first time and that’s what they’re going to expect for future years and that’s what we’re going to deliver each and every time.
“We do have something in the pipeline already for next year,” Gavin said.
It was a satisfying feeling for Gavin who came up with the festival concept on a hunch that the sleepy seaside village had it in it to rock.
“And it’s going to work, but it’s bigger and better things moving forward,” he said.
“It’s good to be able to hit the ground running and know that the concept is going to work.
“We want to make this an annual event.
“Last night was the first step to making this something huge and something big to grow in to for the whole community to cherish.
“We want to thank the community as a whole and all the organisations that got involved to make it the success that it was.”
He said with between 700 and 800 people in the crowd the numbers fell short of his 2000 target but it proved a valuable opportunity to fine tune the event.
“If we had got what we were hoping for the site wouldn’t have been able to cope.”
He’s hoping for bigger numbers in future, but Gavin said the target would be rescoped as part of the debrief.
Gavin said while it may not have been the financial success he was hoping for it had certainly been a community success which was important.
“Everyone left with an amazing experience,” he said.
“It’s been great to have that kind of review.
“We had a couple of guys there that are involved with Events Queensland and they were also blown away by what a little town and community can do and put on display.
“They said this has got a lot of potential.”
Gavin said his vision for the event was to put Burnett Heads on the map.
“This is all for Burnett Heads,” he said.
“This is not for just for the Lighthouse Hotel, this is for all the businesses and community there to be able to have something that hopefully is going to be iconic.
“Something they are going to look forward to on a yearly basis.
“People will talk about it all over the country and people will say I’m from Burnett Heads, we have the Burnett Heads Music Festival.”
He said he had already looked at options for next year’s main act and was looking forward to soon being able to announce the dates for the next Burnett Heads Music Festival.
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