Wintersun Festival Rocks On In Coolangatta
June 10th 2009 06:14
Image by Wintersun
The 21st annual Wintersun Festival was held at Coolangatta and Tweed Heads last week from 29th of May to the 8th of June. This hugely popular nostalgia festival features Rockabilly bands, rock and roll dancing competitions and a plethora of Elvis’s. The festival culminates with a spectacular street parade of immaculately restored classic cars from the golden era of Rock and roll.
Spectators lined the street for the classic pre’74 car cruise, which winds its way along Marine Parade through Kirra and Coolangatta to Greemount Hill. Enertainment was provided by Wally and the Gaitors, the HiTones, Route 66 and many more at various venues.
Image courtesy of Wintersun
For the more active there were dance workshops with Swingtime Australia and Footloose Dance Studio. The little’uns were not overlooked, with a dedicated kid’s stage featuring The Groovettes Rock & Roll Show.
Sadly the festivals future is in jeopardy, due to local council restrictions on the use of parks, excessive charges by QLD Police for traffic and event control and greedy tourist operators who are happy to reap bumper occupancy rates but unwilling to contribute financially to the festivals viability.
Festival organizer Barry McNamara said there are plans to stage a mini Wintersun in Mildura this August with the aims of creating a new annual event, experiencing a new town, promoting the main Wintersun Festival and possibly staging a full Wintersun in Mildura in the future.
“In fairness to our visitors we have committed to give at least 12 months notice to any location change wherever possible, and with a firm desire, but a great deal of frustration, we intend to stage Wintersun 2010 in Coolangatta / Tweed Heads as we have for the past 21 years,” Mr McNamara said.
“Over the next few months we are continuing our dialogue with Gold Coast City Council and any other interested parties who have positive ideas for the long term secure future of the festival for the coast.”
“We will also continue our discussion with other potential hosts outside of this region so should this region as a whole prefer not to have Wintersun we have some viable alternatives.”
It is planned to announce the location of Wintersun 2011 in May 2010.
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