Days 14/15 – July 17/18th Coondoo Mountain Winter Campout Festival. We got the music in us

Being regular attendees to gigs around Victoria, our trip north meant we had to submit apologies to a few bands for our non-attendance for the next few months. We had little promise of music to see along the way until we got a notification by electronic mail that Darren Hanlon is a late addition to a little music festival in Queensland, just outside his home of Gympie. The timing lined up, they had camping included as part of the ticket price, so we were sold.

The venue is a large acreage in the shadows of Coondoo Mountain, just north of Noosa and not far from Gympie. The property was well manicured, and ample grassed area for off grid camping, bringing a crowd of just over 300 to brave rain and at times a nasty wind to enjoy live music. A sustainable theme runs through the festival – BYO drinks and food (or buy if you want), take your rubbish home with you and the interesting adventure of compostable toilets. They were so sustainable, they only used the bare minimum of wood for walls and the toilet door. There was no need for an engaged sign when you could see the shins of the person already in there. It didn’t seem right not hearing the flush at the end, and instead there was a ceremonial blowing of the sawdust back at you as you were trying to dump it into the hole for a dry flush.

The vibe was very laid back, and there is ample space to spread out. Thankfully the main day on Saturday had plenty of sunshine and people looking for shade instead of covering from the wind and rain. It was a dog and kid friendly festival, and the kids behaved themselves. The owners of some of the dogs could have taken note. Hot take – if the dog is barking during a set where the artist is trying to create a vibe, maybe try something a little more than “Sush, little baby”.

There were various local acts and other more acclaimed Australian artists. A number of bands were made up of various members of the same family for different sets of music, and a bit of barn dancing as well.

Headlining Saturday night for us was Darren and being so close to home his wife Shelly Short and his two kids came along as well. Shelly is an accomplished musician as well and we enjoyed seeing her again for the first time for a while, but when their kids escaped their carers and wandered on stage, there was a cuteness overload. Their youngest at almost three years, took the mic and lead the band on Yellow Submarine, with his brother on backing vocals.

The other two headline acts were Hat Fitz and Cara, a rocking bluesy band with the lead singer Cara on drums, front and centre of the stage. Closing the night was William Crighton. We have seen him many years ago at Echuca Riverboats Festival, but here, he grabbed us all from his first words on stage until the very end. A powerful performance of multiple genre, hard hitting issues and good rocking beats. We will be seeing him again, and the band were great to have a chat to after the gig. We notice a gig at Burleigh Heads about the same time we head home, so there may be another crossover.

All in all, we were very happy to be a part of this festival, and the people running the festival (Emily and Nick) were talking about trying to get Mick Thomas to play there, so you can be sure that if he does, he will have at least two regular punters up the front singing along to every word.