The Crooks – Frankie and Davo played ‘live and local’.
By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE race track was pumping on Sunday … and that was before a single note was played at Music at the Healesville Track 2011.
Organisers brought in pumps as the Watts River broke its banks flooding the racecourse and threatening to put an end to the music festival on 20 November.
“We were determined that it would go ahead,” said Healesville Amateur Race Club vice-chairman and festival co-ordinator Chris Young who had spent the night with the help of some of some of the guest band members moving equipment to higher ground.
The decision was made at 7am on Sunday to pump the water, mulch the muddiest spots and open the gates.
Over the eight hour festival around 1000 people sang, clapped and danced in the mud to music from a high-calibre line-up which included Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows, John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew, Shane Howard, Mick Thomas, Rebecca Barnard Trio, The Damien Howard Band and more.
Mr Young said although the conditions kept numbers down, overall the crowd was bigger than last year and appreciated the fact that the HARC went ahead with the event.
“We had lots of positive feedback about how did we get such a fantastic line-up for the $35, which is achievable because the club subsidises the event as part of its community commitment,” he said.
