Wintersun festival closes on song

NOT even the rain could ruin an otherwise perfect long weekend for Wintersun revellers.

The Best of Wintersun concert drew a crowd of hundreds to Tweed Heads Public School yesterday for one last hurrah to send fans home happy.

The rain held off as long as it could but even then drenched fans stuck around to see the last bands including Bobby Brookes Hamilton, Dean Z, The Sky Rockats, Midnight Drifters and Wanda Jackson take to the stage.

Wintersun festival director Barry McNamara said he hoped the 10-day event would always be remembered as one of the biggest.

“I’m very pleased with the way things went, the crowd was well behaved,” Mr McNamara said.

He said despite moving south to Port Macquarie next year, Wintersun has left a lot of memories on the Tweed.

“We wanted to make sure this one went off with a bang. We were lucky to have such beautiful weather over the weekend,” he said.

“I think we will see a lot of people who were here for this event down in Port Macquarie next year.”

A Festival Management Committee, established by Connecting Southern Gold Coast, has been tasked with developing and promoting a replacement festival for the twin towns.

The event, tentatively titled Cooly Rocks On, will run from June 3 to 13 next year, head to head with Wintersun in Port Macquarie.

The move down south is the beginning of a three-year deal with the NSW Government.