The rain might have fallen, but the numbers didn’t, as an estimated 70-75,000 people flocked to Coolangatta-Tweed for the 10 days of the second annual Cooly Rocks festival.
The rock and roll and nostalgia festival has been hailed as a big success, with numbers growing by almost 20,000 on last year, despite, at times, torrential rain which saw many of the outdoor stages washed out on Sunday afternoon. The 10 days featured more than 1200 cars from all over Australia, rock and roll dancers, as well as major musical drawcards Si Cranstoun, Wilbur Wild and Frankie J Holden.
But according to Cooly Festival Chair and Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Gail O’Neill, the rain didn’t seem to put the festival-goers off – just send them indoors.
“We are soggy but happy,” she laughed.
“It (the final few days of the festival) was a wild weekend, the weather was disappointing especially on Sunday when it became too dangerous to have the outdoor stages – the dancing in the streets adds to the atmosphere.
“We had to push those events indoors, which cut down the passing trade – those people enjoying the bands and dropping into the local shops for a coffee.”
However, despite that, she said the traders around town were still all saying they had a “bumper weekend”.
She said the committee had been predicting numbers of up to 100,000 this year but she believed the rain had kept the locals away over the weekend.
However, she said occupancy rates were up, with interstate visitors arriving even earlier this year – coming into town by Tuesday, instead of waiting unitl the weekend, and staying for longer, to enjoy the festival which stretched across venues from Coolangatta down to the Coolangatta-Tweed Golf Club. In fact, Ms O’Neill said everywhere you turned there were visitors from all over Australia – from Western Australia right through to Sydney and Melbourne and of course a lot from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
She said this year’s festival had “something for everyone”, with the committee having a full 12-months to plan and learning from their first year. Planning has already started on next year’s event which will be even bigger and better.
