Karen Davis, from Hervey Bay, chats with Waterhole Rocks organiser Terry Mackrell, along with friends Kevin Brand, Maryborough, and Jan and Marc Chapman, Hervey Bay

October 20, 2014

A $5500 grant from Nanango’s Heritage Community Bank which allowed organisers of The Waterhole Rocks festival to add a giant dance floor to the event has proved to be a winner.

More than 500 guests packed into the festival which was held at Nanango’s showgrounds over the weekend.

It was the biggest crowd the event has attracted since the idea for a weekend-long rock’n’roll festival began in 2012.

Guests came to enjoy displays of veteran and vintage cars, hot rods and caravans; rock’n’roll memorabilia; and – of course! – lots of energetic rock’n’roll dancing.

Earlier this year Heritage Community Bank gave the festival’s organisers a grant to purchase a portable dance floor after guests at previous festivals had complained the concrete floor in the Showground’s main pavilion wasn’t suitable for rock’n’roll dance styles.

The giant dance floor was erected just days before this year’s festival, but word spread quickly amongst the tightly knit rock and roll dance community.

Guests travelled from Bundaberg, Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Tweed Heads, Brisbane and Toowoomba – and several even came from Coffs Harbour and Lismore – to take advantage of the new dance floor.

“We’ve had nothing but positive feedback this year,” Terry Mackrell, from the South Burnett Gas Guzzlers, said.

“There were several times on Friday and Saturday night when the dance floor was so packed you couldn’t fit any more dancers onto it.

“It’s just fantastic.”

Nanango Show Society president Les Schloss agreed.

“This dance floor is brilliant and crowd numbers are well up on last year,” he said.

“We couldn’t be happier.”

Festival organisers are now considering enlarging the dance floor at next year’s festival by moving one or two of the main pavilion’s walls further back.

“We could probably get an extra 10 or 20 metres if we did that,” Terry said.

“The dance floor would be just vast.”

Cutting the 3rd birthday cake – Nanango Show Society president Les Schloss, Rhonda Mackrell from the South Burnett Gas Guzzlers and Gloria and Barry Fleming from the Nanango Show Society

Mark and Michelle Peters and Gary Oaten, all from Bundaberg, dressed for a rock’n’roll weekend

Many guests spent Saturday afternoon practising their dance moves on the festival’s new dance floor
Members of the TT Rockers dance club travelled from Tweed Heads to dance the night away in full rock’n’roll style

The festival also included displays of hot rods and vintage caravans, like this 1923 T-bucket hot rod

Rock & roll band Shazam kept the crowds packing the dance floor on Saturday night with classic 1950s and 1960s dance tunes
The new dance floor proved so popular that it was completely full on many occasions over the weekend
Festival organisers paid special tribute to Nanango’s Heritage Community Bank, which provided the funding that allowed a dance floor to be added to this year’s event