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.”
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What an absolutely outstanding event! Congratulations to the Show Society and the Gas Guzzlers and all of their volunteers for putting together this festival of rock. It will only continue to grow and is a real credit to them.