October 16, 2017
Maclagan’s annual Squeezebox Festival was held on Saturday and while organisers judged it a great success, there was also a touch of sadness to this year’s celebrations.
Squeezebox Festival founder Les Weedon and his wife Stella announced that after 15 years building up the quirky event, they’d decided to retire from the organising committee.
The couple were farewelled by Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington, who made her fifth consecutive visit to congratulate the couple on their achievement.
“I really rate this festival,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“It’s so much fun, and I don’t think there’s anything like it anywhere else in Queensland.”
Mrs Frecklington said Les’ idea had produced Maclagan’s biggest annual event.
It had also helped ensure Maclagan’s Memorial Hall kept functioning for the benefit of the town’s residents and farming families living nearby.
The unusual festival owes its origin to the explosion of public liability insurance premiums in 2002.
At that time, many community groups saw their premiums rise by between 300 per cent and 1000 per cent, thanks to some big damages payouts in the courts and a change in the way insurance companies did business.
Les and his brother Ian Weedon were attending a small accordion festival in Toowoomba that year, and were surprised to hear the organisers were closing the event down because they couldn’t afford the insurance costs.
Les – widely known as Maclagan’s “ideas man” – returned home and persuaded the Maclagan Hall Committee to take the event over and run it as a fundraiser to help meet the Hall’s annual operating costs.
The rest, as they say, is history.
From small beginnings in 2003 when about 80 guests made the trip to the tiny village nestled in the southern foothills of the Bunya Mountains, the Squeezebox Festival now draws between 300 and 400 aficionados each October.
Given that Maclagan’s normal population is 42, this is enough to pack out the town’s camping grounds and nearby Quinalow’s accommodation facilities as well.
Guests come from all over Queensland and as far afield as Canberra, South Australia and the Northern Territory to attend, many bringing along their own campervans to make a full weekend of it.
Entertainment coordinator Cheryl Peters said this year’s festival saw a record roll-up of performers.
There were so many she had to limit them to just a few numbers apiece so they could all be fitted in.
Hall Committee secretary Sheryl Hansen said the wet weather hadn’t seemed to have any effect on attendance numbers, either.
Between the daytime squeezebox performances and the night-time dance, she was confident the tally for this year’s outing would easily exceed 300.
Media organiser Margaret Kucks was kept busy dealing with a visiting TV crew and other media outlets who’d made the trip to Maclagan that day, too.
“Not all the proceeds from the Festival go to the Hall,” Margaret said.
“From the very first festival we’ve always split the profits with charities such as the Toowoomba Hospice, LifeFlight, the Quinalow P&C or the McDonald Nursing Home in Oakey.”
Because of its community nature, the festival is run by volunteers and two different crews were manning the kitchens on Saturday.
One crew handled the daytime festival, and a second crew came in the evening to prepare supper for the dance.
“We do this because we like to give back to our community,” Margaret said.
“It’s a lot of work every year, but we all think it’s worth it.”
(Photo: Maclagan Squeezebox Festival)
