Our first time attendance at a Wintersun was might I say, entertaining with a capital “E”. We rolled out of town and headed north Friday 1st about mid afternoon, travelled for 8hrs and bedded down at Chain Valley bay. Saturday morning we headed off to Coffs and Wintersun. It was raining and rather bleak, the forecast for the whole week didn’t look good, rain everyday . We arrived in Coffs Harbour mid afternoon set up camp at a Van park one block from the main street and a couple of minutes walk from Rockabilly HQ, C ex club, couldn’t get much info at all from the club, obviously a bad communication breakdown between Wintersun organisers and the venue.
It took us the rest of the afternoon to get our feel for the town with nobody able to point us in the right direction. The Information centre had some programmes but couldn’t tell us much. Fortunately I had copied some info off the wintersun web before leaving home so that gave us a little insight into venues and times. Little did I know most of this stuff was out of date. I had also looked at the Street view of the venues on Google and printed off some maps of these places, but like an idiot left all these maps and pictures at home. We finally turned up at the Coff’s club and got some info and yep that’s where we were headed for the night R&R was on the agenda. So we headed back to our camper for a change of clothes and then decided to stick the nose bag on at the C Ex club, meal prices were out of this world expensive, so the executive decision we’ll look elsewhere, finished up at a Chinese now this was more in our price bracket, very nice food too.
The Coff’s Club is a Catholic Club, nice venue there was an XP falcon coupe convertible in the main foyer, bands on the agenda for the night were “Shuffle boys” (Newcastle) and ”Night Moves” (Coff’s H Local) not a big attendance of punters for this dance probably about 50,the dance floor was great with plenty of room, till it started raining outside and then the floor turned for the worse, very sticky. This was the last time we attended this venue accept for a meal on the Sunday night. This meal was something else, supposedly we were eating lamb shanks or that was what was advertised but no they were not lamb shanks, my experienced opinion was, yep they were shanks alright but I figure off some old cracker ewes that had lost all their teeth, the sign should have said “Old Mutton Shanks” tough, sinewy & dry, needless to say the last time we ate at this place. I figured we could do better eating our meals back at our camp.
We finally found our feet on Sunday located the Wintersun ticket shop and purchased tickets for Rockabilly at the C ex Club; bands “ No Brakes” , “Lewis King & the Liars” & Dj Dingo Suppa. “The Rattlesnakes”were listed to play but didn’t, nowhere to be seen, a bit disappointing eh. A brilliant night though, basically we danced till we were stuffed, not a big turnout probably 60-70 punters.
Monday was a bye, so we were off “rubberneckin.” Went for a drive up the Bellingen valley to the rain forest near Dorrigo, now this place is something not to be missed.Whilst walking in this forest I was expecting to see Tarzan swinging down on one of those big vines, munching on a freshly cooked wild turkey leg. There were bush turkeys’s everywhere. The weather wasn’t looking that good, 8octa cold and windy.
Tuesday we decided not to buy tickets at the W shop. As the dances had only low attendance, we would just rock up, pay at the door. There was no saving by buying at the shop. Went to the C ex Club again, great dance floor, not overly large but estimate could handle 30-40 couples comfortably the bands were “Lewis King & the Lairs Club”, “Silverados”, Phil Haley & his Comments With Gina Haley(Bill Haley’s Daughter)& DJ Dingo Suppa. Another great night we danced the hell out of the place.
Wednesday the weather cut up real rough, blowing straight out of the south and quite cool. All forecasts said big rain. The sea whipped up, and 6-8 meter waves pummelled the tiny harbour break water. It stood fast, handling anything Mother Nature could throw at it. The walk across Mutton bird Is was exciting. The spray from the waves bashing the shore line dampened down our japara oilskin coats with salty water, and made my glasses and the camera lenses all foggy.No Rain. The Elvis contest was cancelled, dance lesson Wkshops went ahead, not sure if anybody swam with the porpoises and listened to the big KSYB band from Perth 17 muso’s ages 14 to 21.It was too miserable for us. We had a bit of a grandpa & grandma nap out of the cold wind, it didn’t rain. We made another executive decision we’ll just buy tickets at the door again. Had a great night danced and danced, bands “X RayCats” (NZ) ---fanbloodytastic-- , Lewis King, Satellites, DJ Dingo. Didn’t drink enough water & payed dearly after we hit the sack, with leg cramps near killing me.
Thursday not sure whether Elvis comp got under way, the weather was still not looking good forecasts were rain, but again it didn’t, I sure was glad for my oilskin coat, still blowin’. 10am bands have started playing in the most idealic back drop called the Jetty Foreshore, a big grassed area with paved walkways between gazebos, and car parking picnic areas along the foreshore of the harbour, with sandy beaches & board walks across the dunes to the beach. It looks like a carnival atmosphere with Ferris wheel, octopus rides, dodgem cars, fairy floss, hotdogs, Mr. Whippy and so it goes on, Stages had been set up in locations across this area and bands are playing approx 40min gigs throughout the day. The night once again we discussed the pros and cons the numbers of punters are building by the hour, lots of cars Caddies, Chevies, Fords, Rods, people everywhere. We were not sure whether to pre buy tickets or not, this time we decided to ask at the ticket office if all the advertised bands are playing or not, this was a good decision, we soon found out that the “Mean Devils”(Portugal) the big draw card for the night were on their way home, caught at customs with drugs I was told. So we headed off to a band we knew would give us a good night “Jump & Jive”. We did have a great night,after we hunted around for an hour or so, and borrowed a Bass for them to use. Gordon from the X-ray Catz kindly lent his bass to Tom, then Sammy, Tom & Gossy lifted the roof of the Honky Tonk Room & we danced till stumps.
Friday weather is a little more subtle, bureau is still telling us it’s going to rain, not sure whether they know or not. BOM might get it right one day, long as they stick to saying it’s going to rain. The whole town is jumping now, people everywhere, cars, cars and more cars, rods, dragsters. Clothing , car parts, food, photo, etc stalls, more bands too many to mention now all playing on stages across the foreshore, a great opportunity to see & talk to bands we have never seen before. The real live steam train ride up into the mountains for about 3hrs looked awesome it also left from the stn just opposite the foreshore, twice a day. That night the decision was we go to the bands we knew Benny & the Fly by Niters and Hanks Jalopy Demons. They were great, danced the hell out of the place again, drank lots of water Ha Ha. There was a bonus that night an un carded band “The Saucermen” (SA) whoo, whoo if anybody gets the chance go and see these guys they play rockabilly that will knock your socks off. Lots of other venues playing bands, Swing, Rockabilly & R&R, Pubs, Taverns, Clubs etc.
Saturday weather looks good, sunny, BOM said rain. The Jetty Foreshore is alive with music, the great bakeoff was good. Our good friend Debbie, being an avid Rocker and kitchen wizz, tinker & cooker, took out second prize for her cupcake array “Jailhouse Rock.” We all got to eat some of this fantastic cookery, needless to say the cakes were devoured. The Bands played on, more cars, more people, more dancers. We had the feeling that the big note venues might be a little over loaded, so we decided to head out of Coffs to Sawtell and see a Band called the “Bakelites” a freebie, bad decision, dance floor not good, music ordinary. We left and headed off to Honky Tonk Heaven Venue & "The ReChord’s”. These boys played till they almost dropped. They were exhausted, so were we, just a little bit though, so we headed off to the rockabilly party 50th birthday of DJ Ray keepence and yep the morning had arrived but the band played on and that 50th party was still hot, boy o boy, can those music makers party hard, and still play. We all rolled out of this venue very early Sunday morning for a short nap this was our last day. The foreshore was jumping when we arrived so many people and Cars we took a few more Movies, the weatherman said Rain and it sure did, come 2.30 pm it just fell out of the sky fortunately we had seen enough and we were off on that 14hr drive to home.
After talking to many rockers during this week of great music I came to the conclusion - we all live the dream, some live the memory.
Cars at Wintersun 2012
Silverados from SA
XRay Cats NZ Brilliant band watch that key board player.
Hank is still in 50th birthday party mod from the night before. Ha Ha
Coffs Harbour takes a pounding from Mother Nature this breakwater is made out of concrete blocks about 2-3 meters tall
Sounds like Wintersun was a success overall, despite the little hiccups you described with some venues and bands. It's the little things, like the locals being knowing enough about a festival to be able to assist when you ask, that can affect your enjoyment. Thanks for such a detailed and informative review.
Dance like nobody's watching. Love like you've never been hurt
Great write up, gjo267 ..... and quite humorous in parts which I really enjoyed. Sounds like you had a good weekend too. Looking forward to seeing your "movies" later.
So right Steve if only you knew how much trouble we had with a total of 3 major program rewrites changes, then band changes again on the day. It was the inspector Cludo thing all the time we just talked to everybody to weed out the info,so as to make our fun more enjoyable, we would have liked a white board up at each stage with the band list and times for the gig. It would have been so much easier, we got the feeling the organizers just didn't have the passion.
Jitts I'll put some vids on soon as we can up load them we took about 100.
gjo267 - have taken liberty to copy & move your videos to your original post to give it more prominence. Hope you are OK with it .....let me know if you are not - happy to change it back.
Re: Wintersun 2012
Re: Wintersun 2012
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