Well done to the George hotel in Ballarat in hosting yet another edition of the Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival in 2018. As in the last few years, the program is run both indoors where the bands, dancing, fashion shows and burlesque are held whilst outside the hotel in Lydiard Street are the Kustom cars & rods display plus 1950's merchandise stores. There is also a temporary, large dance floor in Lydiard Street where both paid up patrons and the general public could dance to the bands playing on the hotel's balcony & at the outside stage or simply enjoy watching R&R dancing & listening to bands.

This year's festival featured Lance Lipinsky from Texas and many of the rockers have fond memories of him performing for Wintersun/Cooly Rocks On. He was the headline act for the weekend and he thrilled all his fans (especially the ladies) with his trademarked showbiz & provocative style on stage playing his boogie woogie tunes. The other headline act from the USA was Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers. However, I missed seeing this band as I had to return home early on Sunday.

Other popular bands for the weekend included the Detonators and Twang from Queensland who are no stranger to Victorian rockers having performed regularly in Melbourne in the last 2 years. I enjoyed watching & dancing to the Shane Magro Combo and the Cardillac Drifters too. Other bands that played at Ballarat Beat were Itchy Fingers, Ezra Lee, Jump & Jive, Miss Kitty & the Memphis Trio and a couple more bands.

Lydiard Street events is opened to the general public and attracted a good crowd both on Saturday & Sunday. What a great way to promote 1950's style R&R scene and culture. Apart from the dancers enjoying dancing on the large dance, there was dance demonstration from the local Ballarat rockers as well. There was a good contingent of inter-state rockers attending the festival especially from Adelaide & Queensland and as far as Perth. All in all, another enjoyable weekend of 1950's music, dancing, cars & fashions in Ballarat. Support your local R&R festivals to keep the music & dancing alive ....