Soon after 6pm, Festivale chairwoman Lou Clark said she was unsure whether iconic Australian singer Daryl Braithwaite was going to make it onstage.

She said the unexpected rain - which became heavy about 5pm - had caused some technical issue and if it didn't ease by 9pm, Braithwaite wouldn't be going on stage.

Luckily, Mother Nature decided to answer the Festivale committee's prayers and turn off the waterworks.

And as Braithwaite graced the stage in the fairylight-lit park at 9.30pm, it seemed the worry wasn't worth it.

Ms Clark said day one of the three-day event had been a great success despite the wet weather.

``Given the weather the turnout is fantastic,'' she said.

``When you think that it rained from about 5 o'clock to 8 o'clock, people could have said, `no, we're not going'. But, people just keep coming in.''

People were still flooding through the gates at 9pm last night just in time to see Braithwaite perform.

Ms Clark said last night's turnout was a good start to what was going to be a great weekend.

``Hopefully we've got rid of the rain and we'll have a really good day and night (on Saturday),'' she said.