While COVID-19 has devastated the event scene this year, a new music festival has risen from the steaming remains of the many COVID forced cancellations.
The Verandah Music Festival, taking place in the quaint town of Evandale, is bucking the trend and even taking the bare event landscape by the horns and turning it in a new direction.
In true quirky Evandale fashion the festival will do things differently with musicians performing from verandahs in the town.
Festival organiser Jeff McClintock said musicians in the town took to singing from their front yards during lockdown as a way of lifting the spirit of the community, and it was so well received he decided to take it to the next level.
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"It actually goes back to the lockdown period ... a couple of local families started playing music on their own verandahs at the same time each Sunday, just for the benefit of people who were out walking or cycling and it just gained traction and interest over a ten week period," he said.
"When restrictions lifted we had a mini concert with a small audience who really appreciate what we were doing and someone said 'hey, why don't we do a whole festival where the theme is that the music is player on verandahs'. And it went from there."
The festival has catered for 500 visitors a day and it is expected to bring the community alive with locals and travellers.
Over 24 performers are enlisted, each of who will be spread around the village on various verandahs.
Northern Midlands Council Mayor Mary Knowles said there was no better setting for such a unique event.
"This was the perfect opportunity to support the locals who have struggled through COVID and in such a beautiful, unique town," she said.
"This historic town is the perfect location to have such a lovely festival.
"We have some very unique towns in the Northern Midlands and this is just a perfect fit.
"The community is very unique. They're very, very passionate about their patch."
One of the bands performing is The Strummers, they are led by 92-year-old singer Albert Sidebotham and he said the event was an exciting opportunity for performers and attendees alike.
"We love to sing. We also love to give enjoyment to people," he said.
"We enjoy it just as much as the people we're singing to."
The festival is on November 21 and 22. Tickets are $10 for adults or free for children and can be purchased from the Verandah Music Festival Facebook page.
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