Heavens open on a divine ChillOut festival
By ANDIE NOONAN & NICK BOND
It was one of the wettest ChillOut festivals on record. Daylesford copped rain and hail, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of those attending the four-day festival.
ChillOut president Adam Wright hailed the festival a success, despite the rain.
“We were watching the weather reports all week and we’re happy people came out to support the festival under the circumstances,” he told Southern Star.
“I think the numbers were slightly down on last year but it was definitely still rocking.”
ChillOut’s annual fundraising lunch at Sault Restaurant on Friday set a new fundraising record with over $22,000 raised for the CFA Glenlyon Group.
Attendance at Friday night’s Bush Dance in Hepburn Springs was down on previous years and many of the outdoor events succumbed to the extreme weather, but other indoor activities drew huge crowds.
Sunday morning saw Daylesford’s main street lined with an eclectic mix of visiting queers and local straight families cheering on the street parade.
Top marks to Millie Minogue, seen teetering on the back of a truck dressed as a naughty nun (complete with sky-high heels) and looking glamorous as she waved to the crowd.
At the festival’s biggest event, Carnival Day, headlining singer-songwriter Deborah Conway delivered an appropriately chilled-out set while Dance act Black Dogs featuring Zoe Badwi gave audiences a crowd-pleasing set of hits.
The crowds flocked to many of the festival’s arts events, including cabaret performances by Anthony Menchetti, Erin Tasmania and Dolly Diamond.
Sunday night’s dance party drew a huge crowd, following the festival’s tradition as the biggest sell-out event. Badwi lifted the room with an anthemic cover of Kelly Rowland’s When Love Takes Over.
You May Also Like
This reminds me of something we have in Brisbane, Australia. I will be sure to inform Escort Brisbane about it. Thanks for the info.
We love Chillout. There was about 20 of us and we had a ring around early on Sunday morning, Chillout Carnival Day. The weather was looking very dubious and we ummed and arred. But then I said that if no-one turned up to Carnival, that would be a huge financial let down for the organisers and we needed to support them. We want to see Chillout continue to prosper as it is the highlight of our calendar. We go every year and this was the first year we had not stayed in the town for the whole weekend. So we all went to Daylesford with our brollys and plastic ponchos and had the best time, as did many others. From our perspective the crowd was much bigger than we had anticipated. It rained once during the day and then held off until about 5pm. It was a fantastic day. The entertainment was brilliant and the vibe in the crowd was happy and joyous. Well done to the organisers, you put on a marvelous show and we will be back next year.