COUNTRY PUB RAISES THOUSANDS FOR CHARITY

COUNTRY PUB RAISES THOUSANDS FOR CHARITY

THOUSANDS of dollars have been raised for charity by members of the Peak Crossing Pub social club this year with the support of local publicans Bruce Kennaugh and Peter Bell.

A total of $8500 was raised by the social club through weekly raffles and the annual Peak Crossing Pig Races.

The club chose to donate half of the funds to the Rural Fire Service, the cheque was accepted on Tuesday night by head of the Flinders Peak Rural Fire Service Robyn Outen-Scott.




"Head of Peak Crossing Rural Fire Service Robyn Outen-Scott and co-owner
of the Peak Pub Peter Bell enjoy a drink after the cheque presentation."

The money will be used to upgrade the rural fire support vehicle, turning into an on-site command centre with a functional generator, computer and printer.

“I didn’t know what we were going to get, I didn’t think it would be that much,” Ms Outen-Scott says.

“It would have taken us years to raise the money needed to upgrade the support vehicle, it’s just overwhelming.”

The Peak Pub Social club also donated $2000 to the Fassifern Junior Rugby League club, $1000 to the Harrisville Lions Club, $1000 to Variety Queensland and $500 to the Peak Crossing Hall committee for renovations at the local community hall.

Fassifern Junior Football Club committee member Karen Ward says she was ecstatic to receive the much needed $2000 donation.

“I am absolutely blown away, I have goosebumps, we just did not expect this,” Ms Ward says.

“This donation will go a long way, it’s massive.”

The $2000 will go towards purchasing a new electronic scoreboard as well as brand new jerseys for the junior football club.

Co-owner of the Peak Crossing Pub Peter Bell says he is happy to support the ongoing charity work of the social club.

“We couldn’t raise this money without the club, they helped set up the pig races and do a really great job of organising to raise money,” he says.

According to the president of the Peak Pub social club Neil Freeman the club is always looking for more members and aims to further its charity work in 2014.

“We are looking at doing a bigger and better year of fundraising next year,” Mr Freeman says.

Record numbers enjoy day of music and fun at Grotto Fest

 

Record Attendance for Grotto Fest  

A RECORD breaking number of tickets were sold for this year’s Grotto Fest music festival in Marburg held on Saturday.

The not-for-profit festival provided over eight hundred music lovers with 12 hours of live blues and roots bands.

The fine weather prompted a massive turnout at Jay-Lee Park, with crowds enjoying the warm spring weather while listening to some of Australia’s best blues artists.

Grotto Fest founder and organiser Larissa Cross says the festival patronage has more than tripled that of the previous year.

“We couldn’t ask for a better day, everyone has come out and supported the festival and the charity we are donating to,” Mrs Cross says.

Photo: Rob Williams

Plenty of family fun was also had on the day, with organisers providing a free jumping castle, water slide, book readings and multiple workshops for younger festival goers.

Entertainment for the adults at the festival was not in short supply thanks to the fire dancers, circus performers, street acts and unicyclists performing throughout the day alongside the live musical acts.

Kaylah Vanderkyl has attended Grotto Fest every year since the festival’s inception in 2009.

“You can’t describe the music and the atmosphere here, it’s just amazing,” Ms Vanderkyl says.

The festival featured an impressive line-up of local artists as well interstate and internationally acclaimed blues and roots bands.

Winners of the Bryon Bay Bluesfest Busking Competition ‘Nick and Sam’ and ‘Claire-Ann Taylor’ began the line-up and set the bar high for following acts.

The Royal Artillery worked the crowd, while Brisbane-based trio Brother Fox had festival goers up and dancing.

Crowd favorite Dallas Frasca did not disappoint, providing a climactic end to the day.

Other acts that performed at the festival included local favourite Greg McHugh, roots and reggae group Paua, Women in Docs, CC the Cat and Cleveland Blues.

As well as providing a day full of festival fun, the Grotto Fest donates profits from ticket sales to a chosen local charity or family in need every year.

This year proceeds will be donated to 4-year-old Kane Taylor from Rosewood, who is suffering from Neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in infancy, and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

Kane’s mother Natasha says she is grateful for the Grotto Fest donation and the support of the local community.

“Dallas Frasca to headline Grotto Fest”

“Dallas Frasca to headline Grotto Fest”

The GrottoFest Committee has recently announced the official artist line up scheduled to perform at this year’s charity blues and roots festival.

The much awaited release has not disappointed festival fans with the ‘bona-fide princess of rock’ Dallas Frasca set to headline the local event.

Dallas Frasca will perform her internationally acclaimed live show at GrottoFest shortly after returning from a six week European tour where she supported acts such as Ben Harper and Patti Smith.

“It has been a crazy year for the band continuing to be true and honest to our music, (especially) performing in front of 50,000 people at this year’s Le Mans Festival in France and supporting Patti Smith and Aerosmith,” Frasca said.

“We are also in the midst of making a new album so you will definitely hear some unreleased songs at Grotto Fest.”

Band Coordinator Robbie Burns was excited after managing to sign such a notable act.

“Having Dallas Frasca headline GrottoFest 2013 is a massive step up for our festival,” Mr Burns said.

“Her high energy brand of blues rock will be a fitting end to what promises to be the biggest line-up the GrottoFest has ever seen.”

The not-for-profit festival is run by a committee of dedicated volunteers local to Ipswich and has also attracted Australian folk festival favourites Women In Docs, Paua, Brother Fox, Suicide Swans and Marburg’s own Greg McHugh.

GrottoFest has also recently forged a new alliance with the Byron Bluesfest Busking Competition.

The winners of the competition will get the opportunity to perform live on stage at GrottoFest as well as Byron Bay’s Bluesfest.

The festival will also host the overall competition winner Claire Ann Taylor and ‘grommet’ competition winners Nick & Sam will be performing their winning sets.

The BYO festival includes free camping and also hosts a variety of children activities.

Early-bird tickets to GrottoFest can now be purchased online through Oztix or by visiting the Grotto Fest website www.grottofest.com.