By Kath Gannaway
FIRST-TIME concert organisers Tom Connor and David Holton put on a great day for Healesville music-lovers and the Healesville CFA brigades.
The 12-hour Village In The Hills concert held at Healesville Racecourse catered for a hugely diverse music audience and raised funds for the brigades.
A forced change of date meant the concert came up against some stiff competition with the Jimmy Barnes concert and the Close The Gap concert at Badger Creek, and while that almost certainly keep crowd numbers down, for those who attended it was an event many said was worth revisiting.
Mr Connor said they had exceeded their target with about 600 people attending and that the feedback had been very positive.
Rating Cold Snap, Jess and Jarrod Dexter, Qua and Toaster Boutique as highlights of the event, he said overwhelmingly the response from audience members and performers was that they loved it.
Sean Paris certainly did. He was one of a large group of Healesville teenagers who attended on Saturday night and said it was “awesome”.
“To have something like this in Healesville is great,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the local brigades, Badger Creek CFA member Kerri Rodway said Mr Connor and Mr Holton had done a great job.
“It’s just great that some of the local young people wanted to get together to say thanks to the brigades after the fires,” she said.
Mr Connor said they were happy their first venture into music events.
“We put something together and it worked pretty well,” he said.
“We covered costs, the CFA will benefit from it and everyone had a really good day.”
