Bourbon Street back for Beats on the Beach
Bourbon Street are back — and they’ll perform on the big stage at the Beats on the Beach concert at Kingsford Smith Park, Ballina, on New Year’s Day.
Lismore-based Bourbon Street gained a national profile in the 1980s and 1990s, recording three albums. The boys even toured in the United States.
They stopped performing in 1993 but Beats on the Beach organisers say they have re-formed and it’s ‘time for another shot of Bourbon’.
Beats on the Beach, headlined by Pete Murray, is being held for the first time in Ballina. There will be on-site camping for two days at Kingsford Smith Park, and, understandably, some residents of the area are worried about how the town will handle the expected influx of thousands for the concert. Even Byron Bay Mayor Jan Barham has expressed fears that the crowd will head on to Byron and over-run the town.
The concert will start at 10am and conclude at 9pm. Some of the pubs in Ballina say they will close early to avoid any post-concert partiers.
Beats on the Beach will also play host to major pro skate boarding demonstrationss and comps, food stalls, arts and crafts, moonlight cinema and an ‘on-site festival camping opportunity the likes of which hasn’t been seen before at an Australian festival of this calibre’, the organisers say.
“Presented against the surrounding backdrop of Ballina’s vibrant town and beautiful beaches and representing an unequalled value for summer money equation, Beats On The Beach is set to become one of Australia’s premier arts and music festivals,” they said.
Whether the festival proves good for the town — which always is ‘busting at the seams’ over Christmas and New Year — remains to be seen.
Certainly, it’s the biggest musical event to hit town since Robert Allen Zimmerman (also known as Bob Dylan), who played on the Kingsford Smith Park footy field on March 31, 2001.
What a night that was! The legendary Dylan playing on a rugby league field in Ballina!
