How time stood still for the music at Fish Creek

STARTED by a couple of mates on the Farrell family farm just outside Fish Creek 25 years ago, the Fishstock Music Festival or Goorumboo – Spirit of the Mountain - hit the stage again last Saturday.

And true to the original spirit of the event, it featured the “simple joy of live music in a beautiful place”.

Gates opened to the hidden valley where the festival was held at about 10am and the day kicked off at 10.45am with a welcome to country followed by the first band, The Acquaintances, at 11am and Wayne Thorpe at 12 noon.

Thereafter was a mix of First Nation and Aussie artists including Willoughby Burns on Fire, Mini Waters, Uncle Kutcha Edwards, following his recent gig at the Sydney Opera House, with local band Ozone Street also on the bill.

The happy crowd, measured in its hundreds, set up their chairs and socialised on the grass, came forward to dance, play cricket or Chinese Hacky Sack, as the entertainment rolled on into the night.

Many stayed over, camping out to extend the one-day festival into a weekend away in rural splendour along the road to Wilsons Promontory.

Poor phone reception kept outside worries at bay for a while, the wind did a same job with the flies.

Organised by a local committee, the proceeds from the festival are distribute locally and have supported such local causes as the South Gippsland Hospital at Foster and the Fish Creek CFA over the years.