I go more years than not to the Australia Day gig at Stage 88. Whatever your stance on Australia Day this has always been a great day out and something you can take the kids to.
Covid restrictions this year did put a bit of a dampener on things but that’s to be expected. The event organisers limited the amount of tickets and this year you had go pay to get in. The prices (In my humble opinion) were very reasonable for the calibre of entertainment on offer.
We arrived and checked in on our covid apps. I was a little annoyed that the over zealous security wouldn’t let us take our umbrella’s in. It was a certainty to rain that day and its was not a warm day at the outdoor stage 88. We got in in time to see “Fanny” who played rather well. Not really my thing but you have to pay talent when you see it. A little too country for my liking. Lee Kernigan was up next and of course it started raining. Kernigan played solo, using backing music to fill out the sound. His sound on the day was a lot more rockin’ than I remember his music to be. It definitely picked up the mood and got everyone tapping away.
One thing I have to commend the organisers on was the food hampers there. Great selection of meats and finger foods for a very reasonable price that we could pick at all afternoon.
Daryl Braithwaite was in fine form cracking jokes all through his set and he, and his band played very well. A few solo songs and some “Sherbert” songs kept everything entertaining. I have to say the same for James Reyne. Great set of songs and a lot of numbers from “Australian Crawl”. This mean that myself and large numbers of the crowd could recognise a lot of the songs and sing along and join in. Well done to the guys on the song selection.
Overall, great night out. Would definitely keep going. Shame about the rain but what can you do? Would be nice if the security guards lightened up a bit too. The crowed was extremely sedate, and socially distance there was no point worrying about things like umbrellas. In fact it probably sent a lot more people home with “cold and flu” like symptoms for the week ahead than what could have possibly arrived there.
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