A popular Sunshine Coast music festival has been acknowledged with a significant gong at the Queensland Music Awards in Brisbane.
The Caloundra Music Festival was recognised with the People’s Choice Award for Festival of the Year.
The awards, presented at the Fortitude Music Hall, were a celebration of the state’s best musicians. There were 27 categories.
There were performances by Casey Barnes, Hope D, Katie Noonan and a show-starting opening number by Sahara Beck. They have all played at the Caloundra Music Festival.Festival director Richie Eyles accepted the award.
He said there were many great festivals in Queensland and it was an honour to be considered among them.
He said the best thing about running a festival was being able to provide a platform for our homegrown talent.
“The most heart-warming thing for me is to see how many nominees and award winners have already played at CMF,” he said via a Sunshine Coast Council press release.
“We need people to continue to buy tickets to music festivals like ours to support these performers.”
Last year, the festival celebrated 15 years at the iconic beachside location of Kings Beach, with attendees coming from every state in Australia and also New Zealand, enjoying the three-day event, which showcased 70 artists, including 30 local acts.
Sunshine Coast Councillor Terry Landsberg said there were three reasons the Caloundra Music Festival was so popular: the destination, family-friendly atmosphere and the music.
Local talent and emerging artists have supported national and international headlining acts each night.
“This award is well deserved by the festival team and their extended family of 500-plus volunteers, and their passion to provide a world-class community music festival,” he said.
Among the accolades, and also voted by the people, popular Sunshine Coast venue Solbar was awarded the title of Regional Venue of the Year.
The 2019 Caloundra Music Festival was awarded Queensland Live Event of the Year at the National Live Music Awards and has been nominated in the Queensland Music Awards for the Festival of the Year people’s choice category in 2019, 2022 and 2023 – winning the award for the first time in 2023.
Artist applications are now open for the spring festival, which will run from September 29 to October 1.
