Currumbin Waters 7 - 9 June 2013

Left Brunswick Heads and headed to Currumbin Waters and camped at Peter's cousin. Kerry and Di have just finished renovating their house on one of the canals. In the evening we went into Coolangatta to see some of the Cooly Rocks Festival. This is a 50/60's rock n roll festival and unlike most festivals we go to is about total immersion in the era – clothes, music, dance, accessories, motorbikes and of course cars – what can you say about the cars? They don't make them like that anymore – every conceivable shape, colour and size, from tiny Gogomombiles to a gigantic Cadillac. Early Saturday morning there was a street parade that featured dancers, cars, old rockers and women in the fantastic 50's gathered skirts. What was interesting was the predominance of older people (yes older than us) who made up the bulk of the dancers and musicians – it was obviously they enjoyed the music the first time when they were young and don't want to forget it! Don't know what will happen when the musicians get too old to play and all the dancers need Zimmer frames – maybe get dance rage! After the parade, we walked along the beach to a couple of concerts – everybody was enjoying themselves – then had a look at the stalls – from car parts to furniture, vintage clothing and even hair dressers – people really loved dressing the part. While we had a great time and enjoyed looking at the incredible array of cars, it is something we can appreciate and then leave. Phillip (Peter's other cousin) came down to see us and we had a nostalgic evening reminiscing over a few drinks. On Sunday we went to see Jill and John in their new home and then took them up to Nerang to see a new folk festival. It was situated in a magical spot with heaps of room for expansion – just the thing that Peter is looking for with the Illawarra Folk Festival. Although there were only a few venues, they had a great variety of acts and the music that we heard was an interesting mixture of new and old songs and it was encouraging to see so many young performers.