WQ's own musicians play to enthusiastic crowds at Way out West Fest

Lilly Alexander and Tane-Rua Beatty-Smith, both graduates of the Longreach State High School, performed before live audiences throughout Winton's Way Out West Festival, with Tane-Rua finishing as the runner-up in the emerging artist challenge.

Gympie's Alison Jensen garnered the most votes which, according to festival director Jeff Chandler, amounted to over 1000 votes in total.

"We just wanted to nurture emerging artists, give them a showcase in a variety of settings with a competitive element," he said. "People don't appreciate the work a young artist has to do, to get people to listen to them, especially with all the competing streaming services these days."

For Tane-Rua, it's all part of the experience he feels he needs to gain on his journey to the main stage, where he wants to be.

It started when he joined the Central West Music Makers after school as an outlet from shed work or pizza delivery jobs, which resulted in lots of gigs, including busking at the first Way out West festival, where they were joined on the street by Sheppard.

He and Lilly Alexander are both studying contemporary music performance at the JMC Acadamy in South Brisbane, where they're getting chances to play with other musicians and break into the wider scene.

"I want to eventually break into the American scene, like Keith (Urban)," Tane-Rua said.

Related: Winton's buzzing and it's not the flies

Festival patrons packing Winton's streets and pubs gave he and the other rising stars plenty of encouragement over six days of the music feast.

Jeff Chandler said this year's festival had been a whole lot harder to run, thanks to the impact of COVID, and had probably added 25 per cent to running costs.

"With what happened in Brisbane, we had to move programming and resources - indoor had to be moved outdoor, which changed again," he said.

"We had to anticipate a lot of things.

"I never slept a wink, waiting for the Premier's announcement - we had 28 people in Brisbane waiting to build a set, and artists that had booked flights.

"Then there was additional work ticking the health boxes, but thankfully people were very generally good about about mask wearing, taking it seriously and checking in everywhere."

Mr Chandler said somewhere between 4000 and 5000 visitors had travelled to Winton for the event, while they had 3700 paying customers through the gates.

He said that had met their targets.

"We could have gone bigger but then you need the amenities to match.

"The feedback has been very positive - the festival had a real celebratory feel to it."

Photo gallery: Way out West Fest attracts big crowds

The best sight was families enjoying themselves together.

"We don't measure success by the amount of alcohol sold," he said.

"Council's measure is increased tourism and we delivered on that.

"Running it for six days, starting with Waltzing Matilda Day on April 6, gave people a lot more time to spend in town."

Official visitors included the Assistant Minister for COVID Economic Recovery Bart Mellish, who replaced Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe at the last minute, and Moreton Bay councillor Darren Grimwade, honouring the sister city arrangement with Winton.

Both the state government and the Moreton Bay Regional Council sponsored the event.

As to whether the festival turned a profit, Mr Chandler said it was hard to know at this stage, with refunds and other amounts still to be factored in.

Read more: Brand Winton launches on world stage

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