The streets were blocked off early for the Rockhampton River Festival and even before the festival had officially kicked off the Fitzroy River setting was a wash with people. Families all getting their prime positions, friends enjoying the activities, couples sharing a bite to eat, there wasn’t an age demographic that went un-represented, truly demonstrating the 2023 River Fest had something for everyone.

Cleverly the festival was divided up into zones, each with its own theme and focus. This set-up made it easy to negotiate and at times find those of your party that were missing. These zones were all clearly marked both on the maps and their entries and included The Gathering Place, River Kids, River Spirit, The Quay, Winter Wonderland, The Shipyard and the Tunuba Stage.

The Gathering Space - First Nations dancing was being taught by respected Elder Uncle Michael. as well as sharing stories and knowledge including the history of the didgeridoo, how they are made and how to play this truly unique instrument.

The Quay - Home to the beautiful market stalls that held a treasure trove of clothing, jewellery, sauces, jerky, handmade items, wooden delights and sweet-scented candles, fortified meats, plants, clothing, artwork and leather products.

Flavours of the World -Delivered what it promised with food from around the world including Hungarian, Spanish, Italian, Thai, Brazilian BBQ, Japanese, Chinese, American, Indian and that was just at one end of the festival site. There was another Eatery destination at the Shipyard end of the festival that housed Dippin Dots, Gluten Free selections, Ice Cream, Filla Spuds, food on sticks, Potato Spirals, fish & chips and even Squid Lips.

River Spirit Zone - Held workshops for anyone wanting to be involved and learn the skills of photography, working with Charcoal, and paper art.

River Kids Zone - A kid’s area that had its own Age appropriate market stalls with toys, lollies, lights-ups, ice cream, fairy floss, workshops and their own stage with wiggle-type performances and puppet shows. The Kid Zone also included Cheeky Monkey’s which provided child care for parents wanting some time off parenting duties to enjoy everything on offer at River Fest.

Winter Wonderland - Ice Rink

River Fest had a lot going for it with attendees being treated to Fireworks all three nights, everyone getting a chance to shine on stage with the Shipyard’s Karaoke, Yoga classes and meditation with music by Wilma La. Local artists set up inside open shipping containers to display and sell their creations. Educational cards along the pathways to educate visitors about the natural assets of the Fitzroy Basin and the icing on the cake was two stages packed full of great Australian music (Our 3 days of musical highlights are listed below). And something you don’t see often enough was an artist’s tent, which most of the acts did attend either before or after their sets to meet fans, sign autographs and sell their merch over the weekend.

This was Rockhampton’s 8th River Festival and it clearly showed, the experience the team from Rockhampton Regional Council, who hosted the event, have built up over the years was demonstrated in what can only be described as a successful and well-run festival. There were plenty of tables and chairs, multiple accessibility ramps and amenities spread throughout the festival. Then there was the Program that was not only being handed out by volunteers but was also printed on large display boards and placed around the festival site, the River Fest program was divided into categories eg kids, music, and workshops, it had a map as well as set times. It was a great tool and an invaluable one I imagine for the family groups trying to plan their experience and to get the most out of their River Fest time. This festival is one we highly recommend to anyone who can get there, it had awesome music, it had a considered layout, it catered to all ages and it was a lot of fun.

Attending this event it was hard not to feel that real “sense of community” in this historic and architecturally breathtaking town. Rockhamptonites you are a beautiful bunch and we were so happy to be invited to be a part of your River Fest and we would definitely love to be there next year to see how you top this year’s edition.

Special thanks goes to Tanya Wooley and her team at the Rockhampton Regional Council for not only having us along but also for putting on a superb event, the Empire Apartments for the beautiful accommodation and all the lovely locals we met, who were just so welcoming and friendly.

Side Note - One of the best parts of this job is getting to hear bands I may never have discovered if it wasn’t for attending festivals and River Fest certainly proved that point, delivering great new bands for me to investigate more in abundance.

Friday Music Highlights

The Zac Cross Band kicked off three days of music on the Tunuba Stage with songs ‘Like No Tomorrow’ and ‘Times Like These’

Weathered were glad to back playing in their home town gave fans originals ‘Shelter’ and ‘As You Are Near’

Brad Butcher was the Country music opener and definitely a fan favorite playing a mix of his old and new material

Four piece band, Math played covers and original pop rock songs

Original Rockhampton residents Transvaal Diamond Syndicate played the first of their alt-country rock sets which included ‘Devil On My Shoulder’ and ‘Estranged Blues’

Amber Lawrence played fan requests ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’ and ‘I’m Coming Home’.

Indie-Rockers, The Stone Apes were big fan favourites and pulled a big crowd of a younger age bracket to close out the Shipyard stage with tracks such as ‘Waste My Time’ & ‘Molly’

Andrew Swift was the Tunuba stage headliner and was extremely popular with country fans going nuts soon as he took the stage delivering his new song ‘Cheap Liquor’, his eye contact avoiding song - ‘Say The Word, & ‘Loves Like A Wrecking Ball’.

Saturday Music Highlights:

Amber Lawrence played a special ‘Kids Gone Country’ show with age-appropriate songs like Baby Shark and her own originals including Giddy Up.

Alt- Metal band Treehouse drove up from the Sunshine Coast and belted out ‘Up The Wall’ and ‘Goose’

Soul- Folk artist Leonie Kingdom played ‘Hunted’ & "‘Rhubarb’

Local singer/songwriter Kate Mahood played her new song ‘Not Afraid Of The Dark’ .

Surf-Rock, Brissy Boys, Lucid Safari Smashed out ‘Rise and Fall’ & ‘Liquid Dream’, Pop-Rock duo Sunday Lemonade played new track ‘Simple Thing’ , Pancakes amongst some covers

Dirty Blues-Rock band ‘Owls Of Neptune’ rocked out new singles ‘Burning Out’ and ‘Stormy Weather’.

Stanthorpe’s Mitch King delighted fans with a folk/blues/rock that was very John Butler-esque and included tracks ‘Big Bright Moon’ and ‘Home’.

Hard Rock three-piece Katanak played a bunch of originals that included ‘Take Us Back’.

The Short Fall’s set included ‘Head Under Water’, ‘Take What’s Left Of Me’ and ‘Say Anything’.

Chavez Cartel made their second appearance at River Fest and belted out ‘Feelin’ , ‘Don’t Sit Down’

Headliners, The Delta Riggs belted out old songs like ‘From Above’ and new tracks ‘Solutions’ and everything in between like ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’

Sunday Music Highlights

Singer/Songwriter and Multi-Instrumentalist Tom Mac delivered ‘Larikin Sunset’ and ‘Aware’

Emu Park’s Ben Brady played originals ‘Song Junkie’ & ‘Hard To Make An Honest Living’

Dave Dow delivered a fun set which included ‘Under The Boardwalk’ with a Shaggy touch, beatboxing “Barnsie”, and Talk It Over/Drop It like its Hot & I Want To Sex You Up/Tuckers Daughter medlies.

Jesse Harp & Josh Bobadilla dropped a rock cover of ‘Loose Yourself’

Louise James FX treated punters to ‘Fly Forever’ the 1st song they are releasing.

Folk-Country Singer Ben Penna played songs the “Aussie battler can relate to” including ‘Life’ and ‘Fairytale’

Mumbo Gumbo rocked out some of the original rock n roll songs from the ’50s & 60’s

Sister act Charlie Needs Braces wove Traditional music with looping, percussion & brass instruments to create an original performance that included their popular track ‘Saltwater People’.

Micka Scene produced an awesome sound with the drummer multi-tasking and playing the keyboard simultaneously, delivering ‘Wake Up’ and ‘Waiting For You’

Supertalented Mitch King wowed the crowd with his tracks ‘Suddenly Change’ &

Rocky-born Birdz was the headline act for Sunday and was the major drawcard for all the HipHop fans, dropping fan-favourites ‘Don’t Say My Name’ , ‘Play The Game’ & ‘Know Your Truth’

Side Note - One of the best parts of this job is getting to hear bands I may never have discovered if it wasn’t for attending festivals and River Fest certainly proved that point, delivering great new bands for me to investigate more in abundance.

River Fest 2023