THE rain may have bucketed down on Friday night, but that did nothing to deter the massive crowd at Willowbank who were locked in to celebrate the return of their country music holy grail “CMC Rocks”.
Fortunately, the downpour was restricted to just one day and the mud and slush that wiped out the big Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay never eventuated.
This year’s event was another sold out four day smash hit with international artists making the long haul out to Ipswich to appear and they loved it.
USA superstars were overwhelmed by the crowd’s reaction remarking how much energy they had.
“The Aussie fans are crazy, they camp out for days, they just make the most of this experience,” artists said.
“You look out over a crowd and you realise ‘I have fans over here!’ and there is nothing more special than that.”
It has been three years since CMC Rocks QLD was held at Willowbank, although it was close to happening in 2020 before the Covid outbreak forced its cancellation just weeks before it was due to be held.
The weekend’s event was a catch up show and country music devotees won’t have to wait long for the next big event with CMC Rocks 2023 scheduled for April 22.
More than 22,000 daily attended CMC Rocks this year to watch a line-up boasting 13 international and 21 local artists.
An addition enjoyed by the crowd was Live Band Karaoke.
It gave fans the chance to shine as a vocalist with a real band behind them.
The event has a huge economic impact injecting more than $11 million into the local Ipswich economy.
