Blessed with beautiful weather, the three-day fine music festival was a sell-out, with 1500 guests revelling in the beauty of the location and artistic director Genevieve Lacey’s wonderful program performed by world-renowned Australian and international musicians.

To mark Four Winds officially open, the free community concert on Good Friday – A Song About Fish – was staged at Dickinson Oval, Bermagui, and featured many of the visiting performers playing at the festival as well as numerous musicians, singers and dancers from the Far South Coast community.

A Song about Fish attracted a record crowd of around 1300 who watched in delight as the performers filled the oval with sound and fun.

Drummers, choristers, orchestral instruments, Zumba dancers, hula hoop artists, ukuleles, power tools, painted fabric and children all played their part to express something about Bermagui and the South Coast, the wind, the water and, of course, the fish.

All this performed under the watchful eye of the nine-metre plastic bag fish which local volunteers spent 100 hours making.

There were many visitors from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra in town for the festival, as well as overseas guests from Toronto, England, Italy, Scotland, Japan and France.

On Friday evening, there were full houses for both sessions of the Band of Brothers, who delivered an exciting and energetic performance at the Bermagui Community Centre.

On Easter Saturday, Four Winds moved to its Barragga Bay site and saw Philip Cox’s world class Sound Shell, in all its glory at the base of the tiered amphitheatre with a reed-filled moat and glass-backed stage.

The weekend of unique musical experiences included five World Premieres – Lou Bennett, Artistic Director of the Black Arm Band, composed a song entitled ‘Koorah Koo-rie’ (means Four Winds) performed by the youthful voices of Gondwana Chorale as a welcome song that pays tribute to the Yuin nation.

A piece of music inspired by the beauty of the bush around Wallagoot Lake and Bournda National Park also had its World Premiere at Four Winds. Cliff Wallis and Sayaka Mihara, who live on a 100 acre property called Watery Fowls, commissioned composer Damian Barbeler to write a piece for two pianos – ‘Bright Birds, was played by Sonya Lifschitz and Stephen Emmerson.

A new work by John Rodgers was performed by didgeridoo masters William Barton and Mark Atkins with the Four Winds cello quartet.

Other highlights of the festival included magnificent classical accordion virtuoso James Crabb; Nick Tsiavos and ensemble performing his composition Liminal and ACO2 - Australia’s most talented young string players.

Four Winds Festival chairwoman Sheena Boughen paid tribute to Four Winds 2012 Artistic Director Genevieve Lacey, saying she had brought Four Winds “so many gifts”. Genevieve, who lent her extraordinary musical talents to Four Winds 2012 and performed as well as creating the program, was emotional in response to the outpouring of appreciation from the audience.

She thanked the audience for being open-hearted and urged them to keep supporting the festival, which from May 2012 will see incoming Artistic Director Paul Kildea at the helm.

Four Winds launched its Symphony of Supporters campaign at this year’s festival and confirmed that it had received pledges and donations of $30,000, which will contribute to the Inspiring outreach program; a commissioning program for the 2014 and 2016 festivals (one of which will be a co-commission with the Aldeburgh Festival in England), artists’ residences and a range of additional events including summer proms and an outdoor cinema season.

Stage 2 of the development of Nature’s Concert Hall, including the construction of a pavilion and a better road into the site, is currently underway.