Photos and story from Day 1

THE Great Southern Blues Festival wrapped up on Sunday with one common theme that everyone agreed upon.

The Narooma Blues Fest was back home – back where it belongs.

Locals flocked back to the festival that had missed in town for three years, with a cast of characters from far and wide joining them in the crowd.

Festival organiser Neil Mumme said he was pleased with the crowds and that its mojo was definitely back.

Narooma accommodation was booked out with the town buzzing over the October long weekend.

Food stalls by Sunday had most sold out after what turned out to be a very hungry crowd.

A new feature of the festival was Ferny’s Juke Joint, a separate tent area with seating and acoustic acts.

And feeding the constantly busy tent was Michaels at Dalmeny chef Michael Stokes whose crew were flat out all weekend and by Sunday were absolutely exhausted.

Amazing figures of 140 liters of seafood chowder, 200kg of squid and 40 legs of lamb show how popular Ferny’s Joint was.

Musical highlights on Sunday began with locals Daniel Champagne of Bega and Matt Southern of Wyndham playing, while the Telstra Road to Discovery saw young talent perform on stage as well.

Some of the young singers by all accounts were very impressive, even moving one burley security guard who said he was quite taken by the winning girl’s voice.

Daniel arrived at the festival after a gig at the Coogee Bay Hotel on Saturday night and had to dash to perform at a wedding later that day.

Alan Mulley's Blues Revue - long time South Coast Bluesman Alan Mulley assembled a "Big Band" complete with a swinging horn section for his first appearance at Narooma.

The guitar-slinging Mulley has been a regular around the South Coast music scene for many years and has built up quite a following amongst blues enthusiasts.

A big surprise was Ash Grunwald being joined by two members of The Living End, Andy Stachan on drums and Scott Owen on double bass, all together putting out some powerful sound.

The trio has been touring together for a while and earlier this year put out an album Gargantua.

A huge crowd of footy fans watching the NRL grand final on the big screen with Ash Grunwald and The Living End boys in the background was a surreal situation.

Russell Morris was also popular and ended up helping Neil Mumme and Narooma Lions Club vice president Bruce Frost draw out the winning ticket for the signed guitar competition, the winner being a blues fan from Sydney.

Bruce and his wife Julie were among the volunteers manning the gates and performing other duties and he too said the festival was back to where it belonged and it was part of what made Narooma special.

The festival as usual ended with a bang with many of Sunday’s performers getting up on stage to jam together.

Residents around Narooma will probably relish a return to silence but 79-year-old Nancy Rugg who lives directly across from the entrance gate on McMillan Road said she actually enjoyed the watching all the coming and goings.

Born and raised in Narooma, she echoed was everyone else was saying.

“I love it and glad it is back here,” she said.