THE gates to the Great Southern Blues Festival opened on Friday night to fans of blues music from far and wide.
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Better known as the Narooma Blues Festival, the very first two fans through the gate would have it no other way.
David Chaplin from Canberra said he attended about 15 of the first 20 festivals in Narooma but then when it moved to Batemans Bay, he attended only one before “boycotting”.
“It’s back where it belongs – Narooma,” he said.
With him was Andrew Pope who came to the festival all the way from Western Australia.
This was his second festival after meeting David at the festival’s homecoming to Narooma last year.
“It’s a great festival with not too many people and its more intimate,” said Andrew, who also attends the Byron blues festival.
“And it’s a nice area and nice country you have here.”
The festival crowds seemed good for the first night of the three-day event and early on in the evening the Ferny’s Juke Joint tent was packed before the two main stages fired up.
In the tent as last year was the food stall of Michael’s at Dalmeny with chef Michael Stokes and his crew steeling themselves to be slammed again.
This year they had made twice as much seafood chowder, after running out on the second day last year.
The theme of the Narooma Blues Festival continued when the MC of Albert King Stage revved up the crowd before the Johnny Rieger Band all the way from Germany.
MC Rod Niemeier got a big cheer from the crowd when asking whether the Narooma was the place to be.
There was relaxed atmosphere with a crowd of all ages but there was a strong police presence including a drug detection dog working the crowd.
Meanwhile up the hill, there was a gathering of blues and arts fans at the Narooma SoArt Gallery where local photographer and graphic artist Tim Burke opened his photo exhibition of 42 prints, music related and landscapes.
Friends and blues musicians Phil Wiggins and Dom Turner sang a quick number to open the show, before rushing down to play their gig at the festival.
Tim Burke’s show is on at the gallery all weekend until Tuesday and is open from 9am to 5pm.
The Narooma News will bring you more on the festival as it happens over the next few days.