Saturday 1 December 2012 - Seafarers Multicultural Festival, Lakes Entrance (#56)

A long drive to Lakes Entrance saw Pans on Fire taking part in three performances on Saturday 1st December. The day started with several of the band taking part in the Street Parade that kicked off the Festival on Saturday morning. Despite the windy conditions, the band sounded good but, as in Bendigo, we seemed to hold up those behind us in the parade. We'll have to get our thinking hats on to find a way to keep up with everyone else.

In the afternoon, the full band then set up near the Footbridge Stage to play our main performance. A good crowd was in attendance, with many coming up to talk with band members during a short pause between sets, in which time we took the opportunity to tell them about the upcoming Australian Steelband Festival in Marysville.

After the afternoon performance, we packed the bus and moved up the road a couple of hundred metres, where we then unpacked the bus to set up for the evening performance at the Sports and Community Club. Unfortunately, it seemed that none of the audience had been told about the new location, with the result that we played to a grand total of maybe six people (apart from all the loyal partners of band members, who sat through another riveting performance of African Market Place - now that's real loyalty!).

To cap off the evening, the last few songs were played in pouring rain, with those standing under the join between the tents getting an unexpected surprise. We then re-packed the bus with wet tents and instruments, and headed to the pub.

One very nice part of the weekend were the romantic walks along the 90-Mile Beach, and the dinners shared between band members at some nice local restaurants, with brilliant sunsets on the first and last evenings.