The First Friday Online Music Festival was held at the Empire Theatre Church on Saturday the 27th March 2010. The day started at 9.00am with local band Mercury Drive warming up the stage with over 20 acts performing during the day.

We had a difficult job choosing only 3 acts to progress through to the finals. There were performers from right across the Toowoomba Region entering the competition with Deacon Gimms aged 7 years old playing the drums and solo singers from 11 years old.

There was a wide range of musical talent and many different genres performed to entertain us through out the day. It is truly amazing the talent our kids have with a lot of them writing their own lyrics and performing like they had many years of stage performances under their belts. We had fantastic support from a local group of performers from Stars and Idols. These kids showcased their abilities and presented the live audience with solos, bands and group performances which were outstanding.

Mason Watts showed us age is no barrier to success with some great solo performances and Rachelle Van Slobbe was captivating with her unique voice. In third position for the day was local band Wednesday 5.45 came on at 5.45pm on Saturday afternoon to show us how good the standard of the young bands has to be to make it through the competition. The best solo performance was young singer song writer Megan Achilles coming in second and the outstanding stars of the day were duo Anna Wilshire and May Volp who amazed the judges and audience with their original performances and stunning harmonies.

A great day was had by all who performed and we had the pleasure of meeting Brian Nankervis, the host of Rockwiz on SBS. Brian spoke to our performers and offered words of encouragement. Brian also announced the top 3 acts who performed their songs once again. Our local news station Win TV was there to capture these performances. Many thanks to those who supported the day. Royce Music house for the first prize voucher and supplying the backline, Luke Haase and the Greenroom for the live recording of the winning performance, Darryl Bates from Toowoomba Regional Council for second and third prizes and Bart and the boys from Skywriter.

We always need sponsors to make these types of events a success and Qld Hot Property paid for the hire of the Empire Theatre Church and covered all other expenses for the day. We would also like to thank Nat and Tiff from “ The Base” youth centre in Neil Street for cooking the BBQ all day. Dean Carlile spent all day capturing all the performers on camera and has put together a portfolio of photos for you to view on our website. We look forward to hosting this event next year making it bigger and better.

LISTEN TO THE WINNER'S RECORDINGS