Why this festival is 'the best thing to ever happen to Creswick'

The usually sleepy town of Creswick was transformed on the afternoon of April 6, 2024, with large crowds lining the main street and spilling out of busy cafes and bars.

Creswick's Sarah Samsara, who runs drum circles during the festival, said the event was "the best thing to ever happen" to the town.

"It brings art and fun and music to the community, it's really great for our business for the economic health of the town, it shows people our beautiful natural region and it brings the community together," she said.

"I don't want to miss anything, last year I discovered some fantastic bands that I'd never heard of before, and it's a great way to discover new music and new artists."

"We look forward to it, we count down the sleeps, it's such a beautiful sense of excitement that builds in the weeks beforehand ... it is the most fun weekend of the year for us."

Now in its third year, CresFest director Judy Turner told The Courier the event had grown to be "better, bigger and stronger" in 2024.

She said local businesses were supporting the event more than ever, and were taking advantage of the sudden influx of visitors.

"There's a happy vibe in the town, there's no question about it," she said.

"All the pubs are pumping, Leaver's [Hotel] ran out of food [on] night one, it was unbelievable."

In 2024, Ms Turner said the festival had branched out with more free street performances, which were adding to the atmosphere in town.

This was a feature on Saturday afternoon, where performers entertained young and old alike, with everything from balloon swallowing magicians to hula hooping unicyclists on show.

There were also numerous free musical acts performing throughout the afternoon, including a large choir and an accordion band.

While for those who purchased tickets, there was also a range of highly regarded Australian and international acts to see.

Ms Turner highlighted Argentine band Guaunaco trio as one of the acts she was most looking forward to, and said other international performers had come from Canada, Scotland and New Zealand.

She also said overseas volunteers from Germany and Ireland had come to the event to join crowds from all corners of Australia.

"There's people who have come from Queensland, people who are from South Australia, I've spoken to people in New South Wales, [and] quite a few from Geelong," she said.

Two people who attended the festival from a far flung location were volunteers Marlene and Gerhard Moerk who live in Gechingen, Germany, but were in Creswick as part of a nine month trip across Australia.

Ms Moerk is originally from regional Victoria, but has been living in Europe for the past 37 years since meeting German native Gerhard.

The pair said they had come to CresFest as they were attracted to the size and friendly atmosphere of the event.

"The main thing that we've seen so far has been the music in the streets, and a couple of concerts, and it's all very good we're really enjoying it," Ms Moerk said.

"It's very casual, it's very relaxed here."

Mr Moerk added that the community nature of CresFest meant it was easy to meet people and engage with the festival atmosphere.

"The good thing here is there's a lot of things going on, we couldn't get into a venue around 12 o'clock, but we sat outside and we met a friend we might not have seen if we weren't sitting outside," he said.

For musician Philip Griffin, who makes up one third of world music trio Gosti, the event was a good way of sharing his band's unique form of music.

"It's the kind of music you couldn't get a regular gig at a pub or something like that, festivals work well for this sort of music," he said.

"We rocked up at the Leaver's Hotel last night and thought 'I wonder what this will be like?' because it's not super-loud music and there was a lot of noise in the bar.

"It went really well .. sometimes you get put somewhere you wouldn't necessarily expect and it goes really well."