How Lucindale got the One Night Stand — and how they’re preparing for it
On Saturday, tiny Lucindale will swell by up to 25,000 people for Triple J’s One Night Stand concert — and the local AFL and netball grand finals. That’s a lot of sangers to make. So how did they do it?
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Win or lose, Lucindale will have a grand final party to remember
- Hilltop Hoods are now the biggest group in Australia
According to the “Welcome to Lucindale” sign on the highway, the quaint South-East farming hamlet is home to exactly 460 people. And it’s a fairly old sign.
There’s a pub, a deli, a post office and a rural supplies store and … well, that’s about it.
On Saturday, however, it’s set to become one of the biggest regional centres in the state as up to 25,000 young music fans converge on the town for the One Night Stand concert.
If everyone turns up, Lucindale will be second-biggest town in SA, after Mt Gambier down the road.
And given half of Mt Gambier will be at the One Night Stand, it’s entirely possible that Lucindale will wear the population crown, if only for a day.
The festival, featuring SA’s own Hilltop Hoods, singer-songwriters Meg Mac and G Flip and chill-lords Ocean Alley, has seen local businesses steeling themselves for what’s sure to be the most lucrative — but ridiculously busy — days ever.
Not since the upstate New York town of Bethel played host to 300,000 hippies for 1969’s Woodstock festival has such a huge show been hosted by such a small place.
To add to the general air of excitement — and perhaps chaos — descending on the town is the fact that the Lucindale Roos have made the grand final of both the footy and the netball.
Should they win the extensive dry zones placed around the concert could make celebrating with a few frothier a logistic nightmare.
For Leanne Graetz, owner of the Lucindale Café and Deli (the best, and only, deli in town) preparing for the One Night Stand was a little bit like “waiting for a tornado”.
“Right now I’m feeling tired and weary — the unknown of it all is the scary part,” Leanne laughed.
“I was talking to one of the organisers and he said there could be 20,000 to 25,000 people coming to our town. Our population, according to the sign, is 460 people. In the surrounding area there are probably 1000 people.”
However while there are sure to be a few headaches that come with hosting such a horde, Leanne was adamant that it’s a good thing for the Lucindale community.
“The young people here have never seen anything like this, so that’s great,” she said.
“Lucindale will always get right behind anything that is good for the community. We’re already on the map to some extent thanks to the field days, but this is a different thing altogether.”
As for the footy, Leanne thinks the ONS might be more of a help than a hindrance.
“Hopefully it’s a good omen, because last year it was in St Helens (Tasmania) and their team went on to win the grand final down there,” she said.
Win, lose or draw, Leanne knows one thing — she’s going to be pumping out a truckload of coffees and sangers this weekend.
“Every freezer and every fridge is full,” she said. “We’re prepared for the unknown.”
Aaron Smart, president of the mighty Lucindale Roos, says “99 per cent of the town are really happy,” about the One Night Stand. That’s exactly 455.4 people, if you do the maths.
“Everyone’s embraced it. It’s allowed us to open up a few empty shops and put on some pop-up stores for the campers. I think it’ll be great for the town. This puts Lucindale, and the whole Limestone Coast region, on the map.”
The fact that the festival falls on the same day as the Kowree-Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League grand final that will see the Roos face off against the Mundulla Moots is, according to Smarty, unfortunate but unavoidable.
“When we heard that Triple J were interested in holding the One Night Stand in Lucindale the first question we asked was, ‘can we change the date?’,” Aaron said.
“The answer was no, but at that stage we weren’t in great shape as a team and the grand final wasn’t really on our mind. We honestly didn’t think we were a chance.”
When told about the theory that the One Night Stand could be a good omen, Aaron laughed.
“If that’s true then I reckon every little town in Australia with a football team will be putting their hands up to host the next one,” he said.
As for the post-GF celebrations, they’ll be held at the lawn bowls club, win or lose.
Down the road at the Lucindale Hotel, which would normally host any post-grand final party, owner Georgie McKay is preparing for a mini festival of her own. A Two Night Stand if you will.
“We’ll have a marquee out the back and we’ll host some of the local bands who didn’t make it in the Triple J Unearthed competition,” Georgie said.
“We have room for 600 people out the back, and we’ll have five bands playing on the Friday night and two more bands playing on the Saturday night after the show.”
Georgie said there were a few hoops to jump through before Triple J and the local police were completely on board with the pub’s plans.
“There were some early concerns, and perhaps a bit of misinformation floating around,” she said.
“But after we explained what we planned to do to the ABC and SAPOL they were very understanding, and since then everyone’s been terrific.”
Georgie described the vibe in Lucindale as “exciting”.
“You’ve got yarn-bombing all over the place, pop-up shops — it’s great,” she said.
“Lucindale is a town that gets behind things, it’s a town that can do things.”
It’s a sentiment reflected by Naracoorte-Lucindale Mayor Erika Vickery.
“It’s absolutely huge, and so exciting,” Mayor Vickery says.
“The whole community is really looking forward to it — we’ve been thrilled by the response.”
The Mayor said while she was only “sort of” a fan of the Hilltop Hoods, she was very keen to get involved on the day.
“I’ll be in the council information stand helping out,” she said.
“I’ve put my hand up to be a part of this — it’s an absolute one-off, and such an opportunity for Lucindale.”
While 5000 punters have scored a campsite at Yakka Park in town, the rest will be bussed in from surrounding towns.
“I believe there are 23 buses coming in,” the Mayor said.
“All the accommodation in Naracoorte, Robe, Kingston and other towns in the area is either full or very close to full.”
For Kate Rayner the One Night Stand is the culmination of an idea she had 15 years ago, unwavering persistence and the incredible support you only get in small towns.
Kate went to the very first ONS at Natimuk in Victoria back in 2004.
“While I was there I thought, ‘if this little town can do it, why can’t we?’”
What followed was a campaign driven by Kate over several years to convince Triple J that Lucindale was the right place to hold the event.
Kate teamed up with the local area school to make videos, collected “likes” on the Facebook page, made a bunch of videos and basically made damn sure that Triple J could never forget that Lucindale was keen to host a One Night Stand.
“I really wanted the young people of Lucindale and the Limestone Coast to be a part of something big, something exciting,” Kate said.
After narrowly missing out to St Helens, on the east coast of Tasmania, in 2018 Kate continued to “keep the fire alight”, and this year finally got the nod.
“I’ve just been in the clouds,” Kate said.
“It’s been a dream and a vision, it’s taken creativity and persistence, and it couldn’t have happened without the backing of this incredible community.”