Mackay’s b.social festival forges ahead to success despite odds

A new Mackay tradition may be wedged between Christmas and New Year’s Eve as b.social festival organisers hope to turn the inaugural event annual.

Hosting an inaugural event with 2000 people and international headliners is no easy feat, but add in a pandemic combined with Mother Nature’s will and the gig gets a whole lot tougher.

But festival director Michael Delaney was determined to deliver Mackay’s first b.social festival — rain or afternoon shine.

Mr Delaney said it was an anxious time leading up to the event with uncertainty about whether either headlining artists or punters would be able to even get into the festival.

“We [locked in] the show and then two weeks later they announced the road map for Queensland, putting mandates in and Mackay at the time was only at 34 per cent double vaccination rate,” Mr Delaney said.

Mr Delaney said getting the artists into Queensland had also brought about a “few hiccups”, but in the end all came to play except for two artists — DJ Tigerlily, who had tested positive to Covid-19 on Tuesday, and headliner Masked Wolf who was stuck overseas.

Fortunately, Mackay hit a double vaccination rate of 94 per cent shortly before Christmas.

Despite managing to get a festival off the ground amid restrictions, there was one more obstacle thrown in Mr Delaney’s way.

“There were forecasts of rain the entire week leading up to the festival,” Mr Delaney said.

So he and his team decided to shift the stage less than 100m into an undercover area of Mackay Showgrounds, somewhat emulating the Boiler Room at another popular festival Big Day Out.

Mr Delaney said he believed the weather had been a bonus for the festival.

“It’s also giving people something different, and it’s raining and what else is there to do,” he said.

Mr Delaney said one of the major reasons he was determined to ensure the festival went ahead despite the weather was to create trust between ticketholders and organisers.

“Because it’s a new brand it’s still hard to get off the ground,” Mr Delaney said.

Mr Delaney had worked with Harrup Park’s Adrian Young on River Sessions since 2018.

“With a brand name that’s already established, it’s easy,” he said.

“We wanted to do this show even if it rained because we wanted to be known for not cancelling shows, not having artists not arrive.”

Mr Delaney said he planned on making b.social an annual event in Mackay’s calendar.