Groundwater Country Music Festival 2019: Lee Kernaghan closes out record breaking weekend

Lee Kernaghan has closed out the Gold Coast’s country music festival to a record breaking crowd - here’s what he had to say about it.

HEADLINER Lee Kernaghan is tipping his hat to the Gold Coast’s big country music festival after closing it out last night to mark the end of another record breaking year.

A total of 73,000 patrons passed through the three-day Groundwater Country Music Festival in Broadbeach this year, a 20 per cent increase on 2018.

Kernaghan, who was performing on his home turf, stepped up to get involved in the festival after joining fellow singer James Blundell on stage last year.

“Broadbeach is definitely not the back of Burke, let’s put it that way, and it’s definitely a win when country comes to town,” he said.

Lee closed out the festival in front of huge crowds. Photo: Luke Marsden

“Most of my touring takes me to far-flung places from the Kimberley in Western Australia to outback New South Wales, the Northern Territory.

“I’ve just come back from a place out the back of Broken Hill and it’s great to bring this huge show we’ve taken all around Australia back to this stomping ground.

“It’s just a great thing for the Gold Coast and for Queensland, it’s one of the major music festivals for Australia.”

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Organisers are still waiting on official numbers for this weekend however predicted its impact would soar even higher than the $6 million injected into the local economy last year.

In the lead up to the festival, Broadbeach hotels were at 97 per cent occupancy and caravan parks across the Gold Coast were booked out.

More than 73,000 patrons attended. Photo: Luke Marsden

Broadbeach Alliance CEO Jan McCormick said Groundwater, now in its seventh year, was making its mark on the Gold Coast.

“If I walk out into the street at 9am to do something for the festival, I’m lucky if I get back to my office by 1pm, just talking to people about how much they love it,” she said.

“They love the destination, they love that country comes to the Coast.

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“It’s important the artists love it as well because if they love it, they project that back on the fans, and it just goes around in a great big circle.”

More than four dozen artists performed across 15 stages throughout the popular precinct, along with Australian Outback Spectacular’s first ever horseshow outside their venue.

The festival marked the first time Outback Spectacular has performed outside their venue. Photo: Luke Marsden

Ms McCormick said the festival’s growth in future was a source of pressure for Broadbeach Alliance.

“Every year the dictation from the government and the state is that we get better numbers and more visitor nights, and we try that too for the stakeholders,” she said.

“It’s outside of school holidays, it’s outside of public holidays, so it’s a really great boost for (businesses) as well.”

The focus of organisers now shifts to Blues on Broadbeach, which will kick off in May 2020.