Triple J's One Night Stand

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:26): I rise today to pay tribute to the entire Lucindale community and the surrounding towns for their incredible effort in organising and hosting Triple J's One Night Stand, a drug and alcohol-free family event that was held on 14 September, featuring some of the country's most talented and up-and-coming musicians. Triple J's One Night Stand has been travelling to remote and rural towns for the past 15 years. The first event was held in Natimuk, Victoria, back in 2004. Since then, it has traversed the country and grown, setting up in towns such as Ayr in Queensland, Cowra in New South Wales, Collie in Western Australia, Mildura in Victoria and, last year, St Helens in Tasmania.

The process of winning and hosting the event began way back in 2013 when a Facebook page was started up by Lucindale local Kate Rayner, with the support of Louise Stock and the students from Lucindale Area School. They set about getting as many likes on social media as they could to alert Triple J to their tiny town with a population of 500. Their campaign continued, their supporter base steadily grew and in 2018 they presented a formal expression of interest to Triple J. While they were unsuccessful that year, in 2019 Lucindale was short-listed.

On 27 June this year, live on Triple J radio, Lucindale was announced as the town to host the 2019 One Night Stand. Kate Rayner and her team of campaigners, which had grown to include Georgie McKay from the Stand Like Stone Foundation, a local philanthropic organisation that provides grants to charitable projects; the Lucindale Lions Club; the Naracoorte Lucindale Council; LINC, a collaboration of local businesses; as well as the entire Lucindale community, had less than 12 weeks to pull this mammoth event together, with the help and support of the ABC and Triple J.

The musical line-up was impressive. This year, Adelaide's own Hilltop Hoods were the headline act. The boys from Blackwood were joined by Mount Gambier band Chelsea Manor, which won the Triple J Unearthed competition; Meg Mac; Ocean Alley; and G Flip to entertain the thousands of people who were expected to descend on Lucindale.

The lead-up to the event was described by one local as waiting for a storm to come in. The town knew it was going to be big, but just how big remained to be seen. Hosting the event at Lucindale was dubbed the most challenging, as it was the smallest town to date to stage One Night Stand. For those of you who do not know, Lucindale is situated on the beautiful Limestone Coast, a 3½-hour drive south-east of Adelaide and five hours west of Melbourne. To get the One Night Stand up and running would require the help of pretty much the entire Lucindale population.

Logistically, the thought of turning a town used to catering for 500 into a town that needs food, drink and services for up to 20,000 is daunting to say the least, but, true to the country community's 'just get in and do it' attitude, Lucindale got down to business. Thankfully, this agricultural town has experience hosting the famous South East Field Days, an annual two-day event that attracts thousands of visitors from across the state.

Ensuring there were adequate facilities and infrastructure was a huge task. This included bringing in more than 200 extra toilets, over 100 showers, nearly a dozen generators to power the concert and food stalls, 2.1 kilometres of security fencing and 17 light towers to provide lighting at the camp site and concert. There were also 45 food stalls to cater for both campers and daytrippers and dozens of drink stations to refill water, not to mention setting up the camp site itself at nearby Yakka Park.

In the days before the event, the Yakka Park camping ground mushroomed, with over 5,000 people checking in. These visitors had the option of paying for a standalone camp site or hiring a tent complete with mattresses and camp chairs. The money from the camp site raised funds for a wide range of local community groups and enabled the organisers to pay for important infrastructure at Yakka Park and the surrounding township.

There was also a communications issue: how to get mobile telephone and internet services for such a huge number of people. It was not an easy task. I pause here to thank the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Telstra, the local Lions and the Naracoorte Lucindale Council for splitting the cost to bring a mobile phone tower into the town, ensuring that the area had adequate wi-fi service for the event.

There is no doubt that the One Night Stand was a huge achievement. The concert shone a light on Lucindale. It attracted people from across the country and brought families and friends together. The One Night Stand was streamed on ABC iview, YouTube and Triple J, posted all over social media and replayed on a special edition of Rage last weekend, ensuring that the Australia-wide audience knew all about Lucindale and the South-East of South Australia.

The success stories from the night are still coming in. Sporting clubs, such as Kybybolite and Border Districts, set up food stalls inside the concert ground and reported making thousands of dollars in profit selling food such as nachos, doughnuts, sliders, hot chips, gravy rolls and drinks. The money raised provided an important boost to these clubs, who play such an integral role in the lives of those who live in the country. The success of the event is a testament to what can be achieved by the persistence of a small group of people with a vision and passion to bring a national music event to a country town. Congratulations, Lucindale. You should be proud of what you have achieved.