THE brainchild behind the hugely successful Sunbury Festival is brimming with pride following the event’s induction into the The Age Music Victoria 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame this week.
Lake Boga resident John Fowler was one of the founders of the festival, which was held annually on Australia Day from 1972 to 1975 on a private farm at Sunbury.
The event is widely regarded as a milestone in Australian music, attracting some of the biggest bands at the time including Queen, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Max Merritt, Chain, Daddy Cool and Deep Purple.
“By the second year it was so popular and if you weren’t on at Sunbury you weren’t anybody,” Mr Fowler said.
Mr Fowler, who moved to the Swan Hill region in 1991, this week travelled to Melbourne to see the festival inducted into the hall of fame, alongside the likes of John Farnham, Archie Roach and members of The Seekers.
“I am very proud and surprised that The Age Music Victoria have recognised the Sunbury Festivals as part of our historic Australian music scene in that difficult period of time,” he said.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (June 17).
