Forbes Sport and Recreation Club was the place to be on the weekend as hundreds of people travelled back to Forbes for the biggest reunion in decades.
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The All Roads Lead Back to Forbes weekend was an outstanding success and organisers couldn’t be more pleased.
Friday’s meet and greet saw 200 people turn up to the Sport and Rec Club while close to 500 people partied the night away on Saturday, rockin’ and rollin’ to their favourite local bands from the 1960s and 70s, The Echoettes and Freight.
“All the original band members came back,” Forbes Sport and Recreation Club manager Norm Cook said.
“They got a rousing reception, everyone was up dancing.
“From all reports, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. They were all talking about another reunion but that probably won’t happen until a couple of years down the track.
“All in all it was a very successful weekend, let’s do it again.”
Along with The Echoettes and Freight, Mark Willis’ band, It’ll Be Right On The Night, and DJ Mick Brown also entertained the crowd.
Mr Cook estimated that at least half of those who attended had travelled back to Forbes for the weekend, coming from all over including Queensland, the north coast, Albury, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo and more.
“They travelled from near and far,” Mr Cook said.
“Everyone had a great time.”
One of the organisers of the weekend, Grant Fitzpatrick, who left Forbes in 1979 and now lives on the Gold Coast, said the idea of Back to Forbes came up at a yearly trip to Yamba.
“We go to Yamba every year and we said, we’re getting old, we should go back to Forbes and have a weekend with all our mates,” he said.
As he reflected that his years in Forbes were some of the best of his life, he and his mates also thought they should get the bands back together.
“We had so much fun in the 1960s and 70s growing up with them, we used to follow them everywhere, to B and S Balls and woolshed dances,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. “It (the reunion) has been 12 months in the making and here we are.”
Mr Fitzpatrick, and fellow organiser Terry Green, who has lived in Dubbo since 1989, said the weekend was all about reliving some good times from their youth and giving back to Forbes.
“It was all about getting everyone back together and giving back to the town that gave us so much when we were here,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
“It was an easy life, a great life growing up in the bush.
“We’d like to bring back to Forbes what Forbes has done for us.”
