Spray painted obscenities on the main stage, smashed windscreens on the vintage Muster bus and vandalism to one of the stall vendor’s tents is what Craig Campbell, site manager for the 2022 Gympie Music Muster encountered just hours before the first rope off at the Amamoor Creek State Forest site on Saturday 30 July.
“It’s pretty devastating,“ he said.
“The first day of rope-off and this is what we have to deal with.“
Mr Campbell said people had come to the site the night before and “refused to leave a restricted site“.
“Before I could remove them, they’ve broken into the Muster site and painted on one of the stall vendor’s tents. They got into one of my vehicles and stole tools. They’ve painted obscenities on the stage. They’ve tried to kick windows in.
“They’ve also smashed windows in on our Muster bus – the windscreen,“ he said.
The Muster Bus was, admittedly a rusty old relic, but it has been a part of the Muster for 40 years – and as such, Mr Campbell said it was irreplaceable and irreparable.
“It’s the old bus that was originally used for taking the campers to the festival site and back and has now been on display – it’s our display bus,“ he said.
“It’s really sad.“
“I caught the culprit – took him back to where he was camped and I asked them all to leave – which they did -but now we have to deal with the consequences,“ he said.
Despite this small hiccup, Mr Campbell is confident the 2022 Muster is going to be bigger and better and won’t set back the Muster too much.
“Definitely not – the festival is in full swing now – we’re geared up to have an absolutely awesome year,“ he said.
“We’ll put it behind us now and move on and get all these campers in and roped off and they’ll all start to enjoy what they love doing – they’re meeting their mates and there’s friendship and country music, which is what we are all here for.“
