Students from Lorne P-12 College secure win at Queenscliff Music Festival

THE Queenscliff Music Festival has named a three-piece band from Lorne the winners of its 2023 Foot-in-the-Door (FITD) competition.

Funded by FReeZa, a Victorian state government initiative, FITD is aimed at emerging artists aged 12 to 25 years’ old, and takes the form of two genre-based “battle of the bands” competitions.

Ciao Bella – comprised of Bella Reynolds, 15, Thomas Wallis, 18, and Phoenix Dixon, 17 – took home the win in the Folk & Blues category.

Geelong-based band COOLDAD also secured a win at the FITD competition, taking out the top title in the Rock category.

Ciao Bella hails from Lorne P-12 College and first formed in early 2022 with the encouragement of one of their music teachers.

 

The judges at FITD were blown away by the group’s energy and stage presence, and highlighted Ciao Bella’s “strong, heartfelt and textured vocals”, “emotive bass lines” and “steady, consistent drums”.

“I found myself more interested in watching than judging,” one of the judges said.

Another praised Ciao Bella’s “soulful” performance and said the band had left them “wanting more”.

Although the win came as a surprise to each of its members, Ciao Bella is now looking forward to “riding the wave”.

“It made me so motivated to keep writing and keep going,” lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Bella said.

Drummer Phoenix said he was “prepared not to win at all” after seeing the calibre of the other bands they were competing against.

“Knowing as a band, that we sound that tight and that good and that people want to hear us is a good feeling,” he said.

 

But for the band, it’s still just about the joy of playing.

“We know it’s a band comp, but we were really just stoked to be playing at Queenscliff Music Festival,” Thomas, the band’s bassist, said.

“To win was really lovely, but we were just happy to play.”

Ciao Bella now hopes to put its competition winnings towards some new equipment and recordings of its original songs.

“We’re really excited for the future and we’re really grateful to everyone who helped to get us where we are,” Bella said.

Head to @ciao.bella.band on Instagram to follow the band’s progress and learn about coming gigs.