Australia's favourite festivaldecided

CHECK OUT ALL THE WINNERS IN PICTURE FORM HERE!

The winners of the inaugural Australian Festival Awards were announced at an event in Sydney last night, with the results proving that when it comes to music festivals, bigger isn’t always better.

In a surprising awards ceremony, most of the country’s largest festivals were pipped at the post on the gongs, given for a range of categories including best Crowd & Atmosphere, Sound & Production and best Value for Money.

With over 18,000 votes cast by Festival fans through the FasterLouder.com.au website, the awards went to a series of lower-profile events around the country.

The biggest winner of the event was the Golden Plains festival in Victoria which walked away with two of the prizes, best Management & Facilities and Best Overall Favourite Festival. From the same team behind the Meredith Festival, Golden Plains was ranked the best overall festival using the unique scorecard system developed by FasterLouder.com.au that ranked each festival by the average ratings given by fans, not just popularity.

“We really are thrilled to the back teeth to receive this award,” said Aunty Meredith of Golden Plains. “We’d like to thank everyone who comes to Golden Plains and voted for her. She’s still a young festival and just starting to find her feet, so to get this award early on in life is pretty miraculous.”

The award ceremony had everything from burlesque dancers to psychedelic rock…check out all the photos from the night here.

THE WINNERS:

Overall: Golden Plains Festival, Victoria

Management and Facilities: Golden Plains Festival, Victoria

Location: Harbourlife, Sydney, NSW

Crowd and Atmosphere: Playground Weekender, NSW

Sound and Production: Womadelaide, Adelaide

Line-up: Falls Festival, Victoria and Tasmania

Value For Money: Rainbow Serpent Festival, Victoria

Green Friendly: Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland

Best Local Festival Act: The Presets

Best International Festival Act: Rage Against The Machine

Best Festival Photo: Anthony Tran, Western Australia. Check it out HERE.

Check out all the results at the Festival Awards website.