That was the plea by the organiser of the Summer Sounds festival, Natasha Pountney, after only about 400 people turned up to the event at the Newtown Football Oval on Saturday.

Ms Pountney’s comment followed a high-energy performance from Perth band End of Fashion that had the small but enthusiastic crowd up and rocking.

A small army of organisers had helped to prepare the oval for the performance with a crowd of up to 5000 people expected at the drug and alcohol-free event.

A huge stage had been transported down from Perth for the festival.

There was a variety of music to suit all tastes backed up by a superb light and sound production.

Other acts were Diesel, Chris Murphy and The Holy Rollers, Courtney Murphy and Murphy’s Lore, Harlequin League, Nathan Gaunt and Howie Morgan.

The crowd had withered away to about 150 by the time headline act Johnny Diesel hit the stage.

Ms Pountney said she was amazed and bitterly disappointed at the low turnout.

She said the people of Esperance had complained there was a lack of entertainment available to them in the town, but when a show like Summer Sounds was organised, hardly anybody turned up.

“We had a fantastic range of music and lots of tickets were sold before the festival was on but still people didn’t turn up,” Ms Pountney said.

There had been speculation at the festival that the alcohol ban had contributed to the low numbers.

Esperance police acting officer in charge Sergeant Ray Wharton said it was a shame for the organisers that the event wasn’t well attended.

He said the alcohol ban could have been a factor for a percentage of the population not attending.

But young people had asked for an alcohol and drug-free event.

“The kids had said they didn’t have anything to do so they organised it that way for that reason,” he said.

“But it probably did have an effect on their numbers.”

Sgt Wharton said extra officers had been drafted in from Kalgoorlie and Perth to police the expected large crowd.

He said the festival was extremely well organised.

“It’s just a crying shame that the Esperance population didn’t support it,” Sgt Wharton said.

The festival was organised by Ms Pountney and a group of Esperance Senior High School vocational education and training students to raise funds for type-1 diabetes research.