No one was complaining, but in this fire-buffeted district they could not help wondering what might have been had the rain come five weeks earlier.

Yesterday the town, which was centre stage in the February bushfire-fighting operations, put up a different kind of stage, and took another step towards normality.

To assist with this year's autumn festival, Yea received some high-level help.

Many performers came courtesy of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, including some big-name bands such as Spiderbait and Little Red.

A much smaller name in the entertainment world is John Bennett, but what he lacks in size, age and recognition he makes up for in enthusiasm.

Eight years old and singing and playing his heart out on a tiny ukulele, he first appeared at the festival last year.

His parents are winemakers from the hill town of Caveat, in the Strathbogies, and his mother, Susan Bennett, said he had been playing since he was four, mostly hit tunes from the '60s to '80s.

Doug Goodman was also doing his bit as guitar and vocal back-up to Wacco the gum tree drummer, an automated koala.

If you ask Mr Goodman, he'll confess that Wacco is his own creation; it took three years' work and four electric motors to make him drum, plus a winch to move him from the ute he uses to travel around the country.

"He has played at Tamworth Country Music Festival and the Port Fairy Folk Festival, but on Black Saturday we were performing at Whittlesea, where we won a $250 prize for best busker. When I drove home and saw what happened to Kinglake, I had the cheque made out to the Bushfire Reconstruction Appeal," Mr Goodman said.

At yesterday's festival a busload was brought in from Kinglake and the nearby towns of Flowerdale and Glenburn.

Bus-trip organiser Anne Leadbeater said it was nice for fire-affected people to come to Yea just to see a bit of greenery, though their own areas were already "starting to see a little bit of green. The Australian bush is very resilient; and so are our communities."

As for Yea, like many towns in fire-ravaged areas, it has been doing it tough.

One of the festival organisers, Sandra Hanley, said the fires had made many shopkeepers realise how reliant they now were on tourism.

Kim Chadband was helping out in the Marmalade Cafe.

"There was an 80pc drop after the fires, but today it is so busy we are struggling to cope," she said.