Tamworth Country Music Festival 50th Anniversary

 

 

What great time we had at the Tamworth Festival this year, but it was so different from other years. The first time we went to the festival was way back in 2012 and it was to see my sister and brother in law who live over 900km away from us. We have only missed two festivals since, (one - we had to leave on the day we arrived due to the early birth of a beautiful grandchild; two - we were travelling around Tasmania), well three if you count the cancelled one (2021) due to the C. 

We love catching up with family and we have enjoyed some really good music.

The last time we were at the Tamworth Music Festival was 2020, when we stayed at Paradise Tourist Park, this time we stayed at the Riverside Camping area. We have stayed there once before but it was so hot in January, this time in April the days were lovely and the nights  little cool, well cold! The weather was the first big difference with this years change of date. Our first Tamworth we had temperatures in the low to mid 40's. It was too cold to go out at night, although we did brave to cold to see Della Harris at the Riverside Campground Stage.

We waited after the concert to get a photo. Della is a lovely lady and a great singer.

 

It was lovely to walk around the streets during the day listening to the buskers ....

and the different performers on stages as the weather was perfect.

We went to paid concerts and free concerts and enjoyed every one of them. There were not as many events as usual which meant for some performers we wanted to see, they only performed once and we had conflicts. We did miss one performer we wanted to see, so 🤞next year. Our usual daily routine in January always started at Tamworth Services Club for Writers in the Round, but that wasn't on this time, so we had relaxing cups of tea and breakfast at the campsite.

Our first event was to see the Carr brothers at West Tamworth League's Club. We have seen Mike Carr (and his alter ego) a number of times, but not his brother. A very entertaining show.

We went to the Capital Theatre to see SHINE, a showcase of rising stars:- Angus Gill; Kiara Rodrigues; Leyton Milner; Kaitlyn Thomas; and Liam Kennedy-Clark, and up and coming singers:- Lily Grace; Felicity Dowd; Sarah Hamze; Jamie Preston; Grace Mae; and Ruby Jane.

We also got to see Lynn Bowtell perform. 

I knew that a young singer that I follow on socials was going to be performing and I wanted to hear her sing live. Lily Grace has a beautiful voice.

My sister has spoken about Angus Gill and how good he is, and he was also performing - bonus. After the show I wanted to say hi to Lily, but there were so many people around her and she was busy so I said a quick hello and then went off to our next event.

We also went to the same venue the next day to see Della Harris, Andy Penkow, Dan Higgins and Willow. They were all good and after the show we got to chat with Della and Andy and get more photos.

We walked around a lot more, and went to many more venues than we would normally go to, even though there were not as many shows on. We did go to see Michael Waugh at his only performance, always a highlight since we first saw him at Writers in the Round way back in 2016. That made the third time this year we have seen Michael perform.

And the group photo....

Like my sister, I like to find at least one new singer to follow. This year it was a busker that we saw at the Michael Waugh concert - Jacob Vincent, ....

.... we later saw him busking in Peel Street, so good. 

A second talented singer was Liam Kennedy-Clark. We saw him at the SHINE concert where he not only featured but also backed up all the performers. He was very good.

We go to Tamworth for the music festival, but there is so much more to see and do in and around Tamworth.

Head Bobbing, Toe Tapping Tamworth

Tamworth Country Music Festival 2017

We first came to Tamworth Music Festival some years ago, and love it. We have never been able to spend more than a few days at the start, due to work commitments, but this year we arrived the first Monday of the festival and stayed until the end. My sister and her husband come most years and it is lovely to catch up with them.

This time we camped (I love saying we go camping, when we have a virtual home on wheels - not really camping shhhhh!), at Riverside Camp Grounds, which is only a campground during the festival.

This is the 45th Country Music Festival, and is the largest festival in the Southern Hemisphere. The festival over the years has launched many famous country music singers, including: Lee Kernaghan, James Blundell, Keith Urban, Gina Jefferys, Beccy Cole, Tanya Self, Travis Collins, Bob Corbett, and Kaylee Bell.

The festival runs over 10 days and many of the venues are free. There is an official guide that can be purchased for $10, and includes a CD of country music. Many of the Tamworth clubs also offer temporary membership for the duration of the festival, which allows the member to get discounts on food and drinks.

 Most of the performances are free, either in clubs or stages around the town.

My sister shouted us to Songhouse at the Services Club on the day we arrived. Great performances by Kevin Bennett, Imogen Clark, Harry Hooney, and Fanny Lumsden.

Kevin Bennett was nominated 5 Golden Guitar Awards, and Fanny Lumsden was nominated for 3.

 We started each day at the Services Club to see Writers in the Round. We had breakfast there.

Tuesday we saw Phil and Lana Doublet, 8 Ball Aitken, and Mick Lindsay. All were different and all were good, especially considering it started at 9am.

 Wednesday was Col Finlay (reminded me of Jimmy Barnes), Allan Caswell, and Michael Waugh. Allan Caswell was nominated for 3 awards.

Michael Waugh was nominated for QANTASLink New Talent of the Year.

Thursday morning we saw Billy Bridge, Rebecca Lee Nye and Bobkatz, - so good that I forgot a group photo!

Friday morning, and the last morning, we saw Brad Butcher, Roger Corbett from the Bushwackers, and Emily Joy with Luke Gallagher.

Some days we spent the whole day in the Services Club - had breakfast and lunch there, as well as drinkies 😆🍹.

My sister had said how good Luella was, and boy was she right. Over the week we actually saw three of Luella's shows. She has just so much energy, and the way she sang 'Hallelujah' was so powerful - and that is a song I have never liked, but the way Luella Wildt sang it - WOW!

We also stayed for Col Finlay's band performance after seeing him in the Writers in the Round.

Col had other performers, mostly newcomers, perform during his show. The Dennis Sisters, from Queensland (we saw a lot of Queensland performers) were really good. We actually went to Hungry Jack's to see them perform on Saturday, but they didn't turn up - they were winning the Coca-Cola Batttle of the Bands. Knew they were good.

Another good performer that we saw a lot of was Michael Bryers. He also had Phil Doublet playing in the band the day we saw him at the Services Club.

We did venture to Peel Street and got the obligatory free photos 📷. There were not as many buskers as the last time we came, but still a few good ones and some not so good. Peter had a drive in a Landcruiser Sahara around the Toyota 4WD circuit - I went shopping! It was too hot to stand and watch performers at some of the outside stages, so we mostly opted for inside and air-conditioning.

Saturday night was the Golden Guitar Awards, which sadly is not shown on free to air TV channels - it really should be, with the networks having so many channels each. I opted to watch it live streaming, not ideal as it kept freezing and I had to keep re-loading it.

We had a great time in Tamworth with my sister and brother-in-law, and we caught up with some good friends we hadn't seen for a while. We are now on an adventure with them.