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33-621: The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual Australian music festival held for 10 days from Friday to Sunday in mid to late January each year, sometimes including Australia Day , in Tamworth , New South Wales . The festival is the second biggest country music festival in the world, after the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee , USA. The festival is a celebration of country music culture and heritage, in particular

66-446: A certain extent, exists, it is not necessarily universal. "Classic" era country artists such as Kenny Rogers , Willie Nelson , and Dolly Parton continued producing hits well into the 2000s that received mainstream country radio airplay (sometimes in collaborations). Other artists from the era that did not continue to receive wider radio airplay after their heyday maintained strong cult followings from fans of all ages; an example of this

99-473: A fiercely loyal audience, classic country stations often struggle to find advertisers. While advertisers are primarily interested in the 18 to 49-year-old demographic age group, classic country usually attracts an older audience. For perhaps that reason, country music fans are often (stereotypically) divided into two camps: The 1990 dividing line coincided with a change in Billboard magazine's rules for what

132-475: A heavy complement of older programming such as Pop! Goes the Country , Porter Wagoner 's programs, and The Wilburn Brothers Show , along with newer performances from heritage acts. CMT Pure Country , the all-music counterpart to CMT, relegated its classic country programming to a daily half-hour block known as "Pure Vintage" before abandoning classic country altogether by 2015. (Complicating matters somewhat

165-409: A station's listenership. (The formula reincorporated singles sales, both physical and digital, in 2012, but included airplay on non-country stations, thus giving pop-crossover singles a major advantage.) The 1990 change had quick effects: many musicians who had had consistent success on the chart through the late 1980s suddenly dropped out of the top 40 by 1991. Although this 1990-era dividing line, to

198-466: Is Johnny Cash , who remains in high regard many years after his 2003 death. Artists who began their careers in the 1980s, near the dividing line of the classic/modern divide, enjoy followings among both audiences; examples include George Strait and Reba McEntire , both of whom (as of 2014) are still active and performing hit songs. Neotraditional country , a style of country that arose in the 1980s, continues to produce hit songs and artists that draw from

231-530: Is a relative lack of music videos for country music songs before the 1980s.) Classic country remains a popular block format on mainstream country stations, usually on weekends as an example Classic Country Saturday Night on stations KMDL & KNGT in the Acadiana area of Louisiana . As is the case with rock music (where classic rock , mainstream rock , and active rock all have varying amounts of older music), country music stations also can vary in

264-781: Is often debated. In 1968 the then Tamworth branch of the Modern Country Music Association, now the Capital Country Music Association (CCMA), began a talent quest on the Australia Day long weekend in January. The talent quest, now known as the CCMA National Talent Quest, is considered a major influence in what was to become the festival in January 1973 with the first staging, by local radio station, of

297-577: Is regarded as the pinnacle event of the Tamworth Country Music Festival. During the music festival the main shopping street (Peel Street) is restricted to pedestrians only. In this area, buskers are required to register with the local council. There is also a competition between these registered buskers to find the festival's best busker. There has been complaint and controversy about the use of very loud PA systems against acoustic performances. Council officers are known to walk

330-519: Is the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre which has a capacity of 5100 people. The Festival Countdown is the "pre-festival" festival. During this week before the festival many country music fans come to Tamworth to set up camp and enjoy the city, while there are also dozens of concerts scheduled during this week. Besides the music the festival has many other country music attractions for visitors. These include

363-598: The Big Golden Guitar , Country Music Wax Museum, Hands of Fame Park and the National Guitar Museum of successful country music artists. Additionally fine arts, crafts, street performers and markets attract large crowds in Peel St. The Country Music Cavalcade on the last Saturday of the festival attracts large crowds to Peel Street, with many businesses and musicians participating with floats in

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396-498: The M Street Journal , said that thirty stations around the United States had switched to the format because many longtime country fans did not like what country radio was doing. The same practice has seemed to follow to television, where Country Music Television and Great American Country rarely play any music videos produced before 1996, leaving heritage and "classic" artists to networks such as RFD-TV , which features

429-456: The bash doubles the city's population and brings significant tourism and economic benefits to the region. Visitor numbers for the 2012 festival were estimated at 50,000. The mass number of visitors means that accommodation throughout the area is consistently booked out for this period up to 12 months in advance, with many visitors camping in caravans, camper vans and tents by the city's riverside and numerous other temporary camping sites throughout

462-819: The 1950s through the 1980s, and focus primarily on innovators and artists from country music's Golden Age, including Hank Williams , Patsy Cline , George Jones , Kitty Wells , Charley Pride , Tammy Wynette , Johnny Cash , Waylon Jennings , Willie Nelson , Johnny Paycheck , Kenny Rogers , Emmylou Harris , Dolly Parton , and Merle Haggard , along with English and Spanglish language songs from 1960s to 2000s Tejano and New Mexico music artists like Freddy Fender , Johnny Rodriguez , Little Joe , Freddie Brown , and Al Hurricane . It can also include recurrent 1980s to 2000s hits from neotraditional country and honky-tonk artists such as George Strait , Reba McEntire , Toby Keith , Garth Brooks , Alan Jackson , and Randy Travis . The format resulted largely from changes in

495-628: The 2012 festival or have performed in the past include: 31°05′S 150°55′E  /  31.083°S 150.917°E  / -31.083; 150.917 Australia Day Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 220697609 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:41:38 GMT Classic country The radio format specializes in hits from

528-437: The 2021 Toyota Country Music Festival, effectively cancelling the 49th Tamworth Festival. It is the first time in its history the annual event has been cancelled. The annual Golden Guitar Awards were planned to proceed via online streaming . In announcing the decision Festival Manager Barry Harley said "Unfortunately, like so many others in our situation, we have had to surrender to the challenges COVID has placed on us and make

561-732: The Australasian Country Music Awards (aka the Golden Guitar Awards for its distinctive "golden guitar" trophy) as part of its Country Music Capital promotion which had commenced in 1969. The festival expanded to many other activities, with events running back throughout the week before the Awards and National Talent Quest staged on what was then the Australia Day long weekend. These events included Bluegrass Championships, Hands of Fame inductions,

594-581: The Roll of Renown, rodeo events, Coca-Cola Concerts, Toyota Star Maker Quest , Tamworth Songwriters' Association Awards, busking in Peel Street, the Cavalcade and industry seminars among other events. These events were promoted to highlight Australian Country Music and to draw attention to the climax of the 10 days, the Golden Guitar Awards. Radio 2TM ran the awards until 1993 when they were passed on to

627-436: The amount of "classic" content in their playlist, and formats exist for such stations. In addition to pure "classic country" stations, which play little to no current or recurrent country hits (i.e., recorded after about 2010), country music-formatted stations tend to fall under one of these formats: With a few exceptions, the classic country genre has struggled as a radio format (unlike mainstream country stations). While it has

660-405: The difficult decision to suspend TCMF2021." Tamworth Region Mayor Col Murray also stated that in making the decision council had "the health and safety of our community, our fans, the artists, volunteers, local businesses, staff, and the wider country music industry front of mind." As of 9 September 2020, organisers were confident the 2022 event would proceed as usual, enabling the 50th anniversary of

693-591: The event to be celebrated. However, on 7 January 2022, the NSW government announced the reintrodction of some COVID control "safety measures". As a result, the festival was postponed to April 2022. Since the festival's original commencement the following music genres have been performed: classic country , bluegrass , country rock , folk , urban country , alternative country , rockabilly , Western swing , country rock'n'roll , yodelling , rock , blues and World music . The festival has diversified in styles of country as

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726-511: The festival include Kasey Chambers , Troy Cassar-Daley , Lee Kernaghan , John Williamson and Colin Buchanan . Other's include Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole . The late Slim Dusty was also a regular. The festival is noted for being the launching platform of Keith Urban and Kasey Chambers' careers. The Australian country icon Smoky Dawson was also a regular and has a grill called "Smoky's Grill" named in his honour. The prominence of

759-420: The festival is such that artists from outside Australia are frequent performers at Tamworth. New Zealand performers in particular are regular attendees, including the likes of Suzanne Prentice , Patsy Riggir , Brendan Dugan , Dusty Spittle , and The Warratahs . Many hundreds of musicians played at the 2012 festival at clubs, pubs and in Peel St, busking. Some of the better known artists that performed at

792-619: The genre country music itself has broadened, additionally other styles of music are played at the festival. The CMAA's awards night ceremony is called the Country Music Awards of Australia , in which winning artists are presented with Golden Guitar Award trophies that are miniature replicas of the Golden Guitar statue. These awards are highly coveted in the Australian country music industry. The presentation of awards

825-457: The mid-1990s, a large segment of older country fans felt alienated and turned away from mainstream country. Whereas modern country began moving to FM around this time, the classic country remained (and remains) one of the few formats that have proven ideal for AM radio , particularly in rural areas; before this transition, the country was primarily an AM radio phenomenon and was most widely popular in rural areas. In 1998, Robert Unmacht, editor of

858-430: The national Australian country music scene, with numerous concerts and live performances at various venues. During the festival the city of Tamworth comes alive with visitors from all across the country and worldwide. The festival has many times been counted among the world's top ten music festivals . In 2007, Forbes rated it as number 8 of the "World's Coolest Music Festivals". The enormous number of visitors during

891-627: The newly formed national industry organisation, the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA). The staging of the Golden Guitar Awards moved from Sunday to the Saturday night in the last weekend of the festival in late January as the Australia Day public holiday was moved to float with the 26 January date. As late as 15 June 2020, the 2021 Festival was set to go ahead. On 8 September 2020 Tamworth Regional Councillors voted to suspend all Tamworth Regional Council run events at

924-545: The parade. During the buildup prior to the commencement of celebrations, the Tamworth Regional Council takes steps to beautify and secure the city, performing such works as: The Tamworth Country Music Festival attracts many country music, bluegrass, rock and folk musicians to the city each year. Performers perform at various venues in the city. The festival attracts over 800 different artists which perform over 5000 shows. Artists who perform regularly at

957-481: The region. A significant amount of media coverage is given locally and national, in the printed media and also with the three big commercial networks the Nine Network , Seven Network and Ten Network having broadcast news and segments from the festival. There is also national radio coverage from stations including ABC Country , ABC Radio and KIX Country . When the Tamworth Country Music Festival commenced

990-733: The sound of country music in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, as it began moving to FM radio stations in and around major cities and absorbing some of the electric sounds of rock music ; similar pressures also were a factor in the development of the Americana format at around the same time. These new FM country stations excluded older "classic" country artists from their playlists, even though artists, such as Merle Haggard , George Jones , Dolly Parton , Willie Nelson , Kenny Rogers and Emmylou Harris , were still actively performing and releasing new recordings, some of which were significant hits. When mainstream country radio began this practice in

1023-602: The sounds of the classic country era. In part due to changing demographic pressures, "classic country" radio stations have begun adding 1990s music into their playlists since the late 2000s and phasing out music from the 1960s and earlier. As children who grew up between 2000 and 2009 are now adults, some classic country stations play country music from the 2000s, with 1970s music increasingly being de-emphasized. Some classic country stations are even adding occasional early 2010s music. Examples of this are KLBL in Malvern, Arkansas ,

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1056-415: The street with decibel meters during performances. Since January is a summer month with daytime temperatures regularly hovering around 38 °C, it is during the nighttime that the city really comes to life, with people heading down town to drink, dance and generally party while numerous bands play up and down the main street. During the festival over 2500 acts use up to 120 venues. The largest venue used

1089-530: Was then the Hot Country Singles record chart . Before 1990, it had operated under a variant of the methods used to produce the Hot 100 ; singles sales were combined with radio airplay to rank songs on the chart. In 1990, through an affiliation with Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems , Billboard dropped record sales from the formula, basing a song's ranking solely on spins on country radio , weighted by

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