THE atmosphere, the music, the hats and the boots – we’re just 100 days away from it all in our city’s biggest party of the year.
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Today marks 100 days until the start of the 2017 Tamworth Country Music Festival and local artists and festival organisers are ramping up their efforts to make it one of the best yet.
Getting ready for the premier country showcase yesterday were (pictured above) local artists Johanna Hemara, Ethan Crosby Wolfe, Aleyce Simmonds, Ashleigh Dallas, Sarah Byrnes, Sally-anne Whitten, Kelly Crosby, Jodie Crosby, Kyle Cartner, Allison Forbes and Brendan Nawrocki.
The ten day event will kick off on January 20 with more than 700 artists and 2800 events sprawled across the city.
Tickets to the shows featuring some of the nation’s most iconic country music artists are already on sale including Troy Cassar-Daley, the McClymonts, Lee Kernaghan’s 25th anniversary show and John Williamson.
With the city’s population expected to virtually double in size across the ten days. Tamworth Regional Council events and operations coordinator Michaela Stevens said organisers were working behind the scenes to ensure the city was festival-ready.
“It’s starting to pick up – it feels like the cogs are turning,” she said.
“They have been turning slowly for some months but now they’re certainly starting to speed up, we’re certainly getting a lot of interest from the public.”
Mrs Stevens said there had been an influx of applications from prospective stallholders and traders for stalls in the CBD and festival crews were sorting through the list.
“We certainly have always more (applications) for commercial and food stalls than we can fit, it’s a popular event for traders but we try to have a good variety of stalls,” she said.
With new family ambassador, country superstar Amber Lawrence in tow, the festival coordinator said the emphasis was on the family friendly aspect of the festival along with the buzz created from Australia Day celebrations falling on the event.
“There are some great options with free entertainment or paid, concerts in the park, a family friendly zone and lots of kids activities in any age group,” she said.
Campers hoping to claim their prime piece of land for the festival are expected to flock to the city in the lead-up, with the grounds set to open a week before the big event during the official countdown period.
Mrs Stevens said for visitors wanting to camp out but didn’t have the gear, Moogee pre-pitched tents would be available again for hire and were among a variety of accommodation options available.
