Moonshiners Honky Tonk Bar was the work of travel agent Chris Watson, along with Craig Power from The Pub Group and a big name country artist who invested in it.

“We’re not right in the heart of the CBD, but people are coming and checking us out,” Chris said, while standing outside the bar, late on Friday evening.

Chris said he took the idea to The Pub Group last year, to create the American-style venue in The Family Hotel’s concert room.

“We had a function in this room last year, which was just fantastic, we had some great musos playing and I said to Craig ‘this has always been my dream, to do something like this’,” Chris said.

The dimly lit bar includes everything you would see in a venue along Nashville’s Lower Broadway strip. From a great live band on a small stage just inside the door, to tip jars for the band and waitresses, American drinks and cuisine and a a large neon sign above the front door.

“We’ve really based it on the Nashville honky tonk bars we frequent when we’re there,” Chris said.

There are also dancing waitresses, who in between sets, take a break from serving drinks to tables, to hit the dance floor.

“We wanted to have a bit of a gimmick, and thought it would be nice to have our waitresses do a bit of a dance,” said Chris, who is a line dance instructor himself.

“While they’re waitresses, predominately they are entertainers, so they do a couple of dancers a night to some really hot country tracks, and they also interact with the crowd and get the crowd up dancing as well.”

Since he first visited the city as a teenager in 2003, Chris has been to the country music mecca 15 times.

As a travel agent, Chris he takes tour groups there every year, and he said plenty of the people who had travelled with him had visited the venue during the festival.

“All the feedback is ‘we like we’re in Nashville, we feel like we’re in Tennessee’.”

Chris said as well as the dim lights and American drinks, the atmosphere was created by many of the artists who helped turn the concerts into jam sessions.

“When you’re in Nashville, an artist walks into a bar, and the band on stage sees them, and the next minute that artist is on stage.

“In a night you might see six or seven acts, and also a big name like Rascal Flatts or Darius Rucker who just popped in for a beer but ends up on stage.

“That’s what we hoped would happen here, and purely by accident we’ve had Amber Lawrence pop in, Travis Collins come and do shows, Adam Brand’s popped in here, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Ashleigh Dallas, Roo Arcus, Kristy Cox and Travis List. The artists keep popping in.”