Tamworth’s Country Music Festival organisers will rub shoulders with their American counterparts when they head Down Under this month.
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Representatives from the American Country Music Association will head to Queensland at the end of the month, for the CMC Rocks festival and CMC Awards.
As part of their journey, three delegates from Tamworth Regional Council will head to Brisbane, where they will meet with the industry leaders.
According to Tamworth festival organiser Barry Harley, it’s not a new occurrence, with Council catching up with the CMA during business trips to the CMA Festival in Nashville.
Mr Harley said it was a chance for the two groups to talk about their respective industries and learn from each other. He described the meeting as a “casual” affair.
“We stay in contact with the CMA and when we’re in Nashville we always meet with the CMA executives in the middle of their festival,” he said.
“This is an opportunity to tell them more about Tamworth and continue the conversation about international acts visiting Tamworth and keep that contact alive.
With Tamworth predominately an Australian country music festival, Mr Harley said those conversations about international acts would be focused on dates outside of the January event.
“Our festival and their festival are distinctly different. They have ten times the population that we have both in the country and in the city it is held, but this is a positive association and we maintain our visitation to Nashville,” he said.
“We ostensibly see the January festival predominately as a celebration of Australian country music excellence, so the inclusion of a major international act in January would be in extenuating circumstances. What we are more so looking at, is opportunities for international acts to visit Tamworth at other times of the year
”But January is fairly difficult for all because it is in a holiday period both in Australia and the United States, so it is not necessarily conducive.”
Mr Harley confirmed he would be attending the event, but the other two delegates were yet to be decided.
“These talks keep the connection between the USA and our Nashville association alive and it will always lead to the potential for better events going forward,” he said.
The CMA delegation is led by CEO Sarah Trahern, who along with executives, will visit core Australian Country Music markets with the objective of expanding opportunities for artists and songwriters working within one of the most prolific music genres in the world.
