Organised by Chris Watson Travel, the country music festival has become a regular event at Fiji Hideaway Resort on the Coral Coast, and this year brought 225 people to Fiji, filling every room in the seaside resort.

Artists and fans flew into Fiji on Saturday, August 5, and the music kicked off that night with Golden Guitar winner Ashleigh Dallas, who has performed at every Fiji festival.

Other artists who performed over the week included Catherine Britt, Travis Collins, Pete Denahy, O’Shea, Darren Coggan, Mickey Pye, Jonny Taylor, Luke Dickens and Damian Baugley from The Viper Creek Band.

There were four Star Maker winners among that lot, and another - Liam Brew - was a surprise guest artist at the event, playing some of the songs from his forthcoming album.

For the first time this year, the event also included songwriter sessions. For the first one on Wednesday last week, O’Shea, Dallas and Collins revealed some of the stories behind their songs, while the second songwriter session the following day featured Britt, Coggan and Pye.

Several of the artists also played acoustic gigs near the bar, or by the pool, during the week.

While the evenings were filled with music, the days were spent relaxing by the pool, snorkelling, scuba diving.

Two of the artists - Travis Collins and Ashleigh Dallas - took groups out on a deep sea fishing trip and river cruise respectively.

Funny man Pete Denahy was a first-time artist at the festival.

“I’ve had an absolute blast,” he told Talkin’ Country on the final night of Tunes in the Tropics, admitting he didn’t know what to expect when he arrived.

“I’ve done a heap of snorkelling, a bit of reef walking and drunk a few coconuts, and had a couple of really good gigs.

“I can’t say enough about this. If anyone is thinking about coming it is definitely worthwhile, it’s a great holiday.”

Tickets are already selling to next year’s event, which will feature Adam Harvey and American John Stone.

Mr Watson first took a line dancing group there almost 10 years ago after he had visited the resort on a previous holiday.

Then in 2010 the first festival of live country music was held, headlined by John Williamson and Felicity Urquhart. Called the Oz Country Music Festival, it returned the following year with artists such as Kasey Chambers, Luke Austen, Shane Nicholson and The Sunny Cowgirls.

It was next held in 2014 under the new name Tunes in the Tropics, and Beccy Cole, Morgan Evans, Mike Carr and Amber Lawrence were some are the artists to perform.

In February last year, the event went ahead, despite Cyclone Winston hitting the island on the day it was due to start.

About half of the audience who had booked made it to Hideaway in the days after the cyclone, and it provided much needed support to the country, with an auction raising money for the aid effort.