WITH a little over a 100 days to go until the 2018 Tamworth Country Music Festival, planning is in full swing with organisers gearing up for an event to remember.
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Ticket sales have already increased from this time last year with even more shows to be announced for the 46th event.
According to festival manager Barry Harley, the planning ramped up last month and it’s all looking positive for January.
“Preparation is always constant, it sounds a bit trite but you do finish one festival and start the next,” Mr Harley said.
“We aimed our marketing to start with intensity in August, which is a month earlier than normal and we launched that with our first round of ticketed events.
“It’s important to get those big events and those ticketed events covered because without them the A-listers don’t come, so we do a lot of support marketing for those groups regardless of what venue they’re at.
“Our philosophy is to market the entire festival which includes all the other venues and contributing stakeholders.
“An important part of the festival also is about 75 per cent of the events are free and we don’t want to just send the picture that we’ve got all the big ticketed items, there are opportunities across those 2800 events that a lot of them are going to be free.”
He said recent feedback had seen growing interest among families and younger demographics to the festival.
“Some of the points of emphasis for us in our marketing are a result of the surveys we conduct over the years through destination NSW, we take that information very seriously,” Mr Harley said.
“There is really three pillars of marketing, there is the rusted on fan – people we have already engaged with and who know it is on and who we are reminding – that is about half of our market. About 25 per cent is aimed at the family, the friendliness, the safety and all the other attributes that are becoming very regarded with our festival.
“The third component is that party atmosphere, the younger demopgraphic and we’ve had some very good results improving that younger demographic.
Golden Guitar Award winning artists, Adam Harvey, Amber Lawrence, and Bennett, Bowtell & Urquhart are all set to perform at West Tamworth Leagues Club during the 2018 Festival and fans can grab tickets to these shows at a special pre-sale price until October 1.
From now, fans can also grab tickets to Paul Costa’s show; Darren Coggan; The Pigs; The Davidson Brothers; and brother and sister duo Kaylens Rain along with Alex and Bec Crook and The Dennis Sisters.