The country music capital will no longer echo with the sound of hundreds of toe-tapping cowboy boots from all over the world lock-step and rock-recovering to the line-dancing heartbeat in the town hall.
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The Mayworth festival, which is a major international line-dancing competition - and a national qualifier for the World Dance Masters in the UK, will hold its last ever event in its hometown of Tamworth, this year from May 4 to 7.
In 2024, Mayworth will head to Melbourne for the first time.
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Founder Chris Watson said he made the very difficult decision to shut the Tamworth doors on Mayworth after 24 successful years, so he could refocus his efforts on his young family.
He has a wife, and four children all under the age of 10.
"I'm going to be emotional. I know it's going to be a very sad night for me. I'm not sure how I will cope with that just yet," Mr Watson said.
"I'll still keep my dancing. I love it. It is my happy place. But I've just got to make some changes."
Mr Watson said he tried to find someone local to take over the whole festival to keep the money coming into the region, but the feedback he received was that they just would not get the same level of support.
Mayworth was established in 1999 and has since grown from a 60-entrant fundraiser at the Tamworth RSL to this year's largest-ever lineup, with about 500 of the world's best line dancers from Ireland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia kicking up their Cuban heels.
It has become the biggest line dancing competition in the southern hemisphere and the only place where people from Australia and New Zealand can locally qualify for the world line dance masters in Blackpool, England.
Mr Watson has kept a small stake in the event but has on-sold most of it to an investor, meaning he won't need to shoulder the gargantuan eight-month effort it takes to organise it.
Mr Watson has been line dancing since he was six years old and has never looked back. It is a career that has taken him all over world, performing on cruise ships and at major international competitions.
In 2020, he was inducted into the worldwide Hall of Fame for line dancers and handed the coveted Crystal Boot Award, a trophy on par with Hollywood's Oscar.
About a thousand unique visitors are expected for the event, with many arriving on Australia's newest regional airline Bonza when it hits the Tamworth tarmac for the first time on May 3.
Volunteers have a final chance to put in a request to help out and businesses can still sponsor the event from as little as $50.
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