The Hats Off to Country Festival won’t be held back by COVID-19 as they take the 21st annual winter celebration of all things country online.
The festival will take place from Thursday 9th July to Sunday 12th July with over 80 artists and musicians including Golden Guitar winners Adam Harvey, Felicity Urquhart, Luke O'Shea and many more.
Whilst some venues will be open over the Hats Off To Country Festival weekend, most will not be in a position to have live entertainment, with the exception of the Wests Entertainment Group who will have limited capacity across their venue.
Festival coordinator Cheryl Brown said taking the festival online will allow people from all over the world to watch and she hopes it will attract more people to Tamworth for next years festival.
“There’s something for everyone, with a spotlight on singer-songwriters", said Cheryl Brown, “Artists are ready to perform again and this is a nice tip-toe back into performance for many of them.”
John Krsulja will host the annual Songwriters’ Retreat from The DAG Sheepstation in Nundle.
The concert will feature Kevin Bennett, Jeremy Edwards and Felicity Urquhart, just three of the experienced tutors, along with previous attendees Montgomery Church, Dom Italiano, Brett Clarke, John Roza, Jason Kearney, Gretta Ziller, Kerrie Garside, Billie-Jo Porter and Kayla Martin.
The music scene has been deeply affected by COVID-19 restrictions in the past few months.
"It's affected the businesses, to the performer and then the average person," said Mr Krsulja.
Mr Krsulja said Hats Off to Country Festival is an opportunity for the artists to support country music in Tamworth.
"There's a lot of people around here who are fans of country music,".
You can find out the full list of performers here.
Image by Geoff Dunn