The organisers of the Hats Off To Country, mid-year country music festival, have revealed a new event will celebrate traditional Australian country music at the three-day event which will run Friday, 19 July to Sunday 21 July 2024.
Hats Off To The Bush - a celebration of Bush Ballads and Verse, will be held on Saturday 20 July in the Tamworth Town Hall and will feature Dean Perrett, Jeff Brown and Glenn Jones with more artists yet to be announced. Rod Coe, from Slim Dusty's Travelling Country Band will lead the backing band, with Peter Simpson and Dianne Lindsay to host the event after both being awarded the Order of Australia medal for service to the Australian country music industry last year.
The annual Hats Off To The Bush is a celebration of the Bush Ballad and Verse genre following the success of the annual Back To The Bush Spectacular, held in Toyota Park during the Tamworth Country Music Festival since January 2017.
Tamworth Regional Council Manager Events, Barry Harley said the strong interest in traditional country artists brought an opportunity to focus on Australasian country music heritage and rhyming verse as a part of the mid-year event.
"The Back To The Bush Spectacular is now one of the biggest nights held in the park having attracted over 8000 fans to the 2023 outdoor event" Mr Harley said.
"The January event attracts traditional singers and songwriters and has also included many contemporary artists like Troy Cassar-Daley, John Williamson and Anne Kirkpatrick, whose roots reach back into traditional music and we're excited to bring that to Hats Off To Country in July."
In addition to the new event, Shannon Noll will be in concert on Friday, 19 July and the annual Tamworth Songwriters' Association will take residency in a number of venues and the CMAA will present The Junior Academy Graduation on the same day to kick off the mid-year celebrations.
Both the inaugural Hats Off To The Bush Concert and Shannon Noll concert will be staged at the historic Tamworth Town Hall, the original home of the Golden Guitar Awards, with tickets on sale now through entertainmentvenues.com.au.
