Get Ready for the Biggest Ever Tamworth Country Music Festival

The home of Australia’s largest musical event has a food scene as enticing as the tunes.

While a troupe of household names make the pilgrimage to appear at the iconic Tamworth Country Music Festival each January, the event’s manager, Barry Harley, suggests you look for acts you haven’t heard of. “Something like 300 buskers perform in Tamworth during the festival,” he says. “Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley – every one of them started as a busker here.”

Celebrating its 52nd year, the 10-day festival (19-28 January) transforms the north-east NSW city with more than 700 artists playing across town, from halls to bowling clubs and almost every pub in between. “On the second or third day, you’ll hear whispers – someone will ask if you’ve seen so-and-so on the corner of the Courthouse Hotel. You’ll check them out and think, ‘Wow, this is it.’”

This year’s debut of Orchestral Country – a one-night-only concert featuring a 30-piece orchestra alongside genre heavy-hitters like Adam Harvey, Fanny Lumsden and Brooke McClymont – promises a musical moment that Golden Guitar Awards executive producer Peter Ross describes as “several years in the making and something very special”. Punters can also expect a constellation of country music’s biggest and brightest stars, including Chambers, Beccy Cole, Cassar-Daley and Amber Lawrence.

Of nearly 1800 scheduled events this year, about 70 per cent are free. “There are upwards of 80 venues operating autonomously to put on acts and offer their services,” says Harley. “There’s a feeling that the artists and fans are one and the same here.”

Make it a weekend

The Pig & Tinder Box restaurant and bar is in a former bank in the town centre and has been pulling pints longer than almost any other watering hole in the region. The classic pub fare includes marinated lamb cutlets and hearty Filipino Bulalô.

A few minutes walk away is The Welder’s Dog, a craft brewery with a bar indoors and courtyard out the back that’s sure to be packed with music acts. Be sure to try the Tamworth Bitter.

Goonoo Goonoo Station is about 20 minutes drive out of town and is a heritage-listed cattle property, where eight cottages and a grand homestead sit against a backdrop of rolling fields. Glasshouse Restaurant is a drawcard, while the sweeping gardens and country décor make it a welcome respite from the festival crowds.

SEE ALSO: An Insider’s Guide to the Best of Tamworth