Mark's Blog: The 40th Tamworth Country Music Festival

So here it is - the "Country Music" post! One of the few occasions where it's acceptable to drink rum at 9am in public, wearing a singlet and cowboy hat.

Gill and I went to the first two days of the festival - that runs for over a week - and stayed with Gill's Auntie Lyn and David. Tamworth is about 400km north of Sydney and is a large country town, but the population pretty much doubles at festival time, with people coming from all over the country. The advantage of being there for the start of the festival is that it was not absolutely rammed with people, as it can be later in the week.

The city is transformed at festival time - the centre is closed to traffic and is packed full of buskers that line the main streets, with the main performers playing in the pubs throughout the day and late in to the night. In recent years the festival has broadened to include folk, bluegrass and rockabilly acts, in addition to it showcasing the big Australian country music names. Here's just a few of the photos from the festival....

The Perch Creek Family Jug Band - featuring 'Australia's top one-legged saw player' - are all siblings and have recently played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The owner of the Bundaberg (rum) booze bus drops in at the Longyard Hotel

Pie girls Gill and Lyn

Bob Corbett and the Roo Grass Band perform at the Courthouse Hotel - Bob won the Country Music Star Maker prize this year - an award previously won by Keith Urban, husband of Nicole Kidman.

Gill with Angelique, who sadly couldn't be there in person

Gill's dad - if he had a ponytail and bandana

The 'Waz e James' Band

The Courthouse Hotel - one of the main venues

A random busker

The local paper for whom Gill's grandfather used to work

The Chookman (with his chook on the front)

The caption reads "Me Chook needs a knee replacement - raising funds for the operation - Thanks mate"

out of shot, on the end of the rope, is a china bowl

The break-up of the band was put down to "irreconciliable differences"

[credit to Gill for the caption]

Country Music star Bo Jenkins and his silver guitar

me and David

Uncle Bob's Jug Band

Checking the "Country Music Festival" App to plan our next venue...

A spray paint street painter

More pies!

'Safety first' in the back of David's ute

This next series of photos need an explanation. We were driving down a suburban street on our way to our next venue when we passed a house with a very unusual vehicle in the driveway. We pulled up outside and took a look. It was not long before the owner came out, with his elderly parents, to proudly show off his 'feral ute'.

"Feral Steve" shows off his ute with the magazine in which it features

A truck magazine did a feature article on what it described as the 'the most feral ute in Australia'. It's clocked up about 700 000 km and is still going strong

The old boy tells a story about how they had a call from a mate who had loads of feral pigs on his property, and could they come and round them up. "Feral Steve" and his brothers, with a dog each, would jump off the back of the truck at intervals to catch a pig. They rounded up 45 pigs between them, which they sold for a total of $1500 the following day. If anyone is in any doubt about the morality of catching these pigs (which are not, of course, native to Australia), it's worth reading this article about the significantly negative impact they have on the environment, through killing other animals and their habitats, crops, and in spreading disease and polluting water sources.