Country music festival to rival Gore is the goal

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 576, 7 March 1995, Page 3

Country music festival to rival Gore is the goal

by

Dennis

Beytagh

Following the success of the recent Country Music Festival in Ohakune a local group of country music enthusiasts has been formed to carry on the tradition until next year's festival in early February. Sunday evening, 27 February, about a dozen local country music lovers turned up for a jam session at Kerry and Pam Mason's Mountain View Motel in Ohakune and more are expected in future weeks. Presently held in the recreation room of the Mountain View Motel, the group hopes to use the Waimarino Brass Band rooms next to the Ohakune Motor Camp during the ski season and when numbers exceed the capacity of the motel. Convenor of this year's inaugural Ohakune Country Music Festival, Georgie Templeton of Hamilton, said that she was aiming to establish an annual country music festival in the North Island similar to the one in Gore (in Southland) and the one in Tamworth, New South Wales. The effect of the Gold Guitar Awards on Tamworth over its 25 years has been to triple its permanent population to 50,000 fans of country music over the 10-day festival during which cowboy hats (or in the case of "dinkum Aussies", akubras), boots and jeans are the dress of the day. Formerly called the Australasian Gold Guitar Awards, the title has now been changed to the Australian Gold Guitar Awards to eliminate New Zealand singers. This means singers such as Patsy Riggir, Suzanne Prentis, John Fletcher, Mike Roycroft, Jan Cooper and other Gold Guitar winners - are ineligible for the supreme award. New Zealanders had in the past taken nine Gold Guitar awards there. Gore' s Gold Guitar country music awards are not quite as old as those

in Tamworth having started from small beginnings in 1973. Since then they have become New Zealand' s leading country music festival (at least in the South Island) lasting eight days each year in either late May or early June. The population of Gore is almost doubled during country musical festival week. The proposal to establish a similar festival in Ohakune during the summer months has several advantages and benefits for the Waimarino without detracting from existing country musical festivals elsewhere, organisers believe. Centrally situated in the middle of the North Island away from the summer coastal resorts, Ohakune has a surplus of accommodation in summer. The country music festival is seen as a possible additional attraction to the Waimarino for summer visitors in the future. Mrs Templeton said the Ohakune Club had provided "an excellent venue" as it enabled performances to be held either indoors in the upstairs lounge or outside in the spacious grounds, depending on weather conditions. Country music is making a big come back in both Australia and New Zealand according to organisers and interest is kept alive between festivals by country music performers who play in pubs and clubs throughout the year. For more information about the local group, which intends to meet on the last Sunday of each month, contact Pam or Terry Mason on 385-8675.