On the show this week we visit the Nanango Country Music which is in its 20th year. It is run over 4 days full of entertainment from 9am through to evening. Park your van up and move your chair and join in. If it falls correctly there is the most magnificent market on the Saturday with traders coming in and setting up in the early hours of Saturday morning, but make sure you are up early as they tend to be gone by lunch time.
Phill had the pleasure of meeting Trish and Gordon from Hervey Bay who have been regulars over the 20 years and never miss a show. Trish also helps the artists selling their merchandise while they perform and Trish has also volunteered in the kitchen.
They used to attend many other festivals but now as they are getting on in years they prefer to just attend this one. They enjoy everything about the festival from the way its run. location and a good size.
The facilities are good, there is power that you can book, water is available with ablutions blocks scattered around.
Next on the show Phill meets and chats with Sandra who is the camp Co Ordinator. Sandra has been involved right from the start and was part of the show society at the time and has kept on going.
Sandra takes the bookings and payments and allocates the sites, the vans are tagged so they keep a track on how many vans. This year there are 667 vans and still more to come over the next two days. There are still people that don’t book and just turn up. Before Covid they had 823 vans attend. Its a huge showground. People keep coming back year after year as its a varied mix of entertainment. The concert is $60 per person for the 3 nights, $20 per van for powered sites with a minimum of 6 nights.
Jade Hurley was the main drawcard this year as a feature. There was over 2000 people that attended the Thursday night and there were even people coming from Brisbane for the night.
Phill meets Allan Ashcroft. Allan along with John Calvert who is no longer with us started up the Nanango Country Music Muster 20 years ago. It started back in 2003.
It just started with a chat at another festival and evolved from there. The first Muster had 24 caravans attend. It has just developed from there to now over 600 vans.
They have only missed one year due to Covid. There is a grandstand where you can park you chair and leave for the entire week, On the Wednesday there is a marquee on the grounds where you can also put your chair under for shade. Its a great venue and it is dog friendly as long as you do the right thing, the only area they are not allowed is in the grandstand where the food kitchen is.
Allan has attended a few festivals for ideas from other Country Festivals and they keep the prices at an affordable price and seems to draw more grey nomads every year.
Lastly on the show Phill chats with Brownie. Brownie is the parking attendant who directs you to your spot in his golf cart and you can hear him throughout the showground. Brownie is 88 years young. He also has a measure stick he carries with him to measure the space between vans for the awning.
Brownie comes for the interaction with the people but has noticed a change in people. He also loves a chat and on the last day he runs a concert, he charges $5 a person and the artists donate CD’s that go to auction. There are also the regulars that attend who crochet rugs. The money raised goes to the local schools. This years the money is going to the Royal Flying Doctors. I watched him during the days there, he never stopped, was on the go the whole time.
