Hundreds of buskers, bards, and balladeers have returned to Australia’s country music capital to fill the streets with song.
The 10-day Tamworth Country Music Festival draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year as they hope to catch a glimpse of legends like Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley and Kasey Chambers.
Not only is it one of Australia’s largest and longest live music festivals, it is also a rite of passage for future country stars.
“A lot of other festivals, you have to be booked, you can’t just rock up and play – but in Tamworth you can,” six-time Country Music Award of Australia winner and 2026 award show co-host Amber Lawrence said.
“Peel Street is the place where dreams begin.
“So many of us have started our careers by taking that pilgrimage to Tamworth, taking a look around and saying ‘I’m just going to open my guitar case and see what happens’.”
More than 400 buskers have registered to play in Tamworth this year, with many more set to hold small gigs around the regional town to get their names out into the world.
International country music superstar Keith Urban would have played at many of the same stages when he cut his teeth at Tamworth some three decades ago.
In 1991, Urban won his first Golden Guitar for New Talent of the Year.
He has since become one of the genre’s biggest representatives, won another 14 Golden Guitars, been inducted into the award’s Australian Roll of Renown, and married and divorced Australian acting darling Nicole Kidman.
“He would’ve been the guy who was going down there and busking and playing all the little shows,” ARIA winner and 2026 Golden Guitar Awards co-host Casey Barnes said.
“To go from that to being the biggest export we’ve ever had in country music is probably the best example of Tamworth.”
Since the Urban era, country music has exploded in popularity.
The genre had previously been plagued by perceptions it was cringeworthy or outdated.
But its uptake by megastars such as Beyonce, the popularity of US country singers like Luke Combs and live performances have helped shake off the stigma.
Barnes recalled times when members of his audience had roped their partners into his country music gigs.
“At the end of the night – they might have had a couple of beers at this point – they’ll come up to us and say something like, ‘I don’t f***ing like country music, but I really like your stuff’,” he said.
“It’s like they have this perception about what country music is going to sound like.
“Then they come watch one of our shows and go, ‘hang on a second, this is actually really good’.
“The genre has such a wide spectrum, and that’s why it’s cool.”
The Tamworth Country Music Festival runs until Saturday.
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