Gunnedah Country Music Muster has reached 10 years since its first show and last week the showground was host to about 130 caravans according to event organiser Rex Baldwin.
This was the second year back on track after missing the muster in 2022 due to COVID shutting down community events.
“Absolutely fantastic the response [was] this year,” Rex said. “We have more caravans this year than we ever had before.
“We [were] up by at least 18-20 caravans. Certainly up in crowd [numbers] which is great.”
The muster had people travel to Gunnedah for the five days that offered musical entertainment and a community that Australian country music offers.
Margret Baker.
It began the first three days with walk up amateur artists showing their love for the genre with a mixture of paces and instruments, ending in a concert on Friday night.
The professional musicians drew in a crowd for the weekend shows and for the fun of it was a ‘mini Olympics’ competition on Saturday with games such as shoe tossing and a quiz with a difference to finish it off.
People came from Queensland, South Australia, the South Coast and “pretty well anywhere in between”.
Rex thanked the muster’s sponsors along with anonymous donors and people who just wanted to chip in.
“It is not a big sponsorship but it is enough to cover our expenses and make a little bit of money at the end of the day,” Rex said.
Accordion player Kevin Beckett.
In agreement to the muster growing in size and value was Andre and Sharron Duro.
The pair have been coming to the Gunnedah Country Music Muster for three years.
They planned to stay for the entirety of the five days, after they had travelled from Kyogle to be among the atmosphere of the event.
The muster has become a favourite of theirs and they have already booked in for next year as well.
“It is really good,” Andre said. “Every year it is getting bigger.”
He mentioned there was more this year than the last and they found the people around to be friendly.
Sharron agreed and saw the Gunnedah Showground as a great place to have the muster.
“It is a good spot to have it,” she said. “We like coming here.”
“We will keep coming – hopefully they will continue to make it bigger and bigger.”
Jan Snow, Myra Tailby, Rex Baldwin and Val William
