Barry Harley is the country music manager for Tamworth Regional Council (TRC). Barry was the general manager of Rural Press Events for over 2 decades. His connection with the festival started around the mid-70s as a stage design artist for the Golden Guitars with all thing’s country becoming a major part of his life. A former board member of the Country Music Association of Australia, Barry is chairman of the Country Music Festival Stakeholders Group and played a pivotal role in Star Maker, Capital News and creating the Toyota Country Music Theatre at TRECC. Barry is very active across all areas of the Tamworth Country Music Festival and Golden Guitar Awards. Barry speaks to Gman on 3KND Kool”N”Deadly about next year’s cancellation due to COVID-19 and the future celebrations.
Festival Manager, Barry Harley said: “Today is a sad day, not only for Tamworth, but for the artists, and the country music industry. We have remained as optimistic as we could and continued with our planning in the hope that conditions would ease. Unfortunately, like so many others in our situation, we have had to surrender to the challenges COVID has placed on us and make the difficult decision to suspend TCMF2021.” While the Festival itself will not proceed in 2021, the annual presentation of the Country Music Awards of Australia, the Toyota Golden Guitar Awards, will still go ahead. The Awards that are the longest standing music awards in the country, will be delivered via an online stream on the night, and the ABC will continue to be the broadcast partner for the Awards.
“Artists have faced an extremely challenging year, but many have continued to work hard and release new music, under the most difficult of circumstances, and we want to pay tribute to them by hosting a remarkable event, that is streamed far and wide so that everyone can experience the best of Australian country music. The Toyota Country Music Festival, Tamworth, is one of the best Festival experiences on offer. It is the country’s most prominent supporter of Australian country music, and it will be back to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022. “We appreciate all the support shown to us to date, and we encourage everyone to support your favourite country music artists in any way, in the coming months, as we look forward to a bigger and better Festival in 2022,” said Mr. Harley. To keep up to date with plans for the 2021 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards and the 2022 Toyota Country Music 50th Anniversary event, visit www.tcmf.com.au.
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