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- Accommodation. There is a lot of accommodation in Tamworth
but it's not that easy at festival time,
given many people book for next year when they book out.
But there are lots of cancellations too.
You need to choose between hotel, motel, home stay, renting a room,
renting a whole house for say six people (there are a surprising number of these)
or just camping or staying in the caravan park.
Once you get this sorted out and booked, everything else will fall into place.
- Camping. There is plenty of space allocated for camping
during the festival.
Except that some of it is in the flood area,
so if it's raining heavily and you get asked to move in the middle of the night
they are not joking (no practical jokers please).
- Staying Out of Town. A lot of people stay in the neighbouring towns.
Driving half an hour is not a problem.
- Tickets. Given the advent of on-line booking,
a lot of people are buying their tickets before they leave home.
This does mean the popular things may well be sold out
before the festival even starts.
However, there is a good ticket office in the main street,
and look in the programme to see where tickets are available for each event.
There are plenty of tickets available to interesting things,
not to mention that most things are actually free anyway
or tickets are only available at the door.
- Planning. Decide what you would like to see.
This is much harder than it sounds.
Tamworth has a lot of country music styles all rolled into one big festival
so there is something for everybody.
For the first three days you will see people frantically
thumbing through their programme as they try to solve this problem.
Start from the ends - tick the stuff you must see
and cross off stuff you never want to see.
Cross off things that are booked out.
- Ignore your friends who hate country music
or think it's beneath their dignity.
They think it's silly to wear cowboy hats
and pretend you're in Texas or in the outback.
Remind them of all the rappers
who pretend to be gangsters and criminals,
all poverty stricken like and living in the ghettos of New York.
Tell your friends you are going to hear some twang music -
they won't really know what it is, but they do know you like it.
- Listen, Watch and Read.
Play all your country CD's. Watch CMC. Listen to country music on the radio.
Buy Country Update and Cap News at a big newsagent.
Surf the net for the Tamworth web sites or for your favourite stars.
Try to decide what sort of country music you really like.
Here's a Blues Brothers joke from 1978: "I like both types of music,
country and western."
- Driving Up from Sydney. It's about 420 Km.
Pick out a pile of favourite CDs to play.
A lot of people will tell you how they drive up to Tamworth
in four or five hours but they are liars.
First hour: See how long it takes to drive to the middle
of the Hawkesbury River bridge.
For me it's a couple of minutes either side of an hour,
but 15 minutes more in peak hour, and even more if it's raining.
Second hour: It's roughly an hour to the big roundabout
at the top of the freeway, perhaps a few minutes over.
At this roundabout you are level with Newcastle.
You go straight ahead for Tamworth,
or turn right for Hexham and the Pacific Highway up the coast.
Third, Fourth, Fifth Hours: You have to drive right up the Hunter valley.
There is a succession of historic towns, all with 50 K and 60 K zones,
and there are endless 70 K and 80 K stretches as well.
In order, the major towns are Maitland, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Scone and Murrurundi.
Only Maitland has a bypass, with all the others the highway is the main street.
Scone is the halfway point in distance, so take a break around that time.
There are several food places in Scone and, just past Scone,
a Caltex servo on the left which serves mince on toast.
The last town is Murrurundi and just after this you climb up a steep hill
and come out the top of the Hunter Valley and onto the tablelands.
Sixth and Seventh Hours: Past the Hunter Valley,
the countryside is noticeably different
and it's less than 100 Km to Tamworth.
Look out for speed cameras in the townships
but it's pleasantly well under two hours.
Total time about six and a half hours including a break.
- Web Sites About Tamworth Virtually every artist, event,
club and hotel now has a web site, or a MySpace site,
but here are a few general ones....
Tamworth Country Music Festival including tickets to TREC on-line
Tamworth Country Music with commentary by Anna Rose
West Tamworth Leagues Club and Diggers including WTLC tickets on-line
The Family, The Southgate Inn, The Goodies and The Pub
Latest Country Music News from Bob Kirchner
The Northern Daily Leader on Line
Sharon's Tamworth Photos covering 2004 to 2008 Quite an archive.
Helen's Tamworth Rage Page
No longer being updated, so no information on Tamworth 2008-2009-2010,
but a fabulous treasure trove of pictures from previous festivals.
Sad to report, but all the commercial web sites are getting more flashy,
somewhat slower and much harder to use.
Many of them don't print properly neither.
But if you want to book tickets on-line, you have to persist.
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