Akubras, stetsons, cowboy boots, spurs,
blue singlets, Jeans, guitars, fiddles, lager sticks, campfires were all sights and sounds of the scene - the muster was on. The Gympie Music Muster is an iconic
festival, providing a great camping and music experience.
From
Thursday 23 August to Sunday 26th August, the Amamoor
Creek State forest (30 kms south of Gympie) was transformed into a
miniature "camp town".
Thousands of people from all walks of
life and from all over the country descended upon this area to listen
to and to experience some great entertainment of mainly country
music. - apparently 55,000 folks passed through the gate over 4
days!
The muster program included international acts as well as
Australian music, Australian culture in the Australian bush –
towering gums, fresh eucalypts, campfire ...
We camped out with the
Cameron's who were 'Muster knows' – they gave us some tips on 'must
sees', where to go and were great camp mates at the same time.
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| This poster
was erected inside the front gate and if you look closely you will see
it is an aerial shot of the several hectares the muster site covers... |
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| Dave was there ... in his Akubra |
Entertainment Precinct - there were
several venues to enjoy a variety of music:
The Main Stage
Some of the crowd, numbers varied depending on the act, time of day/night etc.
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| On the Hill |
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| Kenny Rogers |
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John Williamson on the big screen
The Main Stage was situated in a
natural amphitheatre, lined with beautiful gum trees overhead and
around. The big screen was nearby and highlighted the big name performers. Main stage
artists included the likes of John Williamson, Shannon Noll, Beccy
Cole, Russell Morris and Brian Cadd and the big attraction was Kenny
Rogers.
The Grove Venue |
The Grove setting featured folk, acoustic
and musical comedy. It was a cosy setting – I saw the group Beards
whose catalogue consisted entirely of songs about beards and having
beards ... very entertaining.
The Muster Club hosted the likes of the
Bush Poets ... some good Aussie yarns were spun!
The Wine Bar hosted Australian country
music artists, featured cabaret and music theatre – here we enjoyed
Pixie Jenkins, a one man show ... great fiddle player and comic.
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| The Wine Bar venue |
The Crowbar featured Australian and
overseas rock country acts - the Black Sorrows, Luella and The Heelers who put on a thoroughly energy-packed show, a great voice and
personality.
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| The Crowbar venue |
The Blues Tent for lovers of blues and
roots flavoured country. Music was pretty loud! One artist who
could be enjoyed at a normal distance was Eugene Hideaway Bridges –
a black Texan bluesman.
Other stuff happening ....
As well as the huge range of acts to
listen to and to enjoy all the antics, all the fabulous music there
were several food and market stalls with the usual muster
merchandise, and many bar outlets.
There were also some specific country
music activities - Musta Dance such as clogging (hillbiily tap) and
linedancing, from beginning to advanced levels, a talent search
stage, a Bucking bull challenge marquee and a chill out area.
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| The RM Williams truck |
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| The bucking bull |
Cowboys having some fun ...
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| Cloggers clogging .... |
Going into stall land ....
Some of the crowd and stalls
Camps and campers ....
Most people camped for the duration,
some camped a fortnight beforehand to get their favourite location –
the camps ranged from swags, tents, campers, caravans, 5 wheelers
... some pretty basic stuff to very elaborate facilities. I counted over a hundred roads in the camp area, apparently there were 200 streets.
Swill Hill
was a pretty flash outfit, a two storeyed joint complete with
Satellite TV – this was where we watched the All Blacks thrash
the Wallabies 22-0.
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| Swill Hill, complete with a big outdoor screen |
A typical camp ground in the bush
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| Camping area in the open |
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| Some camps were very close to one another |
Anyway there was a
competition for the 'best camp' and here are some of the entrants....
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| Birds Camp |
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| Bundie Camp |
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| Even those people are attracted to country entertainment |
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| One of the Bra Camps |
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| The original Bra Bar | |
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| Our camp |
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| Back of our camp |
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| Moi ... having a Dark and Stormy start |
Not that there was a need for them but the organisers thought of it all
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| Mounted police keeping the peace on the best beat |
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| Kenny! |
At 74, he did an excellent show, looks better now than he ever did and sounded pretty good ... my highlight.
