Online streaming of key events proved a hit for this year’s Tamworth Country Music Festival, with festival organisers hoping to expand the number of events streamed next year.
Barry Harley, director of the Tamworth Country Music Festival, confirmed the streaming trials went well, with 11,000 people tuning in to the Golden Guitar Awards on Saturday night, while another 4500 country-music fans watched the opening concert online. "We will now take the success that we've had this year and plan for other elements of the festival to be streamed as well," Mr Harley told Australia’s ABC. "Now that we're assured of the technology and we believe that we've go the quality of content, there could be quite a few other events live-streamed.”
The country music festival, which is held in the regional Australian town of Tamworth over ten days each January, features over 700 artists in 2800 events, drawing huge crowds to the town each year. Though there are some fears streaming the events could persuade visitors to stay at home and watch the events online rather than travelling to Tamworth, Mr Harley hopes the opposite is true. "We believe that the streaming, and that marketing of how unique the festival is, should deliver more desire for them to attend this wonderful ten-day experience," he said.
