Country Music Hall of Fame

THE main street of Tamworth is jumping with banjos, ballads and buskers as the country music festival kicks off for another year. Hotels, motels, caravan parks and camping grounds are beginning to swell as the expected crowds of more than 50,000 flow into the northern NSW town for the 10-day celebration. Preparations are being made in the city's Bicentennial Park, where Tamworth Mayor James Treloar will tonight raise the flag to officially open the festival, before some of Australia's best country performers put on a free concert. Mr Treloar today predicted this year's festival would be one of the most exciting yet. "Our history would suggest that whenever (the Australia Day) public holiday attaches to a weekend and makes it a long weekend, it will be a record festival every time," he said.

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