North American Acts Debut At Aussie Festivals

Aside from the Dixie Chicks as a headliner, roots and country festival CMC Rocks Queensland announced two-time Grammy winners Little Big Town as second bill-toppers for the March 24-26 event at Willowbank Raceway in Ipswich. It will be the act’s first visit Down Under.

Also making their debuts are the UK’s The Shires and Ward Thomas. Plenty of acts are making return visits from North America: Kip Moore made an impact at the festival earlier this year and Tyler Farr’s “Our Town” is getting airplay here on college radio. Others coming back include Craig Campbell, Nashville’s Charles Esten, Michael Ray, Eric Paslay, Granger Smith and Drew Baldridge. They join high-profile Australian country music names such as Lee Kernaghan, Nashville-based Morgan Evans, Adam Harvey, The McClymonts, The Wolfe Brothers and Jasmine Rae.

Co-promoter Rob Potts said, “There is no other country festival in the world that presents a main stage program with artists from Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK and Canada. It is a big part of the unique program that Aussie fans get to enjoy at CMC Rocks Queensland. “Together with some of the absolute superstars of the genre, our line-ups over the years have featured many brand new breaking artists in a winning combination of legends, current hit makers and big stars of the future.

It is always a blast to be able to bring these lineups to the amazing fans that come to our festival each year, allowing them to embrace their favorites of today and discover new and unknown faves of the future.” The 31st Woodford Folk Festival’s international bill, announced Oct. 17, includes Buffy Sainte-Marie, Half Moon Run and Jaron Freeman-Fox and the Opposite of Everything along with America’s Steve Poltz, Amanda Palmer, Lake Street Dive, Gregory Page, Chad Morgan, Tim O’Brien and Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton.

From Ireland are Wallis Bird, FoiurWinds and Sharon Shannon, Vieux Farka Toure from Mali, Dubioza Kolektiv from Bosnia and Xylouris White of Greece. Australian acts unveiled showed great diversity, including veteran singer-songwriters Paul Kelly & Charlie Owen, soul band The Bamboos, hip hop MC Urthboy, indigenous singer-songwriters Kev Carmody and Thelma Plum, folk siblings The Little Stevies, The Seekers’ Keith Potger, folkabilly outfit Fanny Lumsden and rock band Gangs of Youth.

Traditionally taking place Dec. 27 to Jan. 1, the 2015-16 version drew 126,996, and pumped $30 million into the Queensland economy. According to festival GM Amanda Jackes, the largest demographic in the audience is aged 18-29, which makes up 30 percent of the crowd. More than 90 percent were repeat visitors, 59 percent from other parts of the state, 36 percent from other parts of Australia and 2 percent from overseas – mostly the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.