Festival of twang starts with a bang

There were reports vendors were struggling to feed the hungry hoards on the first weekend, with stories that butchers had run out of meat and stock was flying off the barbecue as soon as it had finished sizzling across Tamworth.

Pat’s Lebanese Catering owner Pat Burrows was forced to shut up early on Saturday night after selling a record number of kebabs.

“We ran out of food at 7.30pm, so we had to finish. It was insane,” he told The Leader.

“(On Saturday) we sold 500 kebabs, and we’re 300 kebabs up, we could have sold another 300 on Saturday night, that’s how busy we were.”

Mr Burrow’s even put extra staff on for the festival to man the van in Fitzroy St, but has had to pull 22 hour days just to keep up with demand.

“It’s a big, big job, but I’ve got three people this year working with me, so we’re twice as fast, but we’re up,” he said.

“I’m doing all the food preparation, so making the hommos, the garlic sauce, the tabouli, it’s just crazy, it hasn’t stopped.”

Festival director Barry Harley said the numbers were up inside the festival campgrounds, with 688 spots taken inside Riverside by Sunday morning, while the Mooggee campgrounds at Cross Park had 75 tents taken and 150 campers staying put.

“There is a very, very good vibe that things are going well and look, all the signs are very positive,” he said.

“Most operators are reporting there is strength in numbers and sales.”

Wests CEO Rod Laing said he was talking to the family of a performer who comes most years and they had even noticed the bumper crowds.

“She said to me, the crowd is like the crowd was nine years ago, there is big crowds here, and they are early,” he said.

“We’re extremely happy with the crowds, I know our food department is breaking records, they’re having some massive nights and days.”

Mr Laing said ticket numbers were flying out the door with Beccy Cole and Adam Harvey’s shows on Saturday all but full, while Country Turns Pink had the sold-out sign up, and next weekend’s solo performance by Paul Kelly had sold more than 500 tickets already.

“Basically it has just started with a bang,” Mr Laing said yesterday.

“Last Wednesday was extremely busy, that’s always a good sign for day one ... it’ll be interesting to see what happens Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, this week.”

Mr Harley said organisers were trying to get around town to talk to most operators but the numbers looked good both in the camping grounds, in the caravan parks and inside the venues.

“They feel the crowds are good, if not better that previous years, and traditionally the numbers increase as we go on through the week,” he said.

The men and women in blue were also praising the crowd behaviour yesterday,  and reporting a handful of isolated incidents as the first weekend wrapped up.