THE Mount Beauty Music Festival turns sweet 16 this year and music lovers will be celebrating the milestone in style across three, glorious days.
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With 41 different acts, and more than 100 professional musicians, poets and comedians offering live performances across 10 different venues, there will be something for every taste — from rock to R&B and from bluegrass to bebop to slam poetry.
Festival director Margaret Brereton, who has been involved since its inception, said the festival had continued to grow since that first year.
“Sixteen years ago this was a very different little place and we didn’t have a music festival of any kind in our valley,” she said.
“We thought we might try it for a year and see how it went.
“But that first music festival went off really well, everyone wanted another and we had lots of people coming to us saying they’d had such a great time they wanted it to continue — hence this its 16th year.”
The festival will be officially opened at 6.30pm tonight by Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, marking the success of securing funding for the world-famous Polyglot Theatre, which will present Tangle.
The festival also secured funding for a slam poet to perform and host workshops for schools.
Ms Brereton said its secret to success was the volunteers behind the scenes.
“The community is behind us all the way,” she said.
“And every year we re-invent the festival, we don’t go with the “same old” every year and we really take selection seriously — artists have to apply whether from Canada or locals.
Among the acts will be Jordie Lane, Canadian rockers Miss Quincy, Australian/Canadian alt-country band Tracy McNeil and The GoodLife and Golden Guitar winner Pete Denahy.
Weekend, day-night, student and family passes are available at the festival office which is open from 8am to 8pm today.
For more information including ticketing visit musicfestival.org.au.
