AusLeisure

Blessed with a long weekend of fine weather, the Byron Bay Bluesfest has celebrated its 25th anniversary with large crowds travelling to the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm venue over the Easter break.

Featuring a large selection of blues, rock and roots performers, both international and Australian, the East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, was first staged in 1990. Now a five day event held over the Easter long weekend, the event moved to its current home at Tyagarah, about 15 minutes drive north of Byron Bay.

Commenting on the success of the Byron Bay Bluesfest in a recent interview with Rhythms magazine, Festival Director Peter Noble explained "we’ve carved out a niche.

"We started out as a purely blues festival but then artists like Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Kasey Chambers, Cat Empire and John Butler have been very fundamental in our growth.

"We’ve always got that contemporary part of the event (as well as) artists who are in the latter years of their great careers."

In December 2004, Keven Oxford, a director and founder of the event, left the festival and sold his 50% share of the company to a consortium comprising Michael Chugg of Sydney-based Chugg Entertainment, Daryl Herbert of Melbourne-based Definitive Events and Glenn Wheatley of Melbourne-based Talentworks, who ran the festival with co-founder Peter Noble.

Noble bought out the consortium in 2008 and now owns the festival alone.

The festival won the Robert Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Music Festival in Australia for 2004 and 2005 and received the Silver award for major festivals and events at the 29th Australian Tourism Awards in February.

Click here to visit the festival website.

8th October 2010 - BYRON BAY BLUESFEST NAMED AUSTRALIA’S TOP EVENT

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