history ~ previous festivals ~ past winners

History of the Boyup Brook Country Music Club

The Country Music Club of Boyup Brook was formed in 1979 to create cultural and social opportunities for families, which would improve quality of life in regional Western Australia. The Club is a fully incorporated, non-profit association administered by an elected committee and funded from Government grants, sponsorship, fundraising activities and membership. The organising committee total a number of 15 people who are all volunteers.

The Club acts as a peak arts body for our community and works closely with volunteers in a range of events and activities. 

The Club's major activity is to organise the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival which is a relaxed, refreshingly authentic, and fun four day festival, and incorporates the West Australian Country Music Awards, the Boyup Ute & Truck Muster, a Street Carnival, Concerts, Workshops and WA’s Bush Poets Breakfast. This is the most prestigious event on the West Australian Country Music Calendar, with the 2008 event bringing some 17,000 visitors over the four days, to our town and region - not bad considering the Shire of Boyup Brook has a total population of approximately 1,400. The festival has now been hosted for twenty three years, and is a celebration of our country lifestyles and community spirit. This event is helping to bring in a high tourist flow to our region in the off peak season.

The Festival is organised and operated by volunteers, who have considerable organisational and event management skills providing a broad knowledge from a variety of backgrounds. Our committee has dedicated volunteers who make remarkable things happen, often working against the odds of distance and limited resources. Many of our committee work’s with a number of organisations which helps to identify and build on our strengths. It also allows us to develop relationships with other community groups. Volunteer numbers swell to approximately 350 throughout the week of the festival.

Our festival involves a huge range of community organisations and individual community members (36 organisations in all) who all come together to participate in and enjoy our event, which in the long term increases well being, social and physical health. This is the fabric that holds our community together.  

Five years ago the Club committee identified the need to have a new venue for the festival and this set about quite a challenge for the community as the only place available was dirty and dusty, and had no power or stage area. Through a dedicated committee, hard decisions were made to move the festival from the Town oval, where it had been operating for 19 years and move to a new dry and dusty parkland venue central to town. With government funding, and the hands of many volunteers the community has built this dry parkland area into a beautiful Music Park. It is now reticulated with grassed lawns, has power and lighting and now sees a permanent stage and sound shell, where John Williamson was in attendance to officially open the stage and sound shell in 2007. 

The festival creates a focus on our community and assists in celebrating our achievements and helps to foster a sense of identity and belonging. The community involvement develops long term benefits and a cultural growth, by assisting in the development of skills, and the chance to collaborate with national and international artists. 

“The Boyup Brook Country Music Festival is a relaxed, refreshingly authentic and fun weekend. 

The Festival brings the grass roots of the country music experience to its warmly received guests, blending big name and WA original artists in a friendly, country setting.”

For the Festival we create a wonderful carnival atmosphere by introducing community markets and local exhibits, showcasing local products and services, displays and entertainment- featuring top WA and local talent. It is an opportunity for us to promote the South West region, as an area for achieving excellence. Add in top national and international guest artists and bands, bush poets, a concert under the stars and you have a small part of what makes up our fantastic four day festival.

The Festival reinvigorates this town and further unites the Boyup Brook town’s people, building on their strengths, expertise and enthusiasm, uniting them in developing a significant tourism event. It enhances the projection of the local community image bringing them all together and encourages community ownership. Last year the festival generated approximately 1.4 million dollars for our regional area.

Boyup Brook is situated 300 kilometres south west of Perth and has a total population of 1,400 (only 500 in town). It is an inland, rural township, not located on any main highways.

The Club goals: 

• For Boyup Brook to be known as the - “Country Music Capital of WA”.

• To promote country music and the arts through an annual program of events and activities.

• Create family fun and entertainment.

• Act as a peak arts body for the town of Boyup Brook and assist organisations with development in the arts sector by building better programs from previous years.

• Work together with different age groups and cultural backgrounds

• Aim to build partnerships with local government, businesses and organisations, which will create a vibrant town that benefits from the promotion of the Arts, Country Values and Country Lifestyle

                                             1986 First Festival                                                      2008 Festival

Why was this Festival established and when?

This event was established in 1986, after discussions with a number of Country Music Clubs around the state to focus on West Australian Country Music artists and recognising them with Awards. No other Clubs had the dream or incentive of what heights this event could be taken to. The Club has gone with the flow to continue to introduce new items to enhance the festival. Because of this the whole event has gone from strength to strength.

Details of the Development and Growth of the Festival 

The festival when it first started had approximately 600 visitors and now today has approximately 16,000. Public feedback has encouraged us to go from a one day event to a four day event. Over the years new items have been introduced, with some of them becoming an integral part of the overall festival. eg: the Street Carnival, Ute & Truck Muster, and Bush Poets Breakfast.

Over the past 10 years there have been many changes and requirements upon volunteers, funding and the way in which Clubs now operate. This has had a huge impact on our volunteers and the need for continued learning. This includes having computer skills, paying for our volunteers to attend courses, performances and other functions, attending conferences, developing skills for sponsorship, grants and funding, having jobs lists, dealing with legal policies and documents. Sometimes it has been very frustrating but the outcomes are generally rewarding.

Organisations involved in establishing and running the Festival

The Boyup Brook Country Music Festival is solely organised by the Country Music Club, which consists of Executive Committee, General Committee and Sub Committees. As it gets nearer to the event the Club calls for other interested community groups to come forward, so that they can be involved in the planning and development of the festival. We hold several briefing sessions and a debriefing session following the festival. Approximately 36 local organisations are involved in some way. The event could not be held without the assistance of some 350 volunteers who come from these community groups.

Impact of the Festival

It has been through persistence, resourcefulness and a true sense of spirit this Club has presented the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival since 1986. We are proud of our history and of the organisation that we have become today. Without the support of a very hard working and dedicated committee, and a large number of community volunteers, who come together to support the committee in staging this event it would not be possible. We cannot stress the importance of our volunteers who help make it all happen. We are a club with very broad knowledge and skills given from community members who take on different tasks and volunteer their time to teach others along the way. This has added strength to the Club and the festival. The benefits to volunteers are great as they are continuing to learn and develop new skills, and also meet new friends.

Each year we add more participants, who go home feeling quite overwhelmed with the country hospitality and the way in which the whole community joins in to share in a huge project, and celebrates community achievement together. Artistic participants nominate year after year to be a part of the following year’s event.

The impact of the event on our community has been massive. A survey was conducted at the 2007 festival which indicated that the festival now brings in approximately 1.4 million dollars to this community and surrounding towns. It is exciting to note that we are now bringing in overseas and interstate visitors. Some of these people actually booked their holiday around the festival. Overseas survey forms were filled from England, Japan, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and Ireland. Our interstate visitors came from Sydney, Tamworth, Darwin, & Victoria. There was also a proliferation of artists from all parts of the globe enquiring about performing as artists.  

The broader community benefit, not just in a dollar value but in the way in which new friendships are formed, new networks set up and new skills developed.