Chanter St will be closed for the evening to allow residents and visitors to enjoy the amazing tunes from regional performers.
BDDA promotions officer Susan Escott said this year’s event is expected to be as successful as last year, if not more so.
‘‘It (the 2021 event) came at the perfect time to bring people outdoors to socialise once more, after a long 12 months of isolation prior due to the pandemic,’’ she said.
‘‘The community of Berrigan was most insistent that we revisit the festival, with enthusiastic reviews received about last year’s event — in particular the great local entertainment our very own Ray Macartney was able to source, including Darren Colston, Anthony Tenace, Jade Camden and Daine Runnals.
‘‘With the continued lockdowns of last year, and dire cross border complications that crippled the local economy, The Festival of Music on Chanter promises to be both a much needed resurrection of the live music industry and a new form of entertainment for the region.
‘‘With ample food and drink being provided by local pubs, cafes and stallholders and a variety of shops and stalls offering late night trading, the festival promises to be the best possible way to welcome the weekend.’’
Mr Macartney said each of the entertainers from last year are set to return this Friday.
‘‘I wanted to have a variety of performers to cater to all tastes,’’ Mr Macartney said.
‘‘I wanted everyone to feel an affinity to the music and to be able to enjoy what we all had to offer.
‘‘I looked around the Riverina and Goulburn Valley and realised that we had so much amazing talent at our fingertips. The hardest part was narrowing down the choice to only five.’’
More about each of this Friday’s performers is as follows.
Ray Macartney is a farmer/entertainer/singer songwriter and has been performing since the late 1970s in many and varied bands, covering many different styles of popular music.
There’s possibly not a hall or a club Ray hasn’t performed in across the region, but he’s also toured on the Gold Coast, Tamworth and Melbourne.
Ray began recording in 1992 and to date has released eight albums. His ninth, ‘Man of The Land’, is due out any day now.
His song writing covers many different genres with lyrics that express many different subjects.
His 2017 album, ‘Finding Inspiration’, was his most successful album releasing four original singles on Country Radio Singles with two tracks Fisherman’s Habitat and That’s My Country, hitting Country Songs Top 40 and receiving airplay worldwide.
Darren Colston has several awards to his name, including the Tamworth Independent Artists Male Vocalist of the Year.
He has also penned and performed several charting singles including the top five hit duet with Victoria Baillie Will You Stay, and the Golden Guitar nominated song The Boundary Rider.
In January 2020, at the Tamworth Festival, he was awarded the Radio 2RRR Contemporary Male Country Artist of the Year.
Daine Runnals is from Yarrawonga and will be his usual entertaining self, providing some great one-liners and singing popular songs that we can all join in.
Daine has been performing for almost 20 years singing and playing various instruments such as guitar, harmonica, banjo and piano.
He has released numerous original albums and when he’s not teaching music he’s on stage, guitar on lap, microphone out front.
Anthony Tenace has been performing for more than 25 years and runs Kick Back recording studio, along with a PA Hire business in Mooroopna. He started his career playing the clubs along the Murray River, as well as weddings and events.
Anthony’s style ranges from country, rock ‘n’ roll, some 80s and 90s classics and he’s known to throw in some acoustic songs as well.
Crowd participation and involvement is one of the keys of his performance. Anthony has just found his love of song writing and received second place in the Tamworth song writers’ awards.
Jade Camden is based in Barooga, but originally from Finley. She has been singing, performing and entertaining in Australia and abroad for over 20 years.
The early years of her career found her singing and treading the boards in Wagga where she performed with many talented singers, actors and musicians in comedy musicals, theatre shows and concerts.
Her aspirations took her to the bright lights of London where over seven years, Jade continued to sing with bands, duos and trios at various events and special occasions. She wrote and starred in her own original musical comedy as well as writing and recording a demo of original songs.
Upon her return to the Aussie shores Jade was lucky enough to sing at the 2011 Grand Prix and 2011 Cox Plate.
