Lake Keepit - Tamworth CM Festival – Day 5 - Wallabadah

While Steve was out paddling, I got chatting to the Water guy at the dam. He was telling me about the amount of vandalism done at the park. He told us that the bridge used to be open right the way across to the other side. After one vandalism act resulted in over $500,000 damage, they now have it locked off. It seems that vandals have resulted in most of the park now being fenced off and locked up. Its such a shame.

He did have loads of information about the Tamworth festival. He said the normal beer order for the week is usually 80 kegs a week and during the festival they get through 700 kegs a week! He said its an amazing feat just to get the beer there. He said the coordination involved in getting the beer in, storing it and continuing the supply throughout the 10 days is also a feat. He said Coles and Woolies also get a truck load every few days of juice alone, just for all the campers staying at the huge campsite run in town. He also said that the pharmacies have to have deliveries at midnight, and as they are getting drugs, they have to have police escorts due to the drunks still hanging around the main street during the night. He said its so well coordinated that they some how managed to get all the deliveries from all over the state done during the middle of the night, as it’s the only time the trucks can get in!

Decided after Steve’s paddle, that some bluegrass was on the agenda. Had a great deal of difficulty trying to find some to see. Found some that was basically a jam session. They were all very talented individuals, but had never played together before, and one guitarist hadn’t played bluegrass before today so it was a bit of a shambles. I did enjoy the music with the drums in it, but the fiddle player was fabulous.

We next had heard that a great slide guitarist was due to play at 5pm back at the acoustic lounge, but he didn’t show. We decided we needed to pull the pin and move on out of town. We got 50kms down the road back at the town where the First Fleet Memorial was. We had a good nights’ sleep, once it cooled down in the van…