The findings of a recent comprehensive survey conducted by the Tamworth Regional Council on the annual country music festival has uncovered three key areas of focus.

The results – comprising six reports and data contained in a 250-page document titled Tamworth Country Music Festival Planning for the Future – were presented to council, industry representatives, stakeholders and the fan community.

What the survey revealed

• The survey findings identify the typical Tamworth Country Music Festival fan as being female, married and aged between 45 and 54.
• A total of 78 per cent of survey respondents identified themselves as fans while 13 per cent were artists, and nine per cent were industry representatives.
• Most of the fans who completed the survey were female (69.39 per cent).
• The 45-54 age group was most strongly represented among survey respondents (23.76 per cent), followed by the 55-64 age group (22.89 per cent) and 34-44 age group (20.98 per cent). The 25-34 age group accounted for 14.58 per cent of respondents.
• Most of the respondents were from NSW (56 per cent), followed by Queensland (18 per cent) and Victoria (16 per cent).
• Respondents from the Tamworth region accounted for 33 per cent of those who took part in the survey. A total of 66 per cent of respondents identified themselves as being residents living outside the Tamworth region.
• Survey respondents overwhelmingly nominated ‘country’ as their most popular genre of music (65.97 per cent), followed by ‘rock’ (8.05 per cent). Of those who named country as their music of choice, most said ‘country rock’ was their favourite category, followed by ‘pop country’, ‘traditional’ and ‘bluegrass’.
• When asked whether visiting international acts improve the Tamworth Country Music Festival, 62.12 per cent of respondents answered ‘yes’. A total of 22.77 per cent were ‘neutral’ and 15.11 per cent answered ‘no’.
• More than 60 per cent of artists who took part in the survey agreed that visiting international artists improve the festival as did more than 64 per cent of respondents who identified themselves as industry representatives or Festival stakeholders.
• The survey data reaffirmed anecdotal evidence that the majority of festival fans live on the eastern seaboard of Australia.
• Of the survey respondents from outside the Tamworth region who identified themselves as fans, 57.55 per cent were from NSW, followed by Queensland (17.14 per cent) and Victoria (14.78 per cent).

Archived from: http://tamworthcountrylife.com.au/tamworth-country-music-festival-survey-results-released/