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MEDIA RELEASE

glaucoma sans-serif;”>Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢2014

– A Unique Music Festival

• Where: Cooma NSW, the picturesque and historic capital of Australia’s Snowy Mountains
• When:Saturday 1st November 2014

About:

The Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ (ANBC) is now in its third year. In an exciting new development, this year’s event will be presented by the Cooma Rotary Club. This is great news because the Cooma Rotary Club brings a lot of benefits to this community-based music event.

• 

  Busking organisers & Cooma Rotary Club shake on the deal

  Cooma Rotary Club will bring more helpers, “boots on the ground”, on and before the day of the event.

• Cooma Rotary is part of a great network of Rotary Clubs all around Australia, and indeed the world, so we’ll be able to spread the word.
• Another benefit is that the Cooma Rotary Club brings a large amount of business knowledge and collective wisdom to the table.
• With Cooma Rotary taking on the ANBC as a special project, this event now has an official not-for-profit status, opening up opportunities for grants and donations.
• This partnership will ensure that the Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ can grow from strength to strength and in the future become a truly national music festival.

A Unique Music Festival:

The Australian National Busking Championships is a different sort of music festival for Australia. Music festivals in Australia have typically been based on a particular style of music, e.g. Tamworth Country Music Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, Byron Bay Blues Festival. The ANBC is a celebration of all styles of music because the buskers bring a huge variety of music to the event. Whether that be Blues, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Indigenous, Multicultural or Classical, the Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ reflects the rich diversity of Australian music culture.

Tickets for most music festivals are expensive; in the ANBC all the street entertainment is provided free of charge. The audience can, of course, tip the busker but that is their choice. All this wonderful music is performed literally feet away from them.

Although there are buskers at many music festivals in Australia, busking is typically relegated to a fringe activity. However, in this festival the buskers take pride of place. This festival brings music back to the people, back to the streets.

Just The One Special Day – Saturday 1^st November:

This year we’ve decided to make this a one-day event. Last year the two-day format was a little too much for many of the buskers, judges and organisers. However, many of Cooma’s hotels and music venues will be featuring live music performed by some of the buskers on the Friday night before. So it will be a huge weekend of music in Cooma.

How Much Does It Cost To Be A Busker?

There is a registration fee of just $10 per busker. If you are in a group, the maximum fee will be $40 for a group registration. All fees will be remitted to the Rotary Club of Cooma.

The Entry Form is available to download at: ENTRY FORM_2014 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BUSKING CHAMPIONSHIPS

How Does This Work?

The buskers will be assigned special locations (Busking Hot Spots) at various times around Centennial Park and the surrounding CBD of Cooma. A timetable will be emailed to all the registered buskers. Roaming judges will be assessing these performances during the day. This year there is also provision for musicians that would like to perform as non-competitors.

The prize winners for the age categories will be selected by a panel of judges at the Finals Concert, which will be held in Centennial Park at 5pm. Competitors in the Finals Concert will be selected from all of the busking performances during the day. A list of finalists will displayed at the Cooma Visitors Centre just before the Finals Concert.

A Worthwhile Community Event.

From its first year, the Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ has helped local not-for-profit groups raise money through fund raising activities on the day. Organisations such as the Cooma District Hospital Auxiliary, Cooma Rotary Club, Cooma Railway, 2MNO Community Radio, Cooma Swimming Club, St Patrick’s Parish School, to name a few, have raised thousands of dollars through this event. In fact, the main reason why the Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ came into existence was through the wonderful work of the “Snowy Ride”. The ANBC was originally conceived to provide entertainment and fun for the 4,000 or so Snowy Riders as they passed through Cooma. Since its beginnings in 2001, this annual motorcycle event has raised over $5 million towards childhood cancer research. The Snowy Ride is organised by the Steven Walter Children’s Cancer Foundation. So we at the Australian National Busking Championships are pleased to support the Snowy Ride. For more information about the Snowy Ride go to: https://www.snowyride.org.au/

The ANBC has also generated a much needed financial boost to the businesses of our country town. Coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, motels, clubs, retail shops and service stations have all benefited over the years. For Cooma, the ANBC comes at a normally “lean time”, well after the winter ski season and before the start of Christmas trading. To their credit, local businesses have got behind this event by generously sponsoring over $7,000 in prizes for the winners of the Championships.

Allan Spencer

The Australian National Busking Championshipsâ„¢ has the unique ability to provide significant benefits to the performers, the venue hosts, local businesses, community organisations and the general public. We hope you can join us in enjoying this wonderful event. Celebrate with us Australia’s rich and diverse music street culture!

For more information contact:

Allan Spencer

COOMA SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Shop 2, Parkview Arcade, 123 Sharp Street,
Cooma, NSW 2630
PHONE: 02 6452 6067
FAX: 02 6452 4938

EMAIL: allan@coomamusic.com.au