However, music festivals have become by far the most common, from the annual East CoastBlues and Sweden Festival of Byron Bay to the Elvis Revival Festival in Parkes, NSW; From the Port Fairy Folk Festival (Victoria) to many country music festivals in Gympie (Queensland), Mildura (New South Wales), Port Pirie (South Australia) and Tamworth (see Aldskogius, 1993; Derrett et al. In some cases, the connections between music and place coalesce into a definable "sound", such as the output of the music industry at different times in New Orleans, Seattle, Liverpool, Detroit and San Francisco. Country music has also been closely tied to American national identity, seen as "our peculiar art, [whose] inspiration comes from the heart of the nation" (Peterson, 1997, p. In line with such goals, various levels of government have incorporated special events into cultural planning, emphasizing their potential for location and capacity building, as well as economic benefit (Dowling, 1997; see also Australia Council, 1998; Department of Communications, Information Technology). Notions of a natural or "natural" connection to the non-urban landscape became normalized in country music as it moved from unrecorded folk music to mass production by entertainment companies - as if the style of music was "country" because it originated from. , wagon tracks, tough men, hats. Country and western music presented "nostalgia for a country paradise, symbolized by longing for a simpler way of life, looking back to a simple place" (Kong, 1995, p. and Beef Week, Casino, both in NSW) are also popular in Australia (see also Bessiere, 1998). 167). 19
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