20th annual Golden Valley Country Music Awards
The annual influx of stetsons, fringed shirts and cowboy boots is almost upon us, a reminder that country music is alive and well in Golden Bay and elsewhere.
Some of the Bay’s country performers continue to attract attention on the competition circuit, and more entrants are queuing up to take part in the 20th Annual Golden Valley Country Music Awards on Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Local performer Nikita Buys showed that her career is going from strength to strength by winning a guitar at the recent Westport Country Music Awards. The guitar, called “an encouragement award”, was in recognition of Nikita’s continued development as a performer and followed her third placings in the traditional and country rock sections of the competitions.
“I guess they want me to come back to the Westport awards,” said Nikita. “I’ll be doing that. It’s the place where you can win the country music scholarship to Tamworth in Australia.”
Nikita said that she was looking forward to the next event on her competitions calendar, the Golden Valley Awards. Organising committee convenor, Judy Ray, said that she had just completed the programme, which contains 237 entries, an increase on last year.
“People know that there’s always a really good crowd here,” said Judy. “And our Sunday ‘pyjama party’ idea has really taken off. A few years ago, a girl came back to the hall on the Sunday night to pick something up. She was in her pyjamas and her mother tricked her by saying there was no one else there, so she came in. There was actually quite a good crowd of us, so the girl ended up singing a few songs for us in her pyjamas. Now quite a few people come along on the Sunday in their pyjamas. I heard people in the crowd down at Westport talking about it, so it’s a bit of a drawcard.”
Judy said that the original event, or the Golden Valley Country Music Quest as it was originally known, was instigated by Gordon and Dawn Sutton in 1990.
“Dawn was known as ‘The Singing Nana’,” said Judy. “Unfortunately she passed away a few years ago. Gordon has been invited and he’ll be there, and so will a whole lot of people who are past Overall Winners.”
Judy said that the big influx of visitors would be noticed, especially at the eastern end of the Bay, where lots of competitors park up in their buses or stay at local accommodation. “We book the cabins at the camping ground from year to year to look after our backing band and our judges,” said Judy.
Neil Wilson
