Lest a jet-setting bunch of American billionaires might mistake the venue, Coonamble’s Cowchillah concert is not to be mistaken for California’s Coachella, a soiree which this year headlined Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Karol G, and Anyma…

Just to make sure that locals got the message, the good folk of Coonamble recently received a rather pointed letter, making sure that there are no references to the Coachella Valley pageant at the local down-home celebration of all things musical, Cowchillah event organiser Maddi Ward told this masthead.

Just to set the record straight, “Cowchillah Coonamble” is on Saturday, October 3, over the Long Weekend in Coonamble’s Main Street, and features a lot more genuine folk than one might meet at a must-be-seen-at do in the Colorado Desert.

“Our small regional country festival recently received some very unexpected attention from considerably further afield, resulting in a name change,” Maddi said.

“Rather than let it put a dampener on the event, the Coonamble community has embraced the change and turned it into part of the story – welcoming ‘Cowchillah Coonamble’,” she added.

Local businesses, performers and the wider community are getting behind the new name of the festival which transforms Coonamble’s Main Street into a giant country music event.

“This is the first time we’ve had it under this name, it all started when we were successful in getting an ‘Open Streets’ grant a few year’s ago aimed at providing street-based activities that are usually just for traffic.

“This is the first time we’ve called it “Cowchillah’, we had to change it from ‘Cowchella” after we got the ‘cease and desist’ letter; I think it’s hilarious that they think our little festival is worth suing over,” Maddi said prior to the long weekend event.

Only it’s not such a little festival now with plenty of country music performers that concertgoers can all see in succession during the weekend event.

“We’ll be working from three stages across the main street with an alternate series of seven acts scheduled so that that you can see all acts a little bit that is based around a family-friendly area with food stands and curated markets.

“This is the first time we’ve done three stages, one will be in the street, and the other two in historical ‘Art Deco’ buildings, the Plaza Theatre and the Monterey Café featuring acoustic performers,” Maddi explained.

The headline performer at this year’s event is award-winning independent Australian country-pop/rock singer and songwriter Hayley Jensen, with other acts including Sons of Atticus, Bryce Sainty, Sarah Catania, Beau Shearer, Ashton Wenning, and Barrel Dawg.

“We always hoped our festival would get noticed; we just didn’t expect the attention to come from quite so far away,” Maddi said.

“It’s a fun David versus Goliath-style story about a tiny country town finding itself on the radar of a global music giant, taking the situation in its stride and getting on with what Coonamble does best, putting-on a big country celebration,” she concluded.