Gore's iconic country music festival cancelled

Given the ongoing response to the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Zealand Country Music Festival Trust has made the difficult decision to cancel the Tussock Country Music Festival 2020 – this includes all events within the official event guide.

“The hard-working team behind Tussock Country are gutted to have to cancel this fantastic, new Festival event”, says Trust chairperson Jeff Rea. “We’ve had enormous support for all of the 32 events we had planned. The way organisers of individual events have come together to create the Festival has been outstanding.”

We understand that our volunteers, event organisers and Festival goers will be extremely disappointed, however we recognise the importance of keeping both New Zealanders and our visitors healthy. We need to do the responsible and right thing. It is important that we follow the government guidelines for events and do our bit to contain COVID-19.

We acknowledge our sponsors for all Festival events and thank them for their ongoing support. We also thank our volunteers for the huge amount of work they have put in to plan and manage these events for 2020. We look forward to working with you all as we begin planning for 2021.

We apologise to our Festival goers. If you have purchased tickets to events these will be refunded, with the exception of the booking fee. A member of the iTICKET team will contact ticket holders directly to arrange a refund. Please be patient as this may take up to 10 days due to workloads. We understand this is hugely disappointing, but please stick by us as we plan for Tussock Country 2021.

We look forward to seeing you all at Tussock Country 2021 which will run from 29 May to 6 June 2021.

• All tickets purchased to any Tussock Country Music Festival ticketed event through i-TICKET will be refunded except for the booking fee. A member of the iTICKET team will contact the ticket holder directly to arrange a refund. Please be patient as this may take up to 10 days due to workloads.
• MLT NZ Gold Guitar Awards will be held on 4, 5 and 6 June 2021
• Top Paddock will continue to be part of the Tussock Country Music Festival in 2021.
• Registrations for artists interested in performing at Tussock Country 2021 will open shortly and close on 31 August 2020.
• The Winners of the APRA Best Country Music Song and RMNZ Best Country Music Artist will be announced in May 2020.
• Freeze Ya Bits of Busking will be held between 3 – 5 June 2021

Tussock Country Music Festival will now be held from 29 May 2021 – 6 June 2021