By Simon Frost

The Tamworth Country Music Festival is the largest country music festival in the Southern Hemisphere. The 10 day event sees over 300,000 attendees and features more than 700 performers. And right there in the middle of it all… two St John NSW medical posts, one medicab, two shifts a day. Across the 10 days more than 30 St John NSW volunteers gave up their time to support the wellbeing and safety of the town.

Tamworth Country Music Festival for St John is a take of three communities. Obviously we are there for the country music community that descends on the town for the festival. But our central locations in the Tamworth CBD mean we are also perfectly situated to support the Tamworth local community with blood pressure checks, blood glucose checks, sunscreen, a chat, and the reassurance that we are there to help if they need us. The festival precinct is open public access, so the crowd is a blend of festival goers and locals just going about their day. And for 10 days, St John NSW is right there in the heart of both of those communities.

But there is a third community that plays an important role in what makes Tamworth Country Music Festival so special, and that’s our community in St John. Over the course of the event, more than 30 members from as far south as Cooma and as far north as Tweed Heads, as far west as Dubbo, all came together with the Tamworth Division members to work together for the local community. We learned from each other, we swapped war stories, we bonded over mutual friends.

There is almost no other event in the St John calendar that brings such a diverse range of members together for such an extended period of time with the possible exception of the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
It was a very hot January, with temperatures most days hitting 40+ degrees. Over the 10 days of the festival, we treated 66 patients, which is less than previous years. But 14 of those patients needed transport to hospital by NSW Ambulance for further review and assessment, which is more than previous years. We were able to support patients who might have been ambulance transports if we had not been there with initial assessments and referral to the urgent care clinic or hospital via their own means or with a lift from a mate.

For 10 days St John NSW plays a very public, and very important role in the heart of our local community. For the service of humanity. And that’s what makes the Tamworth Country Music festival so special.