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Floreena
Floreena Promotes Country
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Floreena as Dolly at the Horsham Country Music Festival
3rd 4,th5th April 2008
Here is a write up of my involvement 

 
What an exciting 4 days it was. We arrived in Horsham at around 5pm.Friends Helen Quin, and Alison Smith helped me throughout the festival.Friday morning we headed off to the Plaza to watch many of the very talented walk up artists and stayed throught the show before heading off to see Horsham.A great friendly Country town.
   
We were joined later by,Kerrie Archibald and Roz  Webb members of the Avalanche band that gave me nice harmonies at the festival.
Thursday evening after tea we set off to see the great sound shell we had heard so much about to meet up with Lyal Wheaton,he was to show us around the venues where our performances were  being held.
Friday afternoon we ventured down to Roberts Place in the centre of town to enjoy more walk up artists  through out the afternoon 
 
The Sound Shell was the highlight of the venue’s ,lit was up at night with the coloured lights blending into the shell was a sight to see a photo displayed  in this write up shows how beautiful it was. My first performance was at  in the
Golden Oldies Tribute, as Dolly Parton, Dolly came out well in front singing  most of  Dolly’s own compositions. like Coat of Many Colours,Applejack,Joline and many more. The more the crowd cheered the more I performed
 
Other artists in the tribute were: 
  
   Anne Conway as Patsy Cline         Slim Conners  Slim Dusty       Stephen R Cheney John Denver       Dave Prior Johnny Cash
with Shady Deal as our backing  band. (A brilliant Band.)
 
Other acts throughout the festival were:
   
        Laura Downing                              Rodney Vincent                           Cameron Mason                                 Anne Conway

 
Floreena Forbes                           Slim Conners                                   Stephen R Cheney                   Allan Carrol      Brianne Lee

 
All the artists put on a wonderful performance and were given great applause after each act.
To look out and see all the fans  of country music filling the venue proves country music will always be here to stay, they showed their excitement by buying our CD’s and wanting to talk after our performances. and singing along with the music.

The evening finished at 9pm we headed back to the Westlander Motel were we met up again with Kerrie and Roz out came the guitars and we had lots of fun going over our songs for the next day after a lot of laughter and sips of coffee we went to bed at 1am.
                                         
Morning Muster :After rising early, I was to compare the morning show in the middle of town at a place called Roberts Place. The show kicked off with the Bootscooters showing their style between 9.10am organised by the Horsham Bootscooters and Bootscooters from other parts of Victoria and NSW joined in followed 3 hours of Australian music by a variety of country music artists including Bendigo’s Anne Conway  singing several of her Australian songs she perfects so well .


The show finished off with Kerrie, Roz and myself singing our selection of Australian songs.
We moved on to have lunch then headed off to the Sound Shell once more to appear as myself “Floreena (not Dolly ) “This time I sang many country classics with Kerrie and Roz with their harmonies.
 
Backing Band Shady Deal. Appeared  with the crowd tapping their toes,clapping their hands wanting more they were a highlight of the festival  for sure.
We then stayed behind and enjoyed the show listening to all the other acts. till the close of the program
 
  
          Neil McArthur                        Don Mitchell

Sunday morning heading to the end of the festival Neil McArthur and Don Mitchell with their poetry and humour, put a smile on everybody face, then all the artists were called to the stage singing 3 songs each all singing together at the closing “I am Australian with Anne Conway leading us all.”
 

The crowd was fantastic cheering us on for more. The show closed  at 1pm. at the Sound Shell.
 
That was the end of a great 3 days at the 1st Horsham Country Music Festival we headed for home feeling pleased that the festival was a great success and are looking forward to returning again next year.My congratulations to the festival organisers for such a well run event and we encourage everybody to make each year bigger again
 
Floreena 
 
Check out the Horsham Country Music Festival web site

horshamcountrymusic.com.au/