Just when the Christmas festivities are starting to heat up, you will find a bunch of devoted Bluegrass players heading to the beautiful Sunshine Coast hinterland for a ‘high powered, fun-filled, 4 days of bluegrass music immersion’.

Host’s Peter and Mark Nahuysen bring together some of the finest bluegrass musicians from the USA and Australia, to get up close and personal with like minded players of all levels, who travel from all over Australia and New Zealand. Having an experienced luthier on hand to talk instruments and to help owners understand how to get the best out of theirs, is just one aspect of the Australian Bluegrass Conference that make it a premier event on the music calendar.

I had the great privilege to catch up again with Jens Kruger of The Kruger Brothers, and to service his signature “Deering Banjo” while he was visiting Australia for the conference. Jens is described as ‘arguably one of the greatest masters in the history of the five-string banjo’, but I appreciate what he does with a guitar, especially a Melville! Check out the Australian Bluegrass Conference on Facebook and check in to www.krugerbrothers.com 

Adelaide Festival Centre

If you need an excuse to visit Adelaide (or the Barossa), then you can’t go past this one! The Adelaide Guitar Festival celebrates one of the world’s most popular instruments, along with the music and people it inspires. Under the hand of Artistic Director, Slava Grigoryan, the festival program included Guitars in Bars, Resonance and Winter School, along with performance legends Albert Lee and Tommy Emmanuel, to groundbreaking innovators like Kaki King. Workshops, Master Classes, The Duesenberg Guitar Exhibition, the Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition, etc etc and…The Makers Expo! Located in a special art space of the Festival Centre hub, it was indeed a meeting place for guitar enthusiasts of all ages and stages and we would highly recommend it. Special thanks to our friend, Celtic Master Tony McManus, for his ongoing support of our handcrafted instruments.