Forget the Big Three, from next year the Deni Ute Muster, the Golden Guitars, and the Bathurst 1000 might have a brand new rural centre mate in the form of the TV Week Logie Awards.
A push being spearheaded by the NSW Government tourism department could wrest the local television industry’s night-of-nights away from its long-held home in Melbourne, putting it instead in the heart of the country, Tamworth.
Destination NSW is behind the bold plan that would see the awards head north in 2018 should the proposal be successful, with the option of floating it around to Dubbo and Albury in ensuing years also very much on the cards.
The event, traditionally held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, has drawn the ire of critics for not delivering any significant economic boost to Melbourne and Victoria, amid calls that the awards show needs a serious revamping if its to remain viable in the future.
Enter: New South Wales.
Tourism Minister Adam Marshall spoke to The Daily Telegraph, outlining the enormous benefit hosting an event of that magnitude would have for a regional centre like Tamworth.
“We’re proposing to take the glitz and glamour of the Logies beyond the fringes of the city and out to Tamworth in 2018 and then potentially Dubbo and Albury in 2019 and 2020.”
“The impact of hosting an event of this stature in regional NSW cannot be overlooked and this is no ambit claim — we’ve done our homework and taking the Logies to the bush represents more than double the value of hosting them in Sydney. These areas have some of the best food, wine, unique tourist attractions and country hospitality that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the world.”“The positive flow-on effects would be felt right across our regions with more headson beds, and more tourist dollars ending up in the pockets of local businesspeople.”
The bid would put the awards in Tamworth at least for next year. Dubbo and Albury would be assessed as venues after the awards ceremony next year.
Theoretically, holding the event in Tamworth would also have the knock-on effect of having to shift live productions like ‘The Today Show‘ and ‘Sunrise‘ across to the city as well as they load up for their annual post-Logies broadcasts.
Might be time to load up the ute and head on up the road, folks. There’s some awards to give out.
Source: Daily Telegraph.
Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty.
