This article was originally published by The Western Weekender on the 4th of June 2025.
Country music has the power to speak to the soul, the mind, and the heart of the individual. It provides a platform for people to choose their story through the power of music.
The CMC Rocks festival is made for all the country music lovers at heart. Photo by Lorretta Sultana, 2025.
‘There is a story with every song’, says South Australian country music lover Tom, as he cracks open another cold beer in the mid-afternoon Queensland sun. On the outskirts of Ipswich, Southeast Queensland, the bushland is full of loud live music, the smell of stale sweat lingering through a crowd of smiling faces under large brimmed hats.
From left to right: Tyson (South Australia), Glenn (Queensland), Kristian (South Australia) and Tom (South Australia) are all long-time country music fans. Photo by Lorretta Sultana, 2025.
The event consisted of three stages, artist meet and greets, markets, food stands, and a live sports bar, treasured nationally by the true-blue country music fans travelling from all ends of Australia. This is the three-day international country music festival, which ran the weekend of the 21st of March to the 23rd of March 2025.
The Australian arts landscape has shifted with the promotion and support for regional live tourism, in supporting and strengthening rural and regional events. Nothing encompasses this more than the three-day international country music festival of CMC Rocks, held in Ipswich, Southeast Queensland; a country music festival for all ages, filled with live music, flowing drinks, and the Aussie sun belting down through the thick gum leaves.
The Stampede Stage, CMC Rocks. Photo by Lorretta Sultana, 2025.
A range of artists fill the event line up, from Queensland-based rising country star Lane Pittman to US country artist Jon Pardi, the festival was nothing short of a wild time.
With its roots in old dirt roads and rural home life, country music has grown to resonate in the hearts of many.
“There is a song for every mood to make you feel good” says Kristian K, from South Australia, as she sits fanning herself in the March Queensland heat.
Listening to the music echo throughout the bar, her mate Glenn, from Sunnybank, Queensland, seconds this. “Party or depressing, it all depends on where your head is at when listening to country music,” Glenns says as he hums to the tunes of US country music duo Brooks & Dunn steaming from the bar’s speakers.
With such a large audience expressing their connection to country music, whether they are city folk or from the outback, the Queensland Government has taken this event in their stride to provide this iconic event.
The festival is established around the regional Australian landscape. Photo by Lorretta Sultana, 2025.
The Queensland’s sector of Arts provides funding for festival streams, with CMC Rocks being a priority. Queensland Minister for Tourism Michael Healy said, “We fought hard against a southern poaching raid to keep this event in Queensland; it injects $14 million into the local economy and contributes to the state’s mega events calendar worth $850 million,” emphasising the importance of keeping regional tourism alive. Other states have also demonstrated this, such as New South Wales with events such as the Tamworth Country Music Festival based in Tamworth and the Mundi Mundi Bash in Broken Hill, becoming a pivotal point in keeping regional Australian tourism alive.
An event of such magnitude, CMC Rocks requires exceptional organisation to ensure its success in keeping the regional Australia alive.
When asked about the festival’s growth throughout recent years, Queensland journalist for the Courier Mail, Ayla Connolly, said, “There is a similar amount of people, but it is more set out every year, with merch being more organised and an overall better layout.”
Queensland journalist Ayla Connolly, covering her third year of CMC Rocks for the Courier Mail. Photo by Lorretta Sultana, 2025.
She continued to talk about the growing support for CMC Rocks, with more food choices, a sports bar and brand support from YETI. She said these improvements have brought a growing audience to the country music scene at this festival each year.
