Miri Country Music Festival 2014 this Saturday

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(From left) Julia, Asif, Lai, Gracie and John at the press conference yesterday.

MIRI: The first-ever Miri Country Music Fest 2014 will get rolling with a couple of workshops before the event proper starts at 5pm this Saturday.

‘Sounds of Nashvilles’ by Johnny Rodgers band, ‘Be Drum-atic’ by Kenny Hogan and a line dance workshop, among others, will be held from 2.30pm to 5pm on that day.

The venue for the concert is at Parkcity Everly Hotel Miri Pavillion, and organising chairperson Gracie Geiki from UCSI Communications told a press conference that nearly 2,000 tickets had been snapped up.

The crowd would not only be from Miri, but include those from the United States, Singapore, Brunei, Kuala Lumpur, Bintulu, Sibu, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Labuan.

Gracie enthused that such a festival had never been held in Malaysia before, adding that it would anchor here for five years – till 2018.

The first band to wow the crowd when the curtain goes up on Saturday would be ‘Country Road band’ from Miri, to be followed by Hi-Breed band from Kuching.

Other bands in queue are Mel & Joe from Singapore, The Corn Cake Kings (Kuala Lumpur), EIA and The Superband (Brunei), D’Renegade band (Sabah), Johnny Rodgers band (USA) and Wandering Mustangs from Singapore.

Gracie said the festival served as a great opportunity for local bands in this genre to showcase their talent and rub shoulders with their international peers.

“I vision that Miri Country Music Festival will become a top notch event in the state,” she said.

Also present at the press conference was Parkcity Everly Hotel general manager John Augustin, Miri Country Music Festival artistic director Asif Pishori and Councillor Julia Juwen.