Country-music star Troy Cassar-Daley has been announced as the headline act for the four-day festival in the heart of the Northern Territory.
With a music career spanning over three decades filled with evocative storytelling and numerous ARIA and Golden Guitar Awards, Cassar-Daley will feature as the main act of the Desert Harmony Festival in Tennant Creek from August 1st to 4th.
This year’s edition comes with the theme Mappu Apikarni Wilyarra-kka Payinti Wanjjal Warnaparrta (We Come Together to Celebrate Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow), reflecting on the festival’s deep connections with past, present, and future.
A proud Gumbaynggirr/Bundjalung man, Cassar-Daley reflected returning Red Centre having toured there at the start of his career.
“My early days of touring brought me to this country in 1990 with the late Brian Young. We had many nights at road houses playing shows on the Stuart Highway leading up to Tennant Creek and beyond – the landscape up that way is beautiful and soul stirring,” he said.
“My music has always spoken about unity in our communities and I believe the Desert Harmony festival shares this sentiment strongly. I’m very proud to be asked to play for the whole community and be a part of bringing everyone out that way together.”
The appearance also follows Cassar-Daley being awarded Album of the Tear at the latest ARIA Awards for Between the Fires, his emotional 12th LP that he recorded at the home of his late mother, Irene.
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He had been on his ‘Together Alone Tour’ in July 2022 when he found out his mother had passed away in her sleep at the family home in Northern NSW.
“I’d made my biggest sad, sad piece of shit that I’ve ever made in my life. And I love it. And I know people who have been anywhere near what I’ve been through too, will love it too,” he told Rolling Stone AU/NZ following the album’s release.
Information on Desert Harmony Festival can be found here.
