Live Nation Plans To Widen Presence In Australian Country Music

In the wake of the success of the inaugural Strummingbird country music festival, promoter Live Nation has exclusively unveiled to Countrytown further plans to expand country music in Australia.

“We know that country music is growing and it does very well in Australia, which is the biggest market for it outside the United States and Canada,” says Milly Olykan, Live Nation’s Nashville-based Senior Vice President of Artist Development & Global Touring.

She joined this year briefed to help develop its country and Americana strategy worldwide and work with Live Nation’s global promoters to identify new touring opportunities, foster relationships with the artist community and drive the company’s growth internationally.

“In the last one-and-a-half years it’s become mainstream with Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Shaboozey and there’s a huge younger and broader audience for it that we think has a huge growth opportunity,” she explains.

“It was the perfect way to launch a festival that makes the point that country music has a wide base and giving them something they’ve never had before. They had such great reactions.”

Strummingbird’s inaugural run took in Kawana Sports Precinct, Kabi Kabi Land/Sunshine Coast (Saturday October 25th), Newcastle Foreshore, Awabakal Land/Newcastle (Saturday November 1st) and Claremont Showground, Whadjuk Noongar Land/Perth (Sunday November 2nd).

Like many other country festivals, the shows were packed out, the crowds were dotted with Akubras and cowboy skirts and boots, and much beer and bourbon was consumed.

The difference was the relative young age of the audience. They were eagerly learning to line-dance and experiencing the live debuts of mainstream international acts Jelly Roll and Shaboozey.

They were also discovering the next generation of US acts as Treaty Oak Revival, The Jack Wharff Band and Julia Cole, and being introduced to Australasian names as Kaylee Bell, James Johnston, The Dreggs, Rachael Fahim, Wade Forster, Claudia Tripp, and Zac & George.

It was a show that covered a number of styles and reconfirmed to newer fans the strength of country music’s story telling and messages of faith and loyalty.

Jelly Roll opened up to his fans about fatherhood and his time in prison, while Shaboozey teared up when introducing Good News.

To Olykan, Strummingbird was a freeze frame of what country music fans have become in 2025. 

“They weren’t just country fans out there for a great day of music. I love how we keep being surprised by country, its diversity, and how the fan base is changing and evolving, getting broader and younger.”

Mainstream

Live Nation’s own research shows that Australia has seen a 746% increase in country music ticket purchases since 2019, 78% of Aussie music fans now regard country music “mainstream,” with 68% of Gen Zers saying they are consuming more country than ever before.

Strummingbird is already confirmed to return in 2026, “the next goal is to deliver a line-up that creates the same excitement.”

In the meantime, Live Nation affiliates, Face To Face Touring, are staging the inaugural Sunburnt Country touring festival in February fronted by Jason Aldean.

There’ll be more country tours through Live Nation: “We’ll be joining the dots so audiences get artists that they haven’t seen before, a lot earlier on, and a lot more often.”

Olykan has already identified which international names could click with audiences here, including a new generation of female singer songwriters from Nashville.

“I travel a lot with country acts around the world in every market – Japan to Norway to Denmark, to Sweden, the UK, and Ireland. But Australian fans are obsessed,” she says.

“I tell artists before they come to Australia, ‘Be prepared they’re going to know every line in every song’. 

“The fan base has so much zeal and enjoyment, and it’s such a fantastic experience for the artists, especially for artists coming into the Australian market for the first time.”

Live Nation has the global clout to possibly also take the right Australian acts to give them an international presence. Some like Kaylee Bell and James Johnston have already made in-roads to the US market through their own efforts.

Building Events

Olykan is no stranger to the Australian country scene, and how to build events abroad.

Before joining Live Nation she was Vice President of International Relations & Development at the Country Music Association (CMA) during which time she visited Australia regularly (“it became my second home”) and got to know Australian and New Zealand artists and executives.

In turn, she actively promoted them to the American country sector.

During her six years at CMA, she oversaw the programming strategy for CMA Fest, and served as interim Festival Director for two years.

Before joining CMA, she worked at promoter AEG as Vice President of Live Music & Major Arena Events, establishing country touring in the UK (using her marketing skills as the UK didn’t have country radio or major country acts) and was also one of the founding promoters of Country To Country (C2C), now the biggest country festival in the UK and Europe.

Live Nation’s deeper footprint in local country music could see more brands enter the sector, which this year was estimated for the first time to be worth $1 billion by the Country Music Association of Australia.

In the past brands associated included alcohol and utes, but country’s younger image sees “a lot of opportunities”, including outdoor lifestyle experiences, apparel, banking and financial institutions.