Hats, pins, photos – collect it all at TCMF26

If you think the Tamworth Country Music Festival is all about guitars, boots and music, you are only scratching the surface. For lots of festival goers, the real sport happens off-stage, in the great Tamworth collectables chase.

Long after the amps are packed away, it is the souvenirs, signatures and slightly sun-faded merch that keep the memories alive.

At the top of the collectables food chain sits the legendary festival hat. For just $3, the Toyota Festival Hat at has become a rite of passage at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, spotted everywhere from morning busking sessions to late-night singalongs, and even on the head of a few statues. Each year brings a new coloured headband, which means serious fans can line them up at home like tree rings, marking out their entire Tamworth history one festival at a time.

Better still, the humble hat does some serious good. Hat sales, and more recently collectable pins, has helped raise more than $430,000 since 2008 for community causes. This year, funds raised will support Tamworth-based charity Sora, formerly Tamworth Family Support Services, which provides family and domestic violence support, homelessness services and advocacy across the region.

Sasha Domingo, one of the people manning the stand at the Toyota Zone so everyone can get their hat, said that they had already raised $27,000, with the biggest days of the festivals still to come.

This year’s hats are a little roomy, but festival veterans know that is actually a feature, not a flaw. A bigger hat means more real estate for artist autographs. Collect signatures wherever you can, because you genuinely never know who is going to be the next big star. Today’s busker with a guitar case and a dream could be tomorrow’s Golden Guitar winner, and that slightly smudged signature might end up being the most valuable thing you brought home.

If hats are not your style, the festival pins are another must-have. There are five different pins available, with a different design released on different days. For some people, collecting the full set becomes a mission that rivals seeing every gig on their wish list. Spotting someone wearing all five by the end of the week is a quiet badge of honour.

Official Tamworth Country Music Festival merchandise is available at several locations, including the corner of Fitzroy Street and Peel Street, the Tamworth Visitor Information Centre at the Big Golden Guitar, and the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame. From shirts and caps to other festival staples it is easy to kit yourself out head to toe in Tamworth memories. You can even grab a Tamworth version of Monopoly to keep reliving your time walking up and down the streets of Tamworth.

Artist merchandise is everywhere too. Many performers sell their own shirts, hats, and other must-have gear at gigs, while buskers are increasingly getting creative, offering merch or QR codes you can scan to support them directly. It is a great way to back live music and go home with something that feels a little more personal than a generic souvenir.

If you want to level up your collectable game, the variety of lanyards and accreditation or access passes at the festival provide ample temptation for the advanced festival collector – but you’ll need to convince someone to part with it after the gig or event is over.

Do not forget the novelty snaps either. Stick your face-in-the-hole board at Flirt for a laugh, ask one of the artists or characters you’ll find in the Fringe Zone to pose for you, or step inside the Tamworth Country Music Festival Guide Photo Booth and imagine yourself on the cover. Who knows, you might even end up being on the cover of next year’s guide!

And of course, make sure you collect the Tamworth Country Music Festival Guide itself. For just $10, it is the ultimate keepsake of your TCMF26 experience. Dog-eared, scribbled on and well-loved by the end of the week, it becomes a time capsule of gigs seen, gigs missed and memories made.