by ANBC | Nov 16, 2025 | _MediaRelease
CENTRAL COAST busking duo Denim (aka Mitchi Renegen and Meagan Jane) has been named the 14th Australian National Busking Champions.
The award to the acoustic/folk/rock/country duo was made following a day of tough competition at the Australian National Busking Championships two day-three night busking and music festival in the Snowy Mountains town of Cooma, NSW, at the weekend (November 15-16).
ANBC founder and president Alan Spencer congratulated the duo and said the event was “the best yet”. “We had more entrants, we had big crowds on both days, amazing support from the local community providing over $14,000 prizemoney and prizes and the music community and great work from many volunteers,” he said.
Celebrity judges Kerrie Gambley (Haystack Mountain Hermits), John Littrich (The Water Runners) and Kyle Kash (Tamworth Busking Coordinator) said they had had a tough day judging “an amazing array of talent” and were impressed at the wide variety of genres and talents on display in Cooma’s streets during the festival.
Runners up in the Open division were Perth ukulele comedian Tomas Ford (Woody Campfire) and country artist Amanda Heartsong. Woody Campfire won his way into the national grand final with a win in the Cooma heat the previous day, impressing the judges with his wicked comedy and high energy off the stage antics.
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Winners_2025 ANBC Grand Final Winners_2025_ANBC_Cooma Heat
Winners at the national grand final of the Australian National Busking Championships in Cooma, with founder Allan Spencer
2025 Australian National Busking Champions Denim (Meagan Jane)
2025 Australian National Busking Champions Denim (Mitchi Renegen)
by ANBC | Nov 10, 2025 | _MediaRelease
Two more celebrity judges announced from
Australian National Busking Championships
..and both are former winners!
THE Australian National Busking Championships has announced the second and third celebrity judges for its gala three night/two day combined regional and national grand final event in November.
Joining Tamworth Country Music Festival busking coordinator Kyle Kash on the judging panel in 2025 will be musician, vocalist, songwriter, and mum in the family band Haystack Mountain Hermits – Kerrie Gambley from Tamborine Mountain, Queensland.
The Hermits won the ANBC in 2017/18 and are currently finalists in the Gold Coast Music Awards as Live Act of the Year.
The third judge is John Littrich, lead singer of award-winning South Coast band The Water Runners, which has won Best Band at the ANBC and has recently won runner-up in the Australian Folk Music Awards People’s Choice.
ANBC President Allan Spencer said he was delighted and honoured to welcome Kerrie and John to the judging team, along with Kyle.
“This year’s event is a double whammy with the regional Cooma heat and the national grand final all on the one weekend, with a myriad of events, concerts, workshops and attractions for the general public,” he said.
“Securing judges of the calibre of Kerrie, John and Kyle – people who really know and understand the essence of busking as an art form – is a huge plus for the ANBC as we enter a big phase of growth.”
Now in its 14th year and with many buskers having gone on to big things on the national and world stage, Mr Spencer said the ANBC was working to develop ties with other major music festivals.
“We already sent our Ambassador, last year’s runner-up Gabi Forman, to perform at the Gympie Music Muster this year, and we are in talks with Tamworth Country Music Festival and Cobargo Folk Festival to see what links we can grow there.”
The two new judges both said they were honoured to be invited to perform what Allan says is “a very tricky task” due to the wide variation of genres buskers bring to the competition.
“It is important that our judges have a good understanding of the elements of busking, which is a form of street performance where you really only have a matter of seconds to attract passers-by and get them to stop and listen and watch,” Allan said.
“Having two judges who have been previous winners and have gone on to be award-winning performers really gives our buskers reassurance that they are being judged by people who understand their craft.”
Judging at the Australian National Busking Championships is a full-circle moment for Kerrie: Haystack Mountain Hermits were crowned Best Band in 2017 and Open Champions in 2018, collecting multiple regional titles, including People’s Choice, before taking out the Tamworth Busking Championships in 2019.
Formed on the road while busking around Australia in 2011–2012, the Haystack Mountain Hermits never stopped playing together, carrying that same grassroots spirit onto bigger stages.
Since then, the band has become a fixture on the Australian festival circuit, performing at Tamworth, Woodford, Gympie Music Muster, Groundwater, the National Folk Festival, Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival, and many more.
They have toured to great acclaim and are four-time finalists in the Australian Folk Music Awards, most recently placing third in the 2024 People’s Choice category.
Kerrie’s songwriting has also earned national and international recognition through Tamworth Songwriters Association, Australian Songwriters Association, Unsigned Only and the International Songwriting Competition. Her Anzac ballad, written in honour of her great-grandfather and the Australian Light Horse, is a widely viewed hit.
The Australian National Busking Championships hold a special place in Kerrie’s heart, and she said she was delighted to return in 2025.
“I am thrilled to return this year to celebrate and support the next generation of buskers,” she said.
John said he was excited to visit Cooma to take a judging role. “I am really excited about coming to Cooma and helping with the judging. I can’t wait to see the talent that I know this competition always draws. It’s an honour to be part of it'”
His resume as both a busker and a musician/songwriter is expansive. John played in various bands from his teens in the 1980’s including rhythm and blues outfit The Creepers playing venues in Sydney and surrounds, and also regularly supporting a number of bigger acts of the day, including The Cockroaches and Dynamic Hepnotics.
Moving to the South Coast of NSW for work and family, John played in local cover bands before teaming up with friends Neil McCann and Paul McGee in 2004 to write and perform music for schools and early learners with Dogmatic Music and The Rockalots.
In 2013, John and Neil formed a folk/bluegrass band called Crooked River (with John on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica), playing at a local festival.
This band evolved into The Water Runners, who play a blend of bluegrass-infused Australian folk. Since 2016, The Water Runners have played at festivals and venues around Australia and have also had fun busking at markets, festivals and other events.
Along the way, John and Neil have picked up a number of songwriting awards and final placings with the Australian Songwriters Association and Tamworth Songwriters Association song competitions.
In 2020, The Water Runners were voted ‘Best Band’ and were second in the Open category in the Australian National Busking Championships. In 2021 and 2025, The Water Runners were nominated as finalists in the People’s Choice category in the Australian Folk Music Awards.
Categories include Primary, Secondary, Open, Masters, People’s Choice, Best Duo and Best Band. Entrants will play four 30-minute sets at designated busking stations outside Cooma businesses on the day, with announcement of winners and presentations made at the Alpine Hotel, along with winning busker performances and other live nighttime entertainment.
Tamworth-based music publicist and journalist Bec Gracie, who works with many Tamworth country music stars, will sponsor a major award for the Best Masters Muso (a musician over 50).
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Further information can be found at www.busking.com.au
John Littrich from The Water Runners has joined the judging team for the 2025 Australian National Busking Championships in 2025. PHOTO: Supplied.
Australian National Busking Championships has welcomed Kerrie Gambley from Haystack Mountains Hermits as a 2025 judge. PHOTO: Ryan Gittoes
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Media Release celebrity judges for ANBC 1025 FINAL
by Karen Forman | Nov 9, 2025 | _MediaRelease
Thousands of people are expected to converge on Cooma on Friday 15 November to Sunday 16 November as the Australian National Busking Championships Inc hosts the Cooma regional heat and the 14th annual Australian championship events amid its biggest ever festival of free entertainment, markets, a street parade and workshops.
While many other Australian music festivals have met their demise in recent years, the not-for-profit ANBC is going strong, mostly because it is run completely by volunteers and supported with grants and donations from local businesses.
This year will be the first time in its 14-year history the ANBC has combined the Cooma heat and the national grand final and founder/president, Allan Spencer, is predicting “the biggest and best weekend of live entertainment ever seen in Cooma”.
“Normally we hold the Cooma heat at the start of the year and the national grand final in November but we decided to put it all together and create one big extravaganza to bring people to our amazing town,” he said.
“We not only have the busking competition, but three nights and two days full of free entertainment, workshops, markets and a street parade, so we are hoping that people will come out of Cooma and the Snowy Mountains and from further afield, bring their families and spend the weekend enjoying all that we have to offer.
“You can watch and vote for the buskers in the competition, sit and enjoy the performances of dance, music and more on the community stage in the park, attend workshops in drumming and ukulele, cheer on or take part in the street parade, attend the presentation ceremonies, take part in or attend the open mics and check out our featured acts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
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Media Release Cooma set for biggest busking music festival
ANBC 2024 winners on stage in Cooma
Judge John Litrrich from The Water Runners, Kiama
Judge Kerrie Gambley (with daughter Ella) from Haystack Mountain Hermits, Tamborine Mountain.
Judge Kyle Kash from Brisbane.
by Karen Forman | Oct 11, 2025 | _MediaRelease
November 24 2024
ANBC national grand final at a glance:
- Australia’s top buskers will play four, 30-minute sets at busking stations around the Cooma CBD from 10am-2.30pm with the presentation on the stage in Centennial Park at 3pm.
- Members of the public can buy tokens to vote for their favorite busker in the People’s Choice Awards, with funds going to Cooma Community Chest.
- Day opens with a first-ever multi-cultural CBD street parade at 9am celebrating the 75th anniversary of Snowy Hydro
- Free activities, markets and entertainment will be held in the Centennial Park throughout the day.
- Welcome party with The James Brothers 6pm Friday Alpine Hotel, prize ceremony 3pm Centennial Park stage Saturday, Night of Champions winners’ concert 6pm Alpine Hotel Saturday, lunchtime concert with LilG, Arthur Hull and Gabi Forman Alpine Hotel noon Sunday
ALL roads lead to the Snowy Mountains town of Cooma this weekend for the ‘biggest, best Australian National Busking Championships grand final celebrations yet – and the event is not just for buskers.
The not-for-profit ANBC Inc board has come up with what president Allan Spencer describes as an absolutely jampacked’ free weekend of entertainment that not only gives winners of the seven regional ANBC heats around Australia the chance to compete for national glory, but provides families with everything from a street parade to free concerts and workshops, markets and more.
“Thanks to some amazing sponsorship, particularly from Future Generation JV (Webuild), this national grand final event is shaping up to be the biggest and best ever,” Mr Spencer said.
“It is not just about the busking competition, where the top 22 buskers in Australia come together to vie for the title of Australian National Busking Champion in primary, Secondary and Open divisions along with a whole of other prizes.
“It is also about bringing people to Cooma to enjoy the region, the music of the buskers and other performers on the central stage, meet and make friends and celebrate the multi-cultural nature of our town, with our event coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Snowy Scheme.
“We have top notch judges in The James Brothers (Ethan and Jon and Oz Bayldon and we have some amazing talent coming as special guest performers this year – international teenage blues sensation Lil G and 2024 The Voice star Arthur Hull who is competing after winning the Cooma regional heat as well as performing on stage and on Sunday at the Alpine Hotel.
“They will be joined by our ow local recently recorded singer songwriter Gabi Forman who will be competing and playing at the Sunday afternoon concert with Lil G and Arthur.”
A feature of the event this year, for the first time, will be a street parade which buskers and community members groups will take part in, starting at 9am. There is even a $200 prize for the best costume.
Mr Spencer said the best time to arrive in the Cooma CBD was just before 9am and to be set for a big day out.
“The parade starts at 9am, the buskers start playing at 20 different busking stations around the CBD from 10am and the markets and displays and workshops will continue in Centennial Park and on the closed section of Sharp St (between Bombala and Vale streets) throughout the day,” he said.
“The entertainment will continue after the presentation at 3pm on the stage with a prize-winner’s concert and after-party at the Alpine Hotel from 6pm.
“And then the next day, we have a special concert at the Alpine Hotel from noon featuring Lil G, Arthur Hull and Gabi Forman so people can enjoy lunch and while away Sunday afternoon before heading home.”
Mr Spencer said the ANBC, formed 14 years-ago, aimed to make Cooma the busking capital of Australia and felt it was well on its way.
MEDIA:
Karen Forman
ANBC Media & Promotions
0425675555
MEDIA:
Karen Forman
ANBC Media & Promotions
0425675555
by Karen Forman | Oct 11, 2025 | _MediaRelease
May 1 2025
COOMA’s Australian National Busking Championships has produced many musicians who have gone on to great things, including Felicity Kirchner who won the Toyota Star Maker competition at the Tamworth Country Music Festival this year.
Now, the ANBC has made a formal connection with the world famous Tamworth Country Music Festival, by securing Toyota Presents Best of the Buskers coordinator, Kyle Kash, as a judge for both its Cooma regional heat and its national grand final, both to be held in Cooma for the first time over one big weekend – 15 and 16 November.
As well, Tamworth-based music publicist and journalist Bec Gracie, who works with many Tamworth country music stars, will sponsor a major award for the best Masters Muso (a musician over 50).
“I’m really proud to sponsor the Masters Muso Award,” Ms Gracie said.
“There are so many amazing artists over 50 who are sharing their stories through music. I want to celebrate music being made by people of all ages and I think that passion and persistence deserves to be recognised.”
“Securing Kyle is a huge boost for the ANBC,” president and founder Allan Spencer said. “We are absolutely thrilled to have him onboard. And we welcome Bec back again, this time sponsoring the Masters Muso prize for the national grand final.”
Mr Kash is employed by the Tamworth City Council to coordinate the massive busking competition run at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and has a huge amount of experience managing and supporting buskers and working in the music industry.
“He seems to be happy to do some judging for us and apparently is very keen to go for a hike to Mt Kosciuszco while he is here,” Mr Spencer said.
Mr Spencer said the ANBC board was particularly excited to build a connection with the Tamworth festival given so many ANBC participants and winners who had started out busking at ANBC regional heats and the national grand final were now part of the Tamworth scene, busking and performing in the festival and taking part in the CMAA Academy of Country Music’s junior and senior programs.
“Charlotte Rose, now Charley Castle, won the Australian National Busking Championship in the Open division in 2021 and this year, she won the Best of the Buskers in Tamworth with her new band, The Boys in The Well, beating out more than 530 other buskers for the honour,” Mr Spencer said.
“As well, we have Bombala and Bradden Secondary winner Ruby Holden from Queanbeyan, Owen Smith, Bradden second Open placegetter and nationals third placegetter Gabi Forman making Top 100 of the Tamworth buskers, regular winner Leilah Baines at the Academy and performing , The String Family, 2019 winners Haystack Mountain Hermits now performing at Tamworth along with their breakout band, The Inadequates, former ANBC winner and 2025 Starmaker Top 10 Felicity Dowd, Ruby Jane, Lily-Grace who has moved to Nashville, all having started out with us.
“We also have our junior champions, LilG and Noah Robertson who have been touring the US in 2024.
“The ANBC is a great opportunity to lift people’s profile to a bigger event. The two events compliment each other perfectly.
“We are all about the buskers and giving them a chance to go to the next level and there hasn’t really been anything like that before.
“It is a quite a unique opportunity.”
To add to the excitement, Mr Spencer said more towns had recently come on board to join the current seven running regional finals – Uralla in NSW (one hour from Tamworth) and Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills South Australia,
Mr Kash, meanwhile, said he was very excited to join the ANBC family.
“I have become very passionate about buskers and cannot wait to meet them in Cooma and see how the ANBC all works,” he said.
“In my current role with Tamworth, I am very passionate about making sure everyone is safe and well looked after.
“Now i am meeting people who are new to the industry and have no idea what to expect. It can be a very difficult space to navigate especially for younger people and their parents.
“I have access to 1000s of artists and I love being able to help them work towards realising their dreams. Some people are born in to that world, I identify with the ones who were not, coming from a poor background.”
Mr Kash’s job requires him to coordinate the Tamworth competition, liase with buskers and busking spots, run the top 100 on stage show at TheCourthouse Hotel, organise judges and the Top 10 on the Toyota stage.
In Cooma, he will work with two other judges to decide the winners of primary, secondary, open and other categories and make prize presentations.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Karen Forman
ANBC Media Coordinator
0425675555
Allan Spencer
ANBC President
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by Karen Forman | Oct 11, 2025 | _MediaRelease
June 27 2025
COOMA’S Australian National Busking Championships (ANBC) has announced a local emerging musician as its 2025 Ambassador.
Berridale singer/songwriter Gabi Forman, 19, will represent the ANBC at the prestigious Gympie Music Muster in Queensland in August and perform during its bonanza 2025 Cooma regional heat/national grand final weekend in Cooma on 15-16 November.
The multi-instrumentalist was selected by Gympie Country Music Muster Festival organisers to perform on the Kombi Keg Bush Bar stage on Sunday August 31 based on her result and performance in the ANBC national grand final 2024 and at various folk and other festivals including Cobargo, Illawarra, Tamworth, Canberra, Numeralla and Nimmitabel.
Gympie Music Muster program director, Bec Anderson, said Ms Forman, a music student who graduated from Snowy Mountains Grammar School last year, taking the Grandiosa Music Award for the third year in a row, was a good fit with the festival.
“With her traditional, grassroots spirit and fresh energy, we thought Gabi would be a great fit for the Gympie Music Muster,” she said.
“She’s the kind of artist that captures the true essence of what our festival is all about.”
Ms Forman, a powerful vocalist trained by Jindabyne’s Jeni Reeves who plays guitar, mandolin and harmonica (trained by Col Berneau and Berridale’s Simon Grace), was third behind Arthur Hull (first) and Abby May (second) in the Open division of the ANBC national grand final in Cooma after placing second in the Cooma regional final and second in the Braddon ACT regional final.
She has continually placed in regional heats since first entering the competition five years ago and has been a featured performer on stage at Bradden, Cooma and Bombala heats.
A graduate of the Country Music Association of Australia Junior Academy 2024, Ms Forman released her debut EP of four original songs in Jindabyne last November, re-released The Girl as a Single at a performance in Berridale to raise money for Do It For Dolly Day on 9 May and will re-release Silver Lining as a single 4 July to celebrate the arrival of winter in her Snowy Mountains Home.
The Girl, a song calling for action against bullying, has been listed as a semi-finalist in 2025 Listen Up Music The Songwriting Competition, and Ms Forman will play in one of 11 semi finals around Australia – in Canberra on 17 September, competing for $40,000 of prizes.
Two of her original songs saw her a top 10 winner in the FretFest Songwriting Competition in Tamworth in January.
Ms Forman heads to Tamworth this month to perform at Songwriters in the Round with Tamworth Songwriters Association on the three days of the Hats off To Country Festival 11-13 July and has already bookings for the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.
Mr Spencer said he was delighted to announce Ms Forman as the ANBC Ambassador for 2025.
“Gabi told me she was very unsure about being in the Open category because she was 18 but still at school but she really impressed the judges with her originals, her enthusiasm and her mandolin which she has only been playing for a month or so,” he said.
“She has been around for a while and gets better every time we see her, is always supportive of everything the ANBC does and is a great ambassador for us as well as the Snowy Mountains.”
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Karen Forman
ANBC Media Coordinator
0425675555
Allan Spencer
ANBC President
0407384590
