by Anne-Marie Emerson
There were cowboy boots, there were Stetsons, there were songs about being at home on the range.
What else could it be but the Marton Country Music Festival?
Around 5000 people braved both sunshine and rain in the weekend to attend the popular event at Wilson Park.
In true country style, cowboy hats and boots were the preferred dress of the day for performers and audience, young and old, male and female.
There were songs about tractors, chickens, mountains, and broken hearts - and one performer from Hawke's Bay even sang his own lament for an art deco building in Taradale being converted into a McDonald's restaurant.
Seven-year-old Angelique Fitzgerald, from Havelock North, attended the festival with her grandparents, Carol and Alan Hessell - both singers themselves.
Carol said Angelique was excited to be there, and had insisted on wearing her sparkly pink Stetson.
"She had her first ever public sing at a festival in Hastings last week.
"She was a bit shy, but she did well."
Carol said this was the third time her family had been to the Marton festival.
"We love it.
"We always meet up with people we know, and we make new friends as well."
Jenny and Jerome Cahill came all the way from Oklahoma to perform.
Jenny said while she and her husband had been to New Zealand before, it was the first time they'd performed at the Marton festival.
"We've had a wonderful time, wonderful weather - and more than wonderful people.
"Everyone has been so welcoming."
Organiser Anne George summed up the event as "absolutely fantastic".
It was now in its fourth year, she said, and the numbers had grown each year.
"We had fantastic weather [on Saturday] and the rain [yesterday] didn't slow anybody down at all."
There were eight international acts at the festival and Mrs George said some had already promised to be back next year.
"Those that can't be here next year said they'd come again in 2011. We're absolutely delighted."
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