All aboard! Lee Kernaghan leads star-studded first round for Gympie Muster

Lee Kernaghan leads a star studded first round of acts for the Gympie Music Muster.

At a launch event held at the Queensland town’s Old Gympie Railway station last night, organisers announced that also performing would be Troy Cassar-Daley, John Williamson, Ian Moss, Beccy Cole, Sara Storer, The Wolfe Brothers, Shane Nicholson, The Pigs, Hat Ritz & Cara, Fiona Boyes, Lloyd Spiegel and Blue Eyes Cry.

The Muster’s Muster program director Jeff Chandler called it more of a family reunion.

“Musicians like Ian Moss, Troy Cassar-Daley, Beccy Cole and Hat Fitz & Cara have real history with the Muster, and form part of our extended family of artists who regularly return to keep crowds entertained," he said.

Cassar-Daley was last night also announced as this year’s festival ambassador.

"The Gympie Muster has given me many things and some great experiences, playing with my old friends The Blue Heeler Band in the early stages of my career around 1992, then meeting my future wife Laurel Edwards there back stage in 1993 now 22 years married!" he said.

"This means the Muster and I have quite a lot of personal history and every time I grace that stage the memories come flooding back of all those amazing times.

“I am so proud to be an ambassador in 2018 and can’t wait to share some tunes with you all up there!”

Held in the Amamoor Creek State Forest in the beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland, two hours north of Brisbane and 40 minutes from Noosa, the Muster runs from Thursday August 23 to Sunday August 26.

The event, which costs $3 million a year to stage, is a not-for-profit charity event of the Apex Club of Gympie, which has raised in excess of $15 million for charities around Australia since its inception 37 years ago.

Figures from three years ago estimated that the Muster injected close to $6.8 million into the Queensland economy that year.

91% of the 23,000 attendees came from outside the region, and spent $5 million with businesses in the region.

Excluding the cost of tickets the average spend per Muster patron was $887.

Research also showed that those coming to the Muster for the first time is increasing each year.