Nannup Music Festival wins WAM Award

Nannup Music Festival has received a massive nod from the WA music industry. The festival was named the most popular live music event at the 2020 WAM Awards, which were held last week after being delayed from November. Festival director Phaedra Watts said she felt “shock and delight” when she found out the news. “We’re in the running with some pretty big events and pretty big names and promoters so it was shocking but it was incredibly welcomed,” she said. “There were a lot of peers nominated in the award and it was an honour to win it, but I think ultimately together, everyone working in the industry in WA is doing marvellous things and we’re doing it together, so it’s sort of a reflection to everybody and a thank you to everybody.” Ms Watts said there was a genuine love from the public for the festival. “Nannup really has a reputation of being very supportive and nurturing and embracing of everything around and the audience is part of that,” she said. “We sell out pretty quickly every year now because people want to immerse in that so therefore they reflect that when it’s time to vote.” Ms Watts said there was a lot of interest building around the festival but it would keep the identity it had built over the years. “There’s more interest than normal coming because there’s so much excitement around it, but it’ll just keep being what it’s been,” she said. “We’ve got such a fantastic thing that we don’t really want to change the blueprint because it’s working really well. “We’ll look at some things we learnt this year that we can do differently, but in respect to the festival it will just carry on being magnificent.” In 2017, Ms Watts won the Golden WAMie for her work with emerging and Indigenous musicians across WA.