London (AFP) – Trinity Smith has been wearing her cowboy boots all week to break them in ahead of a weekend of non-stop dancing.
The 24-year-old teacher is one of tens of thousands of British fans flocking to a London country music festival, as the genre enjoys a surge in popularity among young adults.
At the O2 Arena in east London, the sheer number of cowboy hats, fringed jackets, denim micro‑shorts and rhinestone boots on display makes you wonder if the spot should be renamed “Nashville-on-Thames”.
From Friday to Sunday, stars from Keith Urban to Zach Top — along with up‑and‑coming artists, including several from Britain — are performing at the Country to Country (C2C) festival.
Organisers say the event, the biggest of its kind in the UK, has drawn around 45,000 people, many in their 20s and 30s.
A tattoo stand is constantly busy, with cowboy boots, cacti and bull skulls proving especially popular.
“We’ve been learning line dancing all year to be able to come here,” said Smith, who came to the festival from Peterborough, in central England, with her partner.
“I like stomping my heels,” she added.
‘Massive’ growth in popularity
C2C has existed for several years but has been continuously expanding with sister events in Glasgow and Belfast. Manchester will come on board next year.
In mid-May, the historic Royal Albert Hall, one of London’s best known venues, will also host another country‑music festival.
Country has long since spread beyond its US heartland.
FLASHBACK/File — Country and western singer Gene Autry (1907-1998) shakes hands with a bus driver as he rides his horse down Oxford Street in London, England, Great Britain, circa 1953. Autry, who gained fame as ‘The Singing Cowboy’ on the radio, in movies and on television, was in London for his 1953 tour of England. (Archive Photos/Getty)
But in the UK — home of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Oasis — the genre’s rise has been especially striking in recent years.
“It’s the fastest growing music genre in the UK, and the UK has the fastest growth anywhere in the world,” said John Finch, director of the UK Country Music Association.
Country accounts for only a small part of the British music market, but its popularity rose by almost 11 percent in the past year.
For Finch, this is “massive”. Moreover, he says, the growth was mainly driven by the “younger generation” discovering it for the first time “rather than the older generation like me who’s been in country for some time”.
Beer, breakups and partying
A recent report by the British Phonographic Industry highlighted the “spectacular” growth of country music, driven in part by artists such as Beyonce.
Other influences have been Morgan Wallen and Post Malone. And, of course, Taylor Swift, who first rose to fame as a country singer.
TikTok has turbo-charged the trend, allowing aspiring artists to find global audiences overnight.
For Lewis Pittam, a 26-year-old actor and singer living near London, the appeal is obvious: “I think it’s so much more modernised now especially with the up-and-coming artists that are around,” he said.
William Martin, 22, and Cameron Fulton, 23, friends from the northeastern city of Newcastle, said it was the lyrics that hooked them.
FLASHACK/File — U.S. country singer Ramblin Jack Elliott, with his wife June, playing the guitar in the street outside Waterloo Station, after arriving in the country on the Queen Elizabeth boat train, London, September 15th 1959. (William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
“One minute singing about a truck and a beer, one minute singing about a girl that you fell out of love with. A different song for a different occasion,” said Martin.
“You’ve got the sad songs, heartbreak songs, and then party in the summer,” added Fulton, a mechanic.
Alyssa Flaherty, who at 22 is already well known, travelled from Nashville, the undisputed capital of country music, to perform on Sunday.
She still marvels at the enthusiasm of British crowds.
Playing her first English gig last August in York in the northeast, she said she had “no idea if these people are even going to know who I am or what they’re coming to see.
“People were singing my songs back to me and I was like what is this?”
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