Jack CartyJack Carty is nothing short of chuffed to have been announced as the first ever Patron of Bello Winter Music, the festival that's taken over the streets and venues of his hometown of Bellingen each winter for the past three years. "It means a lot to me because I grew up in Bellingen and grew up playing my first gigs around town," shares Carty. "To go back and be Patron of the festival just feels like coming home and I guess a little bit of a culmination of touring and all the work I've been doing over the past six years of my own music."
Carty is now based in Sydney, so when asked why it's important for him to go back and remain a part of the community, he answers swiftly and succinctly. "It's home," he says warmly. "I've done a lot of travelling and lived in a lot of other places over the past 13 or so years, but Bellingen is still my home. My dad lives there, my sister lives there, one of my brothers lives there, I got married there. It's just still, more than anywhere else on Earth, home."
As well as performing at the festival each day, and premiering his new collaboration with Papa Vs Pretty's Gus Gardiner and The Satellite Strings, Carty will be also be mentoring an up-and-coming artist as part of his Patron responsibilities. "I don't know who it is yet but I'm excited to know. Songwriting is a pretty personal thing so I'm not going to be coming in and telling someone exactly how to write a song or anything like that. But hopefully I can just share some of my own experiences, and share some tips and tricks on pitfalls that maybe they can look for from mistakes I've made, and also learn from some of the things I've found along the way that really helped me too."
As pleased as he is to share the town and its unique community feel with those visiting for the weekend, there is one element he remains coy about - giving away too much of that 'locals only' type knowledge. "I don't know if I should give away the secret," he says, jokingly. "There's some pretty amazing swimming holes out of town, I'm not going to give specifics details. You'll have to find them," he laughs.
Having attended each of the Bello Winter Music festivals so far, and having the hometown advantage, Carty has a pretty good grasp on what makes it special from other festivals (apart from those secret swimming spots). "I think the community aspect of it and that it happens in the town, as opposed to being a separate thing in its own site, means the town really get behind it, and the local businesses and people get behind it. It's a beautiful town too."
"When the festival comes to town, it's just like this beautiful heightened expression of all the great things about Bellingen, plus this whole bunch of beautiful musicians from all over the world coming in and sharing their music too."
