The green light has been given to a three-day country music festival that promises not only to showcase top-line entertainment, but to boost the coffers of a northern NSW area feeling the economic pinch.

The Clarence Valley Country Muster will be held at a property in the tiny settlement of Calliope – just 17 kilometres north east of Grafton – over the first three days of November.

Joint organiser Wendy Gordon, who will host the event on her property, said the muster was deliberately planned to coincide with the Valley’s famed Jacaranda Festival.

“It is an established fact that the Jacaranda Festival draws thousands of people – locals and tourists alike – to a colourful and extremely successful event in Grafton that goes back many, many years,” she said.

“Now those people will have another attraction to enjoy. The Clarence Valley Country Muster has been in the planning stage for several months. I was overjoyed and almost reduced to tears when Clarence Valley Council gave its stamp of approval to the event. It will inject a lot of money into Grafton and surrounding areas.”

Wendy Gordon, who is organising the festival along with former husband Terry Gordon and property owners Kerry Flanagan and Ken Watters, is no stranger to the planning of such events.

She has been involved in past Tamworth country music festivals and with ex-husband Terry – who boasts more than 50 years in the business – have organised and produced similar events at home and abroad.

“District people are behind us, the performers are lining up and it’s all systems go for the Clarence Valley Country Muster – an event never before seen in these parts,” Wendy Gordon said.

A part of the Calliope property that will be turned over for the three-day country music muster.