Colin Thompson is a passionate drummer who loves sharing the joy of live music and is best known for founding, programming and running Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival, which ran in its fullest form from 2011 through 2022.
The festival in full flight hosted as many as 180 acts in up to 50 venues over a 4-day program each November. This was a monstrous undertaking for Colin, his wife Amy and their volunteer committee and crew who brought it all together. For a community festival, it punched well above its weight and was credited with being a driving force behind the reinvigoration of Bendigo’s live music scene, which continues to go from strength to strength.
Colin continues to book, promote and stage gigs in and around Bendigo through The Blues Tram, The Old Church on the Hill, Handle Bar and numerous other venues and events.
Colin and his team started their celebrated festival – and its various offshoot events – as a way to give opportunities to independent and grass-roots artists to play paid gigs in all kinds of venues and on all kinds of stages. From the most established artists (John Butler, The Waifs, Joe Camilleri, Jeff Lang, Fiona Boyes, Lloyd Spiegel, Geoff Achison and the like) to kids playing some of their first public gigs, the team in Bendigo are all about making live music accessible and reminding the general public of the joy that blues music and live music more generally can bring, to crowds big small and in between.