It is all about giving back to the people of rural and regional Australia at the Gympie Music Muster and this year we are highlighting the importance of healthy mental wellbeing with TradeMutt and TIACS (This is a Conversation Starter).
The iconic bright shirts of TradeMutt were hard to miss at the 2019 and 2022 Musters. The shirts are conversation starters around mental health and the profits help fund TIACS, a free mental health counseling service supporting blue collar Australians.
Jason Banks of TIACS said the Gympie Muster was a highlight of their year.
“This year, for the Muster to nominate TIACS as the charity partner has made us feel so humbled and grateful for the opportunity. TIACS provides free mental health counseling for those in blue collar industries and rural and regional areas,” he said.
“This gives us the chance to get in front of 1000s of people to share the TradeMutt and TIACS story. To have 40,000-plus people walk past the stand is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness that the TIACS service exists and raising money throughout the event is an added bonus.”
TradeMutt and TIACS will run a mega raffle that will include fuel vouchers, equipment hire vouchers, tools and much more.
“The winner takes all and our target is to raise more than $80,000 over the four days which would fund over almost 900 hours of counselling for hard-working, blue-collar Australians and their loved ones,” Mr Banks said.
There will also be limited edition Muster TIACS caps supplied by Country Trucker Caps with 100% profits going back to TIACS. You can also grab a conversation starting work shirt from the TradeMutt crew which directly supports TIACS.
A special fund-raising luncheon will be held on the Friday of the Muster which will include exclusive entertainment, a special guest speaker, a charity auction and lots of laughs. Tickets and details will be available soon.
“Most people who follow country music are on the farm, rural, or blue-collar workers and last year so many people shared their stories of being touched by suicide, so we’ll be bringing up some of our counselling team this time.”
Gympie Muster CEO Greg Cavanagh said the Muster continued to strive to not only provide great entertainment, but also support rural Australians at every opportunity.
“We feel that TradeMutt and TIACS are a good fit for the Muster. TradeMutt and TIACS increase awareness of mental health which touches everyone’s life directly or indirectly. It is such a vital message to spread.”
“We can’t wait to see as many people as possible out on the festival site wearing their bright TradeMutt shirts and wanting to start a conversation about the importance of mental wellbeing, particularly in rural and regional Australia with suicide rates are so high.”
Mr Banks said the biggest achievement for them would be the call to action for people to reach out to us.
“We saw an increase in the call volume on the Monday after Muster in 2022. The best thing we could achieve is to have as many people reach out and engage with the TIACS service as possible, even if they do not think they need it,” he said.
“TIACS provides an exceptionally high quality of care which supports our vision to be the mental health service you tell your mates about.”
“To have such epic support from the country music industry will really allow TIACS to continue to cut through where it’s needed most” said Mr Banks.
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