GRIFFITH residents could be rocking out to big name artists like Keith Urban or Bruce Springsteen if council's tourism manager has his way.
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Economic development and tourism manager Greg Lawrence has been investigating ways to attract visitors to the city.
He said a trip to the Hunter Valley Tourism Conference, where their region hosted two Bruce Springsteen concerts that attracted 30,000 people to the area, only confirmed what he already believed that Griffith is more than capable of hosting a similar event.
"Ever since I started here we've been exploring options for live music in Griffith," he said.
"A Day on The Green folks have been here and looked at locations.
"I personally love live music and if Griffith people want to see big acts they have to travel away.
"I'm more invigorated than ever after going to the Hunter Valley. Hope Estate in the Hunter and Hanging Rock near Melbourne have both got the Eagles and Rolling Stones coming.
"I'm keen to give people a reason to come to Griffith and the Riverina. We've got La Festa and I want to generate more numbers for that too.
"If we can talk to promoters when big acts are coming to Australia and get on the touring route, it gives them another concert and us another big event."
Mr Lawrence said a multipurpose stage built in Griffith was part of his long term vision.
"A professional stage is what we need, the kind of thing we could use for carols by candlelight and other annual events throughout the year and then big acts," he said.
"It's a work in progress, but we need to have some vision and behave like a city and start punching above our weight.
"We've got the ability and some great operators in Griffith. I'm passionate about this and I think it is worth throwing ideas around.
"You just have to look at the CWA conference when we had 900 ladies come to town and you could see people could understand that everyone was benefiting from the dollars being spent.
"You wouldn't want to go too big too quickly, we'd need to work our way up and hopefully the punters will come. A big outdoor concert would be great for the local community but also to bring people from outside so they can see how wonderful this community is. You couldn't move in the Hunter Valley when Bruce Springsteen was there and I'd like to see something like that happen here."
High on Mr Lawrence's wish list are acts such as Keith Urban, Jimmy Barnes and Lee Kernaghan, but he said the possibilities were endless.