General News
28 January, 2026
“Seriously excited” about Peter Allen Festival
Peter Allen Festival planning
The iconic Tenterfield Autumn Festival may soon be paired with another obvious winner for the town: the Peter Allen Festival.
The prospect of Tenterfield playing host to the event has the community excited with 179 residents giving the Facebook post a thumbs-up recently.
The reception is gratifying to uber organiser Charles Adler and his wife, Tracy, who held a meet-and-greet with prospective committee members at the Royal Hotel recently.
Tenterfield residents would recall that this isn’t the first effort to honour Peter Allen with a festival; sadly, the last effort, which the Adlers had nothing to do with, failed miserably in 2019 with bushfires cutting off Tenterfield and ruining the event.
“People couldn’t get into Tenterfield,” Mr Adler explained. “The bands, the catering was paid for and no one could get into Tenterfield.”
Rising from the ashes, the new iteration of the Peter Allen Festival is in excellent hands. Charles and Tracy Adler, who are residents of bayside Brisbane, founded Rural Aid and the Buy a Bale promotion that contributed millions of dollars to assisting farmers during drought and bushfires, particularly in NSW. The Adlers worked closely with Woolworths and other stakeholders to maximise contributions and the distribution of aid which became the largest effort in NSW history. Currently, Mr Adler describes his profession as an expert in loyalty programs, marketing and database management.
Once Charles and Tracy decided that the festival should return to Tenterfield in a big way, they spent several weeks leading up to Christmas talking to residents, business owners, councillors and possible sponsors about the idea. They then decided to have a community consultation at the Royal Hotel within site of the Tenterfield Saddler.
The Adlers have a soft spot for Tenterfield.
“This could raise the awareness of Tenterfield, and if we do it right it could bring people to area,” he said. “Everybody was positive around the idea, a few questions about the angle of the event in terms of the event, in terms of [Peter Allen’s] music and sexuality. I made it clear the celebration would have very little to do about his sexuality, it’s about what he achieved. “
The festival, Charles says, is for the wider community, the Australian community, to come together and to accept people for who they are. “If nothing more, if we have 1,000 or 10,000 people come to Tenterfield to celebrate Peter Allen, his music and his joy, and being Australian” it would be a win.
The festival is scheduled for 3 and 4 of October this year.
All sorts of ideas are underway including venues hosting live music, Peter Allen themed cinema at the School of Arts including Peter Allen’s life and the movies he wrote music for – notably, Grease and Arthur. Perhaps local pubs will turn into cabaret bars, a nod to Liza Minelli, and Hollywood-inspired cocktails are in the planning stages. Frank Sinatra, who played a part in the Peter Allen success story, will be a sub theme of the festival with ideas like Sinatra dress-alike parties or sing-alongs. There might be an Olivia Newton John lookalike contest or an invitation for 1950s vintage cars and motorbikes to come to town.
“There's a few angles of his life that we can play on – Judy Garland, Liza Minelli”, Charles explains. He will invite Hugh Jackman to participate which he feels confident will come to fruition.
The Adlers also hope to set some sort of world record by forming the Tenterfield Rockettes, perhaps holding a parade on Rouse Street. What are the practicalities? Talking to Mr Adler, it very quickly becomes clear that he is extraordinarily capable at putting big ideas together. He already knows how many beds are currently available in Tenterfield, how many Airbnb’s are on the books, the number of caravan parks, and has spoken to Kat Davis at the Tenterfield Chamber about the festival.
“We’ve got the nucleus of a reasonable committee…some of these things wouldn’t be too hard to do…The idea is we’d run it a social enterprise; my wife and I will fund some of it” and there will be crowd funding, grants, sponsorships.
“We will put 50 percent of the money back into Tenterfield, create an ongoing revenue stream for Tenterfield.”
The Adlers also want Peter Allens name to live on into perpetuity with an annual bursary for an aspiring musician in Peter Allen’s name.
“If someone wins that they will appreciate if for the rest of their life,” Charles notes. In fact, the Adlers have reached out to the estate of Peter Allen, who, Charles says, “are quite excited about it”.
“I’d like to think we’d get a few thousand people there this year and grow it as the years go by,” Charles says.
“Seriously excited” posted the Tenterfield Tavern, with dozens of residents adding similar sentiments.
The Town & Country Journal will interview the inaugural Peter Allen Festival committee once it if formalised.
Read More: Tenterfield
