PETER Heffernan is the face of Singleton’s Countryfest.

A country man through and through, Peter is the person responsible for bringing life to the event and turning it into one of Singleton’s most popular if not biggest entertainer on the calendar.

This year marks the fifth year of Countryfest in Singleton.

Once again, Peter is at the helm of a team of dedicated volunteers attempting to make 2010 bigger, better and if possible funnier than the first four.

Countryfest could easily be called Peter’s baby.

It is an event he has spent countless hours organising, and fielding phones calls for.

The event may only run one day each year but for 365 days Peter is constantly trying to come up with new ideas to keep the event evolving.

A classic example is this year’s inaugural husband dragging title, an event Peter has coined himself.

The concept is based on a ‘wife’ dragging her ‘husband’ out of the pub on a Friday night.

Inspired by a newspaper article Peter put the wheels in motion and added it to Countryfest’s line up.

According to Peter it’s the perfect match for the event’s main draw card The Singleton Argus Wife Carrying Title.

“We’ve had six couples enter so far including Lauretta Mellows and her partner and a couple from Queensland and one from Newcastle who have entered the wife carrying as well,” he said.

“You might as well do both,” he added.

With three weeks to go, his excitement is building and clearly evident as he talks about Countryfest 2010.

He is thrilled about the return of the bull ride which will see Singleton’s best cowboys take on the top eight ranked bull riders in Australia.

The revamped NSW Farmer’s Challenge is another he can’t wait to see in action while the wife carrying, the event’s staple, he says shaping up to be one heck of a race.