It was country motels with their pink bathrooms, lace curtains, wood-panelled walls, chenille bedspreads and little packets of biccies that started a movement.
Kate Berry was documenting these charming quirks on Instagram, when she came across an empty function room at the Charlton Motel, in western Victoria, that called out to be filled.
"It was this huge space that was so dusty and looked like it needed a good time," Ms Berry, a photographer, designer and former magazine editor, told AAP.
"Charlton is such a big, perfect country town. There's three pubs and wide streets, it is quintessential country Australia."
The discovery was the beginning of OK Motels music festivals, with the first at Charlton Motel in 2018 followed by others in towns across regional Victoria and Queensland.
The festivals, which fill usually quiet bowls clubs, community halls and sleepy country pubs with live music, are less about bringing city culture to the bush, but a celebration of life and traditions outside the capitals.
Local Country Women's Associations serve up scones with lashings of jam and cream to crowds, while Lion's Clubs put on sausage sizzles to raise funds for community causes.
"You can go to a music festival in any town and get stuck in a paddock on the outside of town and it could be any town," Ms Berry said.
"For us, the town is the event.
"All the stuff the locals bring is just as important as who is playing."
Using state government disaster recovery funding, the event has branched out to Rochester, in northern Victoria.
Almost every property in the town of 3000, which sits between Bendigo and Echuca, was damaged or destroyed by floods in 2022.
The second OK Rochester festival on October 18 will focus on activities to reduce isolation and help form friendships between concert-goers, visitors and locals.
Friends can have their fortunes read and take part in commitment ceremonies at the town hall, while strangers can look for new connections through speed dates over Devonshire tea.
The festival also has a buddy bench for people who have come alone to sit on, signalling they're looking for company.
The focus on connection is an acknowledgement that it can be hard to find new friends as an adult.
"Post-COVID, it's been a bit of a thing," Ms Berry said.
"A lot of people have friends they've made from the event ... like in Charlton, people will stay with locals, which is so cute."
Kiwi singer-songwriter Marlon Williams and Canadian folk duo Kacy and Clayton will headline OK Rochester, with musicians also playing across the Criterion, Shamrock and Rochester Hotels.
Ms Berry delights in using public spaces and watering holes in country towns in the way they were originally intended - to bring people together.
"When we first did the event, I was looking around desperately for another motel that had a function room.
"Thank God I couldn't find one."
