It's a long way from the dust of Uruzgan to the cold peaks of NSW's Snowy Mountains.
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Yet powerful experiences from war-ravaged Afghanistan will soon ring across the snowfields, as folk singer Fred Smith takes the stage at the fourth Perisher Snowy Mountains of Music Festival.
Mr Smith has recently spent 18 months in Afghanistan, and created a poignant record of his time there in the form of a full-length album, titled Dust of Uruzgan.
In June, he will share those experiences at The Snowies festival, an event billed as the only music festival in Australia staged in the snow.
''Folk musicians don't do a lot of skiing, but the two ideas coming together is an interesting one,'' Mr Smith said.
''It'll be cold outside, so everyone will be inside, that will be a good start,'' he said.
''And I understand people don't mind a quiet drink after a bit of skiing, so that should add to the morale.''
Mr Smith played at the official launch of the festival at Tilley's in Lyneham last night.
The festival brings together a diverse range of genres from blues, roots, and folk, to reggae, Celtic, funk, and ska.
Artistic director David De Santi said the event was unlike any other in the world.
''I was approached to put together a different style of music festival than they might have normally expected,'' Mr De Santi said.
''Now we have a festival that actually has gypsy, Celtic, and Australiana, so we put a fair bit of bush poetry in, along with some of the party band stuff … so it's an interesting mix,'' he said.
Last year, the event drew a crowd of roughly 3000.
Those relatively small numbers, coupled with the mountain setting, the snowfall, smaller stages and longer sets, helps to give the festival an air of intimacy and adventure, according to Mr De Santi.
But the snow can also make the festival a logistical nightmare for organisers and artists. ''It adds some complexities, because you've got to get the artists from each of the spots, you can't really bring your cars up once the snow is here,'' Mr De Santi said.
''It's a bit of an effort because … you end up trudging through snow to get to your gig, which is pretty cool,'' he said.
The festival draws a crowd that wouldn't usually come to the slopes, according to Mr De Santi.
Reggae acts the Black Seeds and Nicky Bomba's Bustamento will headline the festival, which runs for three days on the June long weekend. Christopher Knaus
