Best entertainers in Portland
This is Portland the cement-works village off the Castlereagh Highway north-west of Lithgow, not the port in Victoria, and no entertainer gives it as home. Lithgow's three are a quarter of an hour east: a duo, a blues band and a metal band. Bathurst's are half an hour the other way along the Great Western Highway, a cover band, a DJ, a singer, a drag queen and a fire performer, with two more DJs at Abercrombie on the near edge of that city. Two lists, then, and Portland sits in the gap between them.
Which is a better spot than it sounds, because both drives are short and neither crosses the mountains. For a Wallerawang club night or a shed party at Cullen Bullen, the Lithgow bands are the loud, local option; for a wedding at a homestead out towards Sunny Corner or a hall at Meadow Flat, Bathurst's singer and DJs are the gentler list. Winter is the thing to plan around: this is high, cold country and an unheated hall in July empties a dance floor faster than a bad band.
Top picks in Portland
Top picks are the nearby performers with the most visible reviews, then rating, then the closest; further afield the closest come first, and premium listings break remaining ties. Distances are straight-line from Portland. Ask each act whether they travel to your venue and what that costs.
Questions people ask about entertainers in Portland
How much to hire a band in Portland NSW?
Local means Lithgow here, and the three Lithgow acts are pricing a short run rather than a mountain crossing, so the quote is players and sets with little on top. A metal or blues band for a club night is priced differently from a cover band doing a wedding, and the Bathurst cover band is the one for the latter. The duo and the metal band show a from-price on their cards; the blues band doesn't, so ask.
Do Blue Mountains acts come out to Portland and Wallerawang?
Some will, over Victoria Pass and through Lithgow, which is under an hour from Katoomba in daylight and slower in fog. The wedding duos and the jazz band on the Blue Mountains page are the ones worth asking for a gentler night than the Lithgow bands give. Expect the pass to appear on the quote.
What's the best act for a hall party in the Lithgow district in winter?
Something that packs small and plays warm: the Lithgow duo or the Bathurst singer with a PA, in a hall with the heaters on and a wall between the stage and the door. A five-piece in a cold hall plays worse and leaves earlier. If it has to be a band, ask the hall about heating before you ask the band about songs.
Booking tips
Two short drives, so compare them
Lithgow is fifteen minutes and Bathurst is thirty, and neither should produce much of a travel line. If a quote does, ask what it's for; a late finish on a frosty road is a fair reason, distance isn't.
The Lithgow bands do pubs, ask about weddings
A blues band and a metal band are built for a club room, and the duo is the one of the three that walks into a wedding without a conversation. Ask the bands what they'd play for a first hour, and if the answer worries you, look to Bathurst.
Say Portland, New South Wales
Put the state in the enquiry and the nearest town, because an act searching the name will find the Victorian one first. Wallerawang, Cullen Bullen and Capertee share this list and can use it as their own.