Not too long ago, the idea of an annual country music festival packing out arenas in England, Scotland and Ireland over the same weekend would have been laughed out of the room. But somewhere along the line the laughter stopped, and eyes were opened to the mass appeal of a genre previously considered niche outside its homeland.

Today, six years on from its inception, Country To Country (C2C) is a much-loved fixture of the UK’s live music calendar, enticing a ...