It was great to have some time at home in April but we still had the ‘festival bug’ so drove to Canberra to attend the 53rd National Folk Festival over Easter. Might as well take in the biggest in the country during our ‘Year of Festivals’, and Canberra is only a 4 hour drive with stops. The festival and camping is held in Exhibition Park in Canberra (epic) which is a very large area. It needed to be as this festival had it all – themed shows, workshops, forums and talks, visitor participation (choirs, music sessions, dance sessions, uke muster, yoga, zumba, workshops etc), spoken word performances, national awards, street performances, circus, parades, arts, kids sessions, dance performances, instrument makers, and a great marketplace with food, drink, clothes, handcrafts, hats, jewellery and almost whatever else you can think of.
In our 4 days we got so much variety as we saw a few old favorites (ie Ballpoint Penguins, The Fagans, Shortis & Simpson) and lots of new acts (ie Eric Bogle, Irish Mythen, Enda Kenny). The daily Uke Muster was too advanced for us so only did one 9am Uke session. There were 114 acts/performers listed in the program and we saw 46 acts. This was a big , well-run festival machine with 1200 volunteers, 15 stages and high quality acts from around the world. We also walked over 25 kms (38,000 steps) and had many late nights and 12 hour days. Sessions started at 8:30am and finished at 1:30am.
Themes of social justice were alive and well in many of the songs. In fact people were singing 30 year old songs about climate change that were just as relevant today. Kind of scary to think about that. The atmosphere was great and we enjoyed it all.
National Folk Festival 2019The Fagans – two generationsMoorish dancers everywhere!u
Zackerbilts, a Canberra band.Our camping spot, on a road next to a trotting racecourse – not our most solubrious campspot.
After our Canberra excursion we stayed in Sydney until mid-June so I could be around for the Queens birthday announcements and my one minute of fame. I was honoured to be awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to women through charitable initiatives for my volunteer work with Dress for Success Sydney.We then headed north and made our regular stops; Port Macquarie for dinner with Anne and Mick, some national park camping on the beautiful NSW north coast and a visit to Explorer Motorhomes to pick up a part for the Lestervan. Since we enjoyed it before, we returned to Bribie Island and this time camped on the beach, a 20 km beach drive from the town.Getting through the deep sand to the beach was challenging but Dick and the Lestervan managed it well and our camping spot is very beautiful.
Port Macquarie dinner with Anne and MickEnjoying the sunset in Yuraygir National Park, NSW coast and walking back to the van.Our camp on Ocean Beach, Bribie Island – it feels like we have this beach all to ourselves!
Enjoyed a nice 4 km walk along the beach, had lunch and skyped with Eileen and Darcy; while we waited for low tide so we could drive back along the beach and then navigate the sandy 2km access road. I took a 6 minute video of that drive to distract me from worrying about getting bogged. Dick and the Lestervan did well; and we’ve included a condensed one minute video of the driving we did to get off the beach.
Walking along the beach on Bribie Island where we camped
Our next stop was a Caravan Park at Coolum Beach where we had a night out with friends from Sydney, Lyn and Peter, who are also travelling and happened to be in the area. The socializing continued for four days and included an amazing 9 course degustation lunch with Janice and John in Noosa and a lovely lunch out with Pamela and Rod. We slept in their driveway so also enjoyed supper and breakfast with them. In Mooloolaba we had dinner and breakfast out with Allan and Barbara, and got a scenic tour of the area and a look at Barbara’s new house.
Dinner out with Lyn and Peter in Coolum BeachHappy faces after finishing off a delectable degustation with Janice and JohnDriveway camping in Noosa at Pamela and Rod’sHard to believe we worked together in 1977 when Pamela trained me as a publisher’s rep (amongst other things…)With Allan after a healthy brunch in Mooloolaba
All in all we’ve had a very pleasant start to our trip, although we are still looking for warmth and sunshine. The Lestervan is now pointed northwards.
Three out of four weekends in March we attended music festivals in NSW and Victoria. Interesting how we take away something different from each one, and how different they all are, in so many ways. Reflecting on that, we did a little comparison chart of our impressions as follows (I may have retired but my analytical brain is still working!)
Cobargo Festival entrance in the lovely green valley
We had a pleasant two day drive down the beautiful NSW south coast to Cobargo and got settled in the campground in time to see one of the opening acts at 4pm, Margaret and Bob Fagan. Margaret used to teach at the Montessori pre-school that Amy and Helen attended, so it was nice to speak with her after the show. Somehow their music always makes me sad; they deliver powerful messages. It was then full-on concerts (12 in total that day) until midnight. Great musicians, comedians and satirists. With the layout of the festival stages it was possible to take in parts of two or three acts per session time depending on how we liked them. It was always possible to get into every show.
Margaret and Bob Fagan
Dick’s nickname at University was Spooner (thats where he came from). The festival featured ‘Spooners’ Bar, named after a local musician in this case. All kinds of music and acts
Day two started for us with a visit from another couple who also own an Explorer motorhome like us. Unlike us, they had been up for hours so had a coffee while we had breakfast. Its like being in a club and most Explorer owners seek each other out on the road so makes it easy to find new, like-minded people to hang around with. Our first session was the all levels ukulele workshop with an American guitar wizard, Richard Gilewitz. Being keen we sat in the front row. It was way beyond us but interesting and informative. At the end I told him I found it confusing that everyone recommended different ways of strumming etc. He said it was his way or the highway!, and did give reasons why his approach was better. They expected 18 people at the Ukulele workshop and had over 60 there. After that we attended another 12 sessions and finished close to midnight again. Managed to fit in a 5pm drinks session with our Explorer friends and just bought pizza at a stand for dinner so we didn’t miss much.
The group ukulele session. He had everyone playing with their eyes closed.
The main thoroughfare of the festival
Jam sessions abounded
Made a big effort to get to the starting 10am sessions on Day three and ended up seeing six sessions before we left around 3pm that afternoon. The festival was fantastic and we continued to enjoy new artists every session/every day. We met a few of the organizers and were really impressed with all the volunteers – so friendly and helpful! It was a well-run event, great musicians, good camping on the festival grounds and good take away food options, and we had fabulous hot weather to boot in a beautiful, green valley. What’s not to like!
The last day featured a fiddle concert showcasing the top fiddlers who were at the festival. Great stuff!
Following that festival we headed to Melbourne to catch up with a few friends. Had to modify our route to avoid the bush fires (forest fires) in Victoria. Enjoyed a pleasant evening and driveway camping with Kathy and Graeme in Frankston South. The next day Kathy gave us a wonderful tour of the Mornington Peninsula. Had a nice dinner visit and more driveway/street camping with Stephanie and Ron, plus coffee with Jackie and lunch with Margaret. After that round of socializing and driving the van through Melbourne, we headed to Warrnambool to rest up before our next festival weekend. Enjoyed a good sleep in, some shopping in Warrnambool and the hot spa before bed (we’re now staying in caravan parks with all the extras we can get).
Nice view of Port Philip Bay at Kathy’s house – not bad for driveway camping.
Port Fairy Folk Festival
We thought we got to the festival early so we could get a good camping spot and look around the town before the festival opened at 5:30pm. Alas the camping was already quite crowded but we were happy with our spot.
View from one side of our van
View of the other side of the van – high density living
Saw the opening ceremony and our new friends, The Naked Waiters (ukulele show) plus another 5 shows and got home around 11pm. The festival was a big production and popular events got full quickly, so we needed to employ new strategies to see the ones we wanted to see. Better to see shows that showcased 6 – 8 performers so we got more variety, and get there early for popular sessions, like Kasey Chambers (who we enjoy and got to see again). On day two we saw 6 shows, attended a book launch with our ‘friend’ Greg North (we met him at a few of his shows) and did a Uke workshop, so had an early night, with a 10:30 finish. Bought Greg’s book of limericks which inspired a new focus for me.
Big marquees and three screens for the big audiences
The group Ukulele workshop with The Naked Waiters from Hawaii
Some extra help for a slow learner during the Ukulele workshop
The theme of the festival was Woodstock (held 15th August, 1969) and the headliner act was Melanie who performed at Woodstock 50 years ago. So we took drastic measures to get to see her (including having afternoon naps). She was on at 8:15pm and we sat in the relevant tent from 4pm (to 1am) watching all the acts in that tent and moving up between acts so we were in a good position to see Melanie, and even then we were quite far back. But it was worth it and I was singing Melanie songs for two weeks after that. She was impressive and told lots of good stories, and following her the festival also had a session which gave all the background to how Woodstock was done. They had different acts sing the songs that were sung at Woodstock. All good fodder for our vintage!
Our seats from 4pm – 1am (about the middle of the tent) An enlarged photo of Melanie on stage (too far back to even get a good photo on one of the big screens)
After a good sleep in, I woke up and inspired by reading Greg North’s book, I wrote three limericks (copies follow at the end). We managed to go back to the festival and take in one final act before we went back to Warrnambool and have a rest/recovery day. Port Fairy was a good festival and an experience of a how a good, large festival works.
Dick socializing in the festival grounds with one of the Naked Waiters (our new Uke friends). At the Guinness stage in the bar for the final act.
Our final festival in the series was completely different, and chosen due to the timing and location. We attended the Horsham Country Music Festival, along with several hundred other grey nomads (seniors) in caravans. Even though we were in the showground we had a nice spot by the river. We made it for the opening evening sessions. Key memories from that night can be summed up succinctly – yodelling and truck songs!
Opening night concert at Horsham – one outdoor stage, bring your own chair. Lucky we had great weather.
It was a four day festival but with only 12 performers we decided to do some other touring and focus on the key concerts. The Tribute Concert featured the songs of Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, John Denver, Dusty Springfield, Slim Dusty, Dolly Parton and Roy Orbison; which gives the flavor of the festival and was well done. In every concert there were people getting up and dancing at the front, and they were all good dancers. So much so that it was intimidating and took three days for us and others to get up the confidence to join the dancing.
The Johnny Cash session at the Tribute Concert
Great dancers throughout, lots of line dancing which looked like fun.
We saw the feature concerts on the hot, sunny third day and the evening finale (which featured all the performers up on the stage) As we’d seen each performer 3 or 4 times, we decided we’d had enough and could skip the last day.
Final concert with all performers on stage
Leaving our showground camping spot – Dick still gets to take out the garbage.
A separate blog will cover the hiking and touring we did on this trip, but I’ll finish this off with my three limericks.
FESTIVAL INSPIRED LIMERICKS
Here we are at another music festival Running round like a bat out of hell So many good acts to see There’s no time to eat or pee Am now tired and don’t feel so well.
I once played my uke at Port Fairy Initially the class it was scary The Naked Waiters were fun Even with their clothes on So now I can play and be merry
Inspired by Greg North, the bush poet. A clever word man, who didn’t show it Saw him in 3 different places, Enjoyed all his various faces Am now writing limericks, altho’ he doesn’t know it.
