21 March 2009

10 reasons to check out the Folk Festival if you've never been before

| johnboy
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[First filed: March 20, 2009 @ 10:13]

The National Folk Festival is on again this Easter at Exhibition Park. It’s a bit of a religion for the faithful but we asked the organisers for some reasons why one of you should go if you’ve never been before.

They came back with a list of 10 things and some gorgeous photographs from previous festivals, so here we go:


1. Big Rory and Ochie.
Trust us, you’ll understand when you meet them.



2. So you’ll have a really good answer next time someone says,
“Canberra is boring, there’s nothing to do there!”


3. You can sing in public without being stared at.


4. You need to do something to make it up to the kids
after the dog ate all the Easter eggs you hid in the garden.


5. Because there’s a lot more to it than you think
– food, wine, beer, music, song, dance, poetry, debate,
markets, theatre, comedy – we’ve got it all.

But be warned: once they’ve visited the National Folk Festival,
people do tend to come back every year.

You may never be able to make other plans for Easter again.



6. Because you‘ve never been before: that’s reason enough.
50,000 people every year can’t ALL be wrong.


7. You can eat three different meals
from three different continents in one day
(and, as everyone knows, food eaten at Festivals is calorie-free:
the calories remain harmlessly on site after you leave…)


8. Afterwards you might be able to claim two degrees of separation
between you and Bob Dylan (his fiddler will be there).



9. Because deep, deep down inside…
in places you don’t like to talk about at parties…
you really, REALLY want to try Morris Dancing.
Tough hide and love of beer essential..



10. Because you don’t know your aardvark from your gaida,
your cajon from your cimbalom, or your duduka from your furulya.
Hint: they’re all musical instruments.

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mum and my stepfather come to “visit us and their grandkids” every year, same time. waiting to see when they tell us that they come for the festival and a place to dump their stuff / sleep…

Damn it’s expensive !!!

Is that that overpriced mess in Nth Canberra that occurs on an annual basis?

Availability of a decent alcoholic ginger beer would be worthy of having your wallet raped without lubrication if there weren’t other options. Pick up a kit and brew it yourself for example.

Sia5 said :

I dont like the crowd the folk festival attracts, alot of marijuana lovers.

I’m sure if you offered them some of your can of Woodstock and Cola, they’d be quite happy with that too.

I just got my wristicket in the mail. So exciting!

First time visitors to the festival should just attend a big concert in any venue.

Simple as that really – the concerts are really exciting with excellant production values and lots of variety. It’s all about the live music for me.

I dont like the crowd the folk festival attracts, alot of marijuana lovers.

wow, riotact has been going how many years now? and finally, some ‘enlightened’ commentary. phew!

I dont like the crowd the folk festival attracts, alot of marijuana lovers.

Big Rorie and Ochie are extremely unsettling in the flesh. For this reason alone it is a good idea not to take mind altering drugs when at the National.

It’s not quite reached sporran height, so it’s not full grown yet.

t’is the rare lesser spotted pygmy rogue orkney dwarf; the regular folk round them parts is huge.

JoyceStanton5:08 pm 20 Mar 09

Oh I so love that beast in the first picture. But tell me,what breed of man is that?

I’ve heard that it’s best not to do the Morris dancing with the men because they can whack you quite hard with their sticks and it hurts. Apparently there are ladies’ groups which are not quite so ferocious.

…except a quick death.

There’s nothing better than watching a bunch of cardigan-wearers don the de rigeur olde worlde costumes and skip about slapping their ankles and waving hankies in rhythm to dulcimers and other jangling instruments of the Middle Ages.

morris dancing is a hoot, but leyland dancing is much harder…

All these years of Black Adder put downs of Morris Dancers and now I realise, I’ve never actually seen a Morris dance……

I’ll have to go now.

Back on topic please

Hey Danman where do you get the Bundaberg product? Stoked to hear there are some more options now.

And the blue tongue is a ginger infused lager, not ginger beer as they claim.

Should we start a ginger beer thread?

Oooh. Alcoholic sars – that sounds awesome. I gotta try that.

Granny – I’ve made different strengths of chilli ginger beer. From the ‘zingy’ numbers that have half a chilli in each bottle, to ‘the ringstinger’ — which was loaded with 7 extra hot chillis (home grown, with the pods slit open to allow the seeds to steep in the mixture).

Nobody’s ever managed to drink more than half a ringstinger.

Hey Granny. Check out Stone’s alcoholic ginger beer at most bottle shops. They are usually out of stock though as it is so popular.

It is very sweet but easy to drink. I asked the people at Boozle if they could get it listed but it hasn’t been done yet.

Is that a kick like a mule or more like a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster?

Granny – Oh My Gosh – You can purchase proprietary alcoholic ginger beer – Blue Tongue do a pretty poor version, Bundaberg (Qld Rum Co.) do a really great sweeter version that will see you intoxicated very quickly and Jim Beam has just released a version.

Ginger Beer is easy to maake homebrew, either alcoholic or otherwise.
Sarsparella is also an easy hombrew as well, and we done an alcoholic version that was scrummy 🙂

Anyone know what the price for entry to folk fest is…. ahh ill follow the link at the top – apoligies.

Granny said :

I have never in my entire life even heard of an alcoholic ginger beer! I must have this thing. Now!!

It’s the easiest form of homebrew to make – you can pick up a kit for about $70 or so and be making your own in no time, G.

A good tip is to chuck a chilli into each bottle for second stage fermentation, it gives the ginger beer a nice kick.

I like the feral Morris dancers – they make up for the ones who take it seriously. And where else can you go and expect to find at least one good bluegrass band?

I have never in my entire life even heard of an alcoholic ginger beer! I must have this thing. Now!!

Is it true that someone at the Folkie sells a decent alcoholic ginger beer?

Teh bloke who used to fix my car used to rave on about it, from which I gathered that it was a pretty full-on event. He was quite evangelical about it.

Sure reckon the local residents will prefer to have this going on nearby, rahter than the summernats!

Rodney Crowell is playing twice – that’s a good enough reason for me 🙂

I think the calorie and aardvark reasons are the best.

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