[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.