National Folk Festival giveaway

You forgot the flowers and sticks Thumper – you can’t be a proper manly morris man without flowers and a stick…and hankies.

And it starts tonight. Woo hoo!!

Last year was my first Folk Festival.
I came to it with fear and trepidation mostly instigated by the eccentric family i travelled with. I remember walking with the mother of this family as she received a phone call from her son who was in the bathroom, apparently it was going to be a big one and we should go on without him, and as she comfortably relayed this message to me i learnt that i was comfortable with all this openness. I learnt so much about myself in those few sort days. I learned i can salsa dance. I learned i can salsa dance wearing a lama-wool poncho. I became a vegetarian and ukelele player. I made life friends and obsessions with various music groups. mal web teaching me to beat-box was incredible. i can’t even remember the names of half the world music groups i saw but i can hum you their tunes. the most bewitching was a pair of harps. enough said.
it’s a life changing event- i want to share it

The Folk Festival is the highlight of my year. It is definitely an immersion experience; a journey to a another place and time in which people are kinder, life is laidback and music and happiness reign supreme. My favourite memories are simple moments such as dancing with my teenage children and their friends, sharing mulled wine with an old school friend that I suddenly stumbled upon, and buying crazy hippie clothes to relive my youth. The significant moments that have stayed with me throughout the year include Eddie Reader reducing a fellow Scot like myself to buckets of tears. I feel as though she’s my age (probably she’s much younger, but that’s the Folk Festival for you) and everything about her music touched a chord with me. I became quite obsessed with seeing her every performance, and suspect I’ll be up the front of every one again this year. Her accent and her stories made me remember who I am, and more importantly, where I come from. That’s just one of so many pivotal memories. Sitting up late at night with family and friends poring over the program, highlighters in hand, sharing the day’s adventures, planning the next and laughing and laughing – those are the special times that only ever happen at the National Folk Festival.

Anyone can afford the folk festival, just volunteer. They are still calling for volunteers on the homepage, http://www.folkfestival.asn.au/

It was about a week before the folkie two years ago. I’d just met a gorgeous woman (we’ll call her Ms F) and we were heading for a 2nd date.

I’m ashamed to say I’d never been to the folkie in my 10+ years of living in Canberra so when the invitation came to spend a day with her there I was pretty nervous for a couple of reasons – would she like me 2nd time round? and what kind of experience was I going to have? I knew it was a test!

I’d planned to meet up with Ms F on Easter Friday afternoon and spend the rest of the day with her. I had to drive back from Sydney on Thursday the eve of Easter. But, on the way back, my crappy old Commodore broke down in Mittagong and I thought I wouldn’t get there. Thanks to a combination of the NRMA, a train and a good friend I made it back home to Queanbeyan.

So crisis averted…on to Friday (thank God I have a motorbike)…
I’d received a text message – “you’re welcome to stay at mine instead of having to ride back to Queanbeyan”…(heart flutter).

The folkie was brilliant – Ms F guided me to various venues and performances in between frequent mugs of mulled wine and lively conversations between friends. I remember seeing wonderful acts like the Crooked Fiddle Band, Mal Webb, Spooky Men’s Chorale, and the Ellis Collective (to name a few). I remember walking round the venues immersed in the happy atmosphere. But most of all I remember an energy so alive you could strum it!

I think I passed the test – now, two years on we’re getting hitched – thanks to the ACT govt and a wonderful Easter Friday at the Folkie.

So now we’re saving for our wedding later in the year and can’t afford the Folkie but we’d love a chance to relive that wonderful day.

Walking into Budawang in anticipation of a performer I had heard good reports of and finding the place packed to the rafters and spellbound by Vin Garbutt who was singing ‘Silver and Gold’. He was a small, curly haired presence on stage and encouraged the audience to sing the chorus with him. The sound of hundreds of people respectfully singing along with him and sounding like a choir is something I will never forget, a truly magic NFF moment.

My favourite folky was my first in 2002. I was working as a volunteer in the children’s tent as a stage hand alongside my buddy, Brady. A mate, Merryn, came each morning and painted my face along with the other willing customers out on the grounds.

One of the acts we had were a well known (yet I can’t think of their name NOW) Aussie couple who did a puppet show with great craftsmanship and captivating storytelling. The children were really well behaved for them because they were so absorbed in what was happening. There was one story where a princess kissed an animal (I don’t think it was the traditional frog… but for arguments sake, lets say it was), which then turned back into a person, or prince, or other kind of majestic being.

The next day while we were closing up the tent an animal, which I’m certain was a rat, scuttled round the edge of the tent and into the scrub. Some of the children in the kid’s activity group saw the movement and argued over what kind of animal it was. A little boy, who must have been around three or four, turned to me and said that I could kiss him (the rodent)so he could be a prince again. I stood there feeling pretty special with my silver moon face paint, being a part of a weekend-long event which in itself felt very magical.

As a former Canberran who attends every year, I find my time at the National to be the 4 days of the year that enable me to get through the rest! Put simply it’s magic, it’s like stepping into another world for just a few days.

I have so many amazing memories of it, from standing with my family in the cold evenings, listening to music coming from the Troubador and drinking mulled wine, to the delight of seeing Liz Frencham appear once more on stage in yet another group or band, to sitting with a crowd of people all stomping and singing along to a Bernard-Carney-led Beatles sing-a-long. I think my favourite memory is from the first time I went though – I was sitting, on my own, listening to a group of Steiner School students from the Yarra Valley play the most beautiful music and just enjoying the feeling of being part of a huge group of people who were nice, kind, joyful, inspired and inspiring.

I’ve never been anywhere else that has such an atmosphere!
May it long continue 🙂

Got our season tickets already.

From her performance at Woodford some years back and a pub show a year or so later, I can recommend Kristina Olsen – great musician and a funny woman.

Yes Candelabra, “calming” and “earthy” are two good words for folk festivals and the people who go to them. For many people it is a wake-up introduction to a different life approach. Without needing to move to Nimbin, there is a better way for people to live their lives. Working with environment groups and campaigners back in Qld, it was always personally enriching to be with so many good people.