It is amazing, but because of the drought I guess these people did not get flooded. It did rain a fair bit during the festival and camping in the storm water drain is just stupid. I mean if it was night when you arrived and you were unfamiliar with the area, you might not notice. But the next morning you would (unless of course you discovered this problem as you found yourself lying in a stream of cold water during the night.
I did find my new tent a bit small. It has been a while since I had a bicycle camping tent and I had not readjusted to life in such a contraption. Also, some people came up and camped right up close. At the end of the festival they appologised as there was actually quite an amount of spare room in the area where we were camped. Again, this was the result, they claimed, of setting up the tents at night.
As I did on every day, I headed down to the poets breakfast. On the way in I discovered that people had been writing in the racing track in the show grounds. Well they had been doing simple track drawings. A very rare type of temporary art here in Australia. So I had to record it for posterity’s sake.
Back at the breakfast, I did not take many photos. But I did get to see Campbell the Swaggie speak. He is one of Australia’s best know poets and he is the best know swaggie. Normally you only get to see him on the street. So this was a rare inside performance.
Back out on the streets, people were learning that traditional Easter pastime, Morris Dancing. I will have to join in one year and learn to do it myself. Then if I was wondering the wild and dangerous streets of Sydney I would be able to carry a big stick. I would claim to the police that this was part of my cultural costume and should be allowed and if attacked I would start to practice my dancing.
I spent a fair bit of the time at the merry muse. They had various students, teachers and such from the School of Music Under the Southern Cross. Some were very good, but they clearly let people in of all different ability levels. I enjoyed the show.
Back out on the street, I was delighted to hear this choir for a short period of time. They only had a few songs left in their set. But their choir leader was very willing to show off for the camera and they put in an excellent performance.
An continuing the theme of it being a folk festival, I heard some great 50’s latin rock, including la bamaba. I head this song twice in the day and it became stuck in my head for some time. What a great piece of music.
After the hard core folk rock of La Bamba, we was the miles to go trio with a more traditional approach to their folk music.
Akoustic Odyssey were a band from Adelaide playing tight good music, more of the world variety. I got the impression that they had picked up some of the fiddle chicks as guest artists, but I am only guessing.
Then, back past the Merry Muse. It was always impossible to not stop for at least a few minutes to listen to some good music.
Then down to see Damien Howard and the plough boys and Pugsley Buzzard in the Trocadero.
Back in the Budawang, I saw the end of Jon Munroe and then got to see all of the Fagans together. Apparently this is quite rare these days.
Then came what I regard as the great surprise of the festival. I was walking back though the Coorong as it was inside, hence warmer and also normally quite. But on this occasion it was dark, there was a huge crowd and lots of loud music. It was the perth band Dunumba. So I just had to stop to watch.
After this, I went back into the depths of traditional Australian folk for the tribute to harry robertson CD launch. Here were lots of not so well know and very Australian folk songs presented by some of the old stalwarts of the folk revival scene. It was great to see.
And then the evening finished with Akasa, David Francey and Craig Worth. David is a national champion folk singer for Canada. He made the comment, so you they say you can sing. He did not believe it. Reluctantly, as if to test a false hypothesis, he asked the audience to sing along with one of his songs. He did the, I’ll stop now to listen and looked rightfully shocked. Not only can the audience sing, but it can sing in harmony and sing songs it has never heard before. Later he did the same stopping and was still shocked.
Finally I saw Totally Gourgeous. The last are one of my favourite bands, though I prefer Penelope Swales as a solo artist. The band tend just to muck around, they play good music, but Penelope on her own is much more serious. And, tragically, the little vide was terrible in quality so I have not posted it.
