Oh how I missed Woodford!

Oh how I missed Woodford! It’s still the best way to see the New Year in if you live in Australia. I decided I would write my first blogpost about it for that reason. The festival represents so many things that are important to all of us: music, dance, art-making, community, environment, health and the power of words. And it is everything you missed during the pandemic: waking up in your tent to the sounds of the bush and music and people going about their business as if this happened every day of the week. Clusters of people under a tree having their morning coffee (me) or morning yoga on the Village Green (other people). And of course, the weather swung from heat wave temps at 80% humidity to pouring with rain. Shorts and gumboots weather. Although on NYE add sequins to that.

The last time I had attended was in 2018/19 with Gyimesi Project (now renamed Strike & String since nobody knew how to pronounce Gyimesi) with my partner, fiddler Mark Richards. This time I didn’t perform but gave a series of workshops with parents with babies on the power of singing together for postnatal mental health. As is fitting for these kind of workshops, it was mostly singing with a bit of singing coaching and mental health tips on the side. Highlights were that, on a few of occasions, I had 3 generations of one family singing together: grandparents, parents and baby! Success! The Woodford children’s area is tops! I also sat in and sang a few tunes at my partner Mark Richards’ Hungarian Fiddle workshops which were well-attended by an unusually large number of skilled fiddlers, attracted no doubt by the improved workshop offerings at Woodford.

There was a bit of trepidation from many long-term Woodfordians about the changing of the guard. Both the organisers and attendees were noticeably younger. But then, years have passed. The Festival began with legendary director Bill Hauritz officially handing over the reins after 30 years to Amanda Jackes. But Amanda has been working with Bill for years and most changes I saw were good ones. The Grande has now has been re-landscaped into a smaller version of the amphitheatre. The only event now staged at the Amphi is the finale, The Renewal, which is now a Light event rather than a Fire event. Good move in this time of climate change where Queensland is particularly hard-hit. The last thing the state needs is a conflagration at a folk festival! Best of all, there is a much stronger emphasis on participation with serious music workshops throughout the programme, and more venues for people to jam - something that we have missed there since the very early days of Maleny and Woodford (Yes, I was there). I do miss the demise of the Folklorica and Blue Lotus venues and also felt the lack of the culturally wider range of music that the Folklorica provided. The Blue Lotus in the evening provided a different, more active youth angle than the Pineapple Lounge can do on its own. And the new session venue The Craic was noticeably very Anglo-Celtic in focus as the name implies. My all-night jamming Hungarian and Balkan friends will still need some convincing before they believe they will be welcome there.

Regarding performance, it’s always hard to choose but here are two performance highlights for me from Woodford Folk Festival

On News Year Eve, there was a Hogmanay programme featuring two great bands visiting from Scotland: Assynt and Dallahan. Here Dallahan invited to the stage the Jabuguy Dancers from Kuranda in northern Queensland

Happy 2024 everyone!