The Woodford Folk Festival is a wonderful cultural event that I’ve been hearing about for some time now.
My friend Jay, an American musician living in QLD has told me I must check it out sometime and this week I did.
Woodford is a small town in southern QLD and for several days at the end of each year its population is swelled by festival goers and performers bringing creativity, enjoyment and money to a lot of people. The festival site is 240 acres, it has 42 food outlets and 10 licenced bars.
I went with Jay and his wife Debbie who performed a half a dozen readings and played a gig while I was there. We were joined by Judy and Ken who offered me a spot under the awning of their combi-van. Our ride from Brisbane was around an hour, maybe a bit more and getting inside was no problem at all. The thing about this festival is that although its is fairly large, the whole atmosphere is low key…no signs, lines or cops.
I bought my ticket on arrival, $77 for a day and night session plus camping. The price seemed steep but when I considered bathroom facilities are all over including showers and the site is well planned out and clean, it didn’t spoil my time. Also the music events wind up at 2am so you can see a fabulous line up of talent all day long at one of the 17 stages.
The streets are covered with pebbles so you don’t get muddy and lined with food and arts vendors. I tell you it really reminded me of the Eugene Saturday Market with the alternative nature of the items on offer which included clothes from Nepal, Morocco, India, musical instruments and healing arts. The good thing for those not too into the hippie culture is that this is not a drug fest, it’s a music festival and there are plenty of great shows.
The first place I went was the Chai tent, which has a super mellow atmosphere and serves a mean chai. While sitting I got to hear a fabulous musician called Rob Longstaff who blew everyone away with his clean guitar playing and soulful voice. I bought the CD.
On arrival the sun was intense and the heat quickly built up to what must have been 100f. I was dreading suffering through that the whole time.
A very nice Guinness bar had been set up and by the time my first pint had been pulled ( about a hour after arrival ) the Celtic muso’s were already whipping up the craic (can you do that?).
Over course of the 2 days I got to watch a selection of musical and performing arts including Lindsey Pollock who takes house hold items and plays them ( he even attached a mouthpiece to the bottom of his music stand and played it. With such an abundance of talent my friends and I were talking about how each musician could improve, some being great singers and players, but not being strong in the song writing department. For me I take my hat off to all of them first for being there and second for having most of the picture.
Probably the strangest act I saw was Conan the Bubblemaker who blew bubbles the size of melons using just his hands and sent them into the audience. The finale of his show was playing with bubbles on a light table, quite amazing.
My overall opinion of Woodford is that it’s a great time and people are super friendly. I spent $77 for my first day’s ticket and camping ( somehow forgot to get another one, maybe it was the excitement).
Meals average about $9 and drinks are reasonable with a $3.80 price for Guinness.
The weather mellowed out and it was actually very pleasant, even chilly last night with the stars shining brightly above.
For those without a car you can do the smart thing and hitch hike or take a special bus ($7) from the main gate to Caboolture station which connects with Brisbane ($5).
Planet Radio Woodford 87.6FM provides updates of the happenings.
The Woodford Folk Festival is organised by the Queensland Folk Federation Incorporated, a community based non-profit organisation whose object is to foster the folk movement.
PMB 2 Woodford QLD 4514
Phone 07 5496 1066
Fax 07 5496 3196
Email qff@woodfordfolkfestival.com
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There are whole yards devoted to buying and selling of junkers for that kind of cash. Travelers can easily dip into this market and buy a car for cheap and if you can take care of any problems that arise yourself, you’ll save even more.
There’s also a healthy market of travelers selling to travelers once they’re done with their trip.
Good trip:
Question: I tend to buy a car for about $500 (I’m a reasonable mechanic on my own vehicles). Is this possible in Australia, or does the paperwork or liscencing make it prohibitive? Say, buy it with 9months of liscence and sell in 8months?
Thanks,
matthew.