St Alban’s Folk Festival 2008
- from Maureen O'Brien (performer)

in the blink of an eye it was all over, done and dusted ....well muddied really. And this years fest - like every other - had some memorable moments. Those little golden chestnuts that will be remembered until they're forgotten.

Like;
* the midnight strolls ....better make that slides and glides .....along the infamous road behind the pub .. affectionately [kidding!] referred to as the bloody bleeding great BOGHOLE...when torchlight would only have been helpful if it was carrying a thousand watt globe....and where the potholes [make that craters] were eagerly waiting to suck in any unsuspecting passing damsel. The blokes didn't seem to have the same difficulty - maybe it was the mellow glow that lifted them a few inches above the ground!
*and the knight in shining armour......that this unsuspecting damsel - who just happened to be setting up a tarp with all the applomb of a blind and armless boy scout - thought was coming to her rescue, expecting to hear a friendly 'give ya a hand luv...' and instead got a terse 'piss off [or words to that effect], this here's private property'. aaah, the sweet sound of aussie chivalry!
*and aaaah, the sweet surprise of finding all the loo's equipped with water, paper and tealights! such luxury. Not to mention the addition of a good vegetarian food stall this year. we're really stepping up into the big leagues now.
*one again the quality of the performers just blew me away .....even the blackboard concerts and folkie karioke jumped out of the box with a couple of emerging 'stars' coming to light........I couldn't pick out a favourite this year but "3 left feet" certainly gave me the biggest laughs of the weekend - they were a hoot!

This festival deserves a gold silver and bronze medal for the way it nurtures and encourages new and emerging talent whilst still supporting the long time favourites. The organisation - despite critical funding shortages and underwhelming volunteer support - is top quality. And as always, the festival vibe is truly unique. Nowhere else have I come across such relaxed, tolerant, understanding, and enthusiastic audiences. The spirit of music is certainly thriving in the St Albans festival.

Congratulations to you all and thank you for having me back again
maureen o'brien

 

St Alban’s Folk Festival 2008
- from Bill Quinn

The St Albans Folk Festival organisers turned on an enjoyable weekend north-west of Sydney over the Anzac Day long weekend in April.

Despite the small size of the village, tucked into a picturesque bend on the MacDonald River, the venues were spread out over a reasonable area, and punters could kid themselves into believing that a hike up the hill to the Gallery or the Church could burn off some of that breakfast egg and bacon roll.

Like many small festivals, the set-up was such that any blow-in punter could be camping next to headline performers. It's an attractive aspect of smaller festivals that evening tune and/or singing sessions in the camping grounds can be such a mix of punters and performers.

For the author, it was the first folk festival (ever) that I'd bought a ticket for, i.e. no volunteering, no MC-ing, no choirs. So my code-word for St Albans 2008 was 'workshops'.

And they got a hammering.

Beeswing gave a few insights for the uninitiated into coal-mining songs, including an overhead projector for a visual presentation of the content of their songs, and more importantly for some, the lyrics to sing along with. For the overflow of participants out the side door, the group even read some lyrics out, which was just as well. At least one punter was wondering about the reference to the 'bearded Jew' until it became clear the correct lyric was 'bid adieu'.

As one presenter at the Workshop Cabin pointed out, the configuration of the venue (someone's weekender) was useful to maintain a healthy crowd for the duration: "We thought you were all captivated - you just can't get out!"

Mary Jane Field led a very well-attended participative singing workshop (including one or three of Mary Jane's Bright Star Singers) at the Gallery Café on chorus songs from around the world. And we did indeed take a tour around England, Africa, Israel, and one Aboriginal language group."

Later, the ever-popular (and always at St Albans) Wheeze and Suck Band graced the verandah of the Gallery with their very popular sea shanties workshop. The Wheezers urged the crowd to patronise the Gallery Café liberally so they could afford a wider verandah at the 2009 festival - the 2008 crowd was spilling back into the gallery, around the corner, and down the stairs.

A workshop highlight for me was Maureen O'Brien's 'Borderless', an hour of songs and stories from Maureen and friends about the experiences of women in the diaspora from Ireland, both convict and 'free settlers', the latter group not always finding themselves so free. Very informative and illuminating.

Penelope Swales played in the main tent to appreciative audiences, as she mused over the conflicting priorities of studying law and politics while continuing to do her music. The crowd urged her to focus on the music.

A new set of faces for this reviewer were Three Left Feet who seemed to be coping well with their cross-over status. "We're a blues band at a folk festival, so the obvious choice is to do a reggae tune!" Which they did with spectacular energy, prompting a possibly only half-joking request at the end of the number: "Can we have some CPR up here?!"

That was only a warm-up as the Wheeze and Suck Band took the stage for the last spot of the evening and ripped it up, ever-so slightly sneaking over the PA curfew time, as the crowd didn't quite understand the concept of 'just time for one encore'.

After some drizzly and misty beginnings, the weekend weather was superb and Sunday morning was spectacular, prompting a good turnout for the Chorus Cup. The field was small-ish, but the quality was there. It's always good to see the youth get involved, and the Apple Icy'z knew how to work some good audience reaction into their lyrics:

Clap goes the audience, clap clap clap
We come here every year
You can't stop us coming back

Winners of the open section, The OK Chorale, could yet need a trip to the High Court to defend their title, as they themselves admitted that the 'chorus' in their song (to the tune of 'I Was Only 19') was, well, non-existent at worst, and at best consisted of three words ('God help me'). Apart from the pseudo-chorus, however, there were some absolute defining moments in lyricism:

Then Vic Jeffries yelled out "Poet's Breakfast!"
And the bloke behind me swore
A boring man recited "How McDougal Topped the Score"

Or how about:

And can somebody tell me why my tent still stinks of puke?
And what on earth possessed me to buy a purple uke?

Breath-taking.

Chorus Cup judge Fred Smith was a big hit with the St Albans crowds and after the cup winners had been crowned, he treated the audience to an eclectic set of humour, emotion and yes, a little light Sunday afternoon devil worshipping arm movements. Fred sprinkled in a few numbers from his new 'Texas' album and was joined on stage by Penelope Swales to a great reception as proceedings started to wind down.

As the sun started to toy with the idea of heading further westwards and down a little, it was time to head the wagons south. The line-up at the Webbs Creek ferry did give a few of us the chance to have an end-of-festival de-brief. One of those leaning on bonnets and boots was Michael-John Azzopardi, who had performed his ever-popular blend of acoustic wizardry on the main stage over the weekend, the last set including some back-up from Chris Gillespie and one of his Wandering Hands.

It was a cruisey way to ease out of festival mode and to contemplate a return visit around about Anzac Day 2009.

One could get used to this concept of turning up to a festival to be a punter.

Big raps to all the organisers, coordinators, and volunteers for a great little festival.

Bill Quinn
overheard@optusnet.com.au
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ovhrprod/

Kids Festival 2008
- from Margaret Bradford

The rain certainly didn't daunt anyone's enthusiasm at the festival especially the kids who exhausted all the supplies we had for them. Kids love creating. Give them a variety of materials some scissors, glue etc and they'll be busy for hours inventing the most unusual creations. Their imaginations run wild!

We only had one entry in the kids section of the chorus cup but that was brilliant and very promising if this is an indication of future folkies!
Parents help was invaluable. It meant we could do so much more. I always find that parents who take the trouble to bring their children to kids events are usually very dedicated and so keen to help.
I certainly enjoyed myself working with them, exhausting though it is at times.
So many kids and Mums came up to me and said how much they enjoyed the entertainment and the activities.

St Alban’s Folk Festival 2008
- from Mary Jane Field (performer)

Thanks so much for having me, and the Bright Star Singers, at the Festival this year. I hadn’t been to St. Alban’s for nearly thirty years, it was wonderful to be part of things this year.

One of my memories all those years ago was waiting at the ferry late at night, my kids (now grown up with kids of their own) asleep in the back seat, while down the line of cars people began getting out and singing and playing instruments to pass the time. As the tin whistles and fiddles and voices rang out on Sunday afterrnoon at the Webb’s Creek crossing I could see nothing has changed! Everyone still inspired!

One of the things I loved this year was seeing so much of the lines between folk music genres blurred – at the Settler’s Arms one evening we were regailed with old pop songs everyone loved, accompanied by bodhran and tin whistle, even. On the next evening all I could hear was folk songs popular in earlier years, such as “The Wild Rover.”

Some of my Bright Star Singers had never been to a folk festival and they loved the experience. We founhd the audiences supportive and appreciative of our brackets, and we really enjoyed singing for them.

I, too, found supportive listeners in the people that came to my singing workshop and the ones that came (trudging through the mud up the hill!) to my little concert spot, and I loved the opportunity of sharing my music with them.

We all certainly all enjoyed the opportunity to sing as much as possible. And what great acoustics in the Church!

How the organizers coped with the mud and rain, I don’t know, but you did a great job at the practical end of things, so many details to cover …. (At the Chorus Cup there were aspersions cast on the Port-a-loos, but I have to say that every time I used one it was clean and had plenty of toilet paper! So maybe take it as poetic license … )

So thank you to everyone, for myself and on behalf of the Bright Star Singers, for having us to the Festival and for putting on such a great show for everyone to enjoy.

As ever, Mary-Jane