WOODFORD FESTIVAL

Happy 2013! It's back to work week here at Sydney 2011, but with the current weather conditions as they are,  it's a definite EASE back to work week... which is totally in keeping with my holiday break destination - WOODFORDIA, home to the Woodford Folk Festival.

I'm not really so sure how it is that the Woodford Folk Festival has managed to escape my radar for so long, being as I am a very big fan of folk music, chai lattes, free hugs, the great outdoors, organic food, intelligent conversation, hippie clothing, alternative ideas and cute boys with tattoos...

Like, seriously guys, where have you been all my life!!!?? Well, okay, at least for the past 25 years which, as it happens, is the life-span of Woodford...

What is this place? Where did it come from? And why am I here?

I can't answer all of those questions but I can possibly give a subjective overview of the WOODFORD EXPERIENCE...

Rewind: one week before Xmas and my journalist buddy R calls me to say "I'm writing a story on Woodford Folk Festival, there's a tent with your name on it, book a flight, we leave on the 27th December, we'll be there for a week".........

SERIOUSLY!? WELL OKAY, I'M UP FOR AN ADVENTURE, LET'S GO!

On the plane : R is being very journalistic and researchy, with pens and circles, and I'm just stressing about my Maglight which I may or may not have left behind and wondering if I can do everything I need to do in the dark, and then randomly wondering if VIRGIN gives us food (a resounding no to both).

On arrival at Brisbane Airport there is a lot of waiting round for buses, drivers and other sundry passengers and FOUR FREAKING HOURS later I have managed to peruse the Woodford guide, which is a couple of centimetres thick with a ZILLION things going on and I'm feeling woefully under-prepared and the Maglight thing is looming.

But it's all  okay right? R is here write a nice story. It's a stress-free zone, RIGHT!?  well, that is until the PRIME MINISTER decides to come to Woodford and it all gets a bit crazy......

The PM? at a hippie-fest? YES and it gets better for not just one, but TWO Prime Ministers (past and present) come along, as Bob Hawke has been a regular for years and Woodford is much, much more than a hippie-fest.

The Festival is a non-stop action packed event with official activities from 8am till around 1am (later on some nights) and something to look at and be amazed by 24 hrs each and every day.

You couldn't possibly see and do everything, as there are around 20 venues [official venues] with overlapping performances covering musical genres like folk, rock, soul, blues, world, traditional. There are dancers, dancing troupes and circus + vaudeville performances. There are workshops in circus skills, dance, pottery, visual arts, glass beads, weaving, drawing. There are street performances and food markets. There are talks on subjects as varied as folk medicine, gardening, Antarctic exploration, sexuality, childbirth, mythology, sustainability and China (Bob Hawke's chosen talk).

There is a lot of laughing and sometimes, some crying too.

There is wide open space and grass to lie on, stars to look at, inspiration to be had, plans to hatch and dreams to be made.

Nobody cares about your piercings, your tattoos, your clothes (or lack of), whether you have fairy wings or antlers.......

It's magical and I'm already planning next year....

photos Lorraine Lock. Woodford Folk Festival .  Lachlan Gardiner. Enright Photography.