Oyez! Oyez! It’s on again!

The 2009 National Folk Festival

Now that you’ve had five minutes to catch your breath after the wonderful 2008 National Folk Festival, it’s time to start preparing for 2009.

Next year South Australia is the Featured State and we can expect another roll-call of great talent and wonderful ideas. (Do you remember the wonderful wooden boat that was part of the 2003 South Australian contribution? It was moored in the Budawang and became a popular young folks’ cubby house). I’ve just picked up a fascinating book on the Cornish miners who settled little Cornwall at Moonta, SA, if anyone would like to borrow it as a resource. (Ed: my father was born there.)

The musical theme for 2009 is Music of the Americas (all of them – North, South Latin and Central) and the social theme is Natural Fibres - now there’s a concept to conjure with!

The 2009 National will run 9-13 April; Performer Applications will open on-line on June 1^st and close on August 31^st. Booking notifications should be out by the first week in December.

So – it’s time to start hunting, gathering, researching, collaborating and rousing your Muse!

Contact the Festival office on 0262 49 7755; website www.folkfestival.asn.au

NAG Exhibit

You can find folkies everywhere…. Dave O’Neill, Artistic Director of the National Folk Festival has won himself a place in the National Gallery of Australia. If you’re around Canberra any time until 9 November it’s worth popping in to the Gallery to see Picture Paradise, an exhibition of photography in the Asia-Pacific region from 1840s to 1940s. If you watch the video presentation that’s part of the exhibition you’ll also catch some great folk music; original tunes and classics like Weevils in the Flour - sung and played by one Dave O’Neill. Great soundtrack and musicianship … and the exhibition’s pretty good too.