A weft yarn

National Folk Festival 2012

The National Folk Festival takes place in Canberra over the Easter weekend. The dates for Easter move around between March and April and have something to do with the first Sunday after the full moon of the ... something, something. I'm no expert. But I can tell you there's a full moon in the photo below. It's the big round bluey looking light between the flags. Hard to see amongst all the colour, crowds, lights, floating star-shaped lights and of course, flags, but there nonetheless. Strangely enough it was NOT freezing cold while I took this picture. For the past two years, we had been shocked by how cold it got at night, but this time around, the weekend was strangely warm and the evenings were a bit cold but not bone chilling cold.

We managed two days this year: Saturday and Monday. This, our third year, of attending in recent times (we went pre-children but only started back with children fairly recently) was our most musical year. In previous years, Tess and I spent quite a bit of time just soaking up the crafts, the workshops, the music and the stalls. This year though, I spent more time pouring over the schedule and put some time into trying to hear a range of music I thought I might like.

 Over the two days we saw some great sights, heard some wonderful music, ate yummy food, shopped at creative stalls, and enjoyed a craft workshop. I love the spectacle, the buskers, the flow of people, the colours, the richness of all the different venues and the playfulness of some of the acts. We enjoyed the Leonard Cohen tributes and many, in a loving and supportive way, had a good laugh at Leonard's slow drawling, dark, style. I was anxious that there would be an over abundance of Hallelujah but it was not done to death. In fact, the Cashew's gave it a very comic feel. Who would have thought? I didn't get to hear the complete two hour finals, but heard from Tim that there were some very fine performances.

I thought the most exciting band of the two days for me was Shooglenifty. They were very trippy kind of Celtic frantic Arabic fiddle music. No lyrics. Sounds weird but it was mind tinglingly beautiful. I had an overwhelming sensation of musicality. Like they weren't playing music they were being music. It was at times lyrical but more like being lyrical on fast forward. It's hard to explain how fast their music is.

Here's a six minute song from their Budawang performance.

courtesy of some other dude who attended (his name is on the video).

The other highlight for me was Yeshe. I may have mentioned before that my brother plays the Mbira, that he gave my son an Mbira from Zimbabwe and that at previous Nationals we have sought out some African music. Well Yeshe was just perfect for me. He played Mbira but mixed it with violin and catchy harmonies and lyrics. From his website he says...“After stumbling across the Mbira in the desert of New Mexico I was immediately put under a spell and shortly after had to follow it to it’s birthplace in Zimbabwe. There I found Mbira master Garkayi Tirikoti and totally immersed myself into the Shona culture, basically never leaving his sight and sleeping on his floor in the ghettos of Harare. The Mbira thereafter became the centerpiece of my music.” Somehow the blending of the Mbira with western style music really worked for me.

This clip is only 4 mins and is very beautiful.

 

Last year Tim enjoyed the Spooky Men and because we are still relative newbies to the National we weren't aware that acts can't come back for at least two years so we had scanned the program looking for more spooky and while first disappointed eventually we found Fred Smith who did some of his performances with a small gathering of the Spooky Men. We didn't get to hear or see him perform the new CD 'dust of urguzan', which we gather from some friends who attended that it was stunning. However, his 'Urban Sea Shanties' was right up our alley.

We also spent a bit of time in the big top of the Majestic enjoying Boisterous, a couple of circus performers. They had us playing along with them, great audience control. And as they finished they said "if you loved us, we're....Boisterous [cue roar of crowd] and if you didn't, we're.....Morris Dancers."

The venues are fantastic at the festival. The large indoor venues all have comfortable seats, comfortable carpet for when you need to lie down and stare at the lights flickering on the ceiling, places to dance down the front, stands to sit up above it all and get a good view of the stage, large screens to showcase the performers...seen below is Katie Noonan. Huge favourite of the festival. I loved her jazzy singing.

While I enjoyed the band below....it was really Mic Conway (famous for his junkyard and jug bands) but playing this year with Robbie Long and Liz Frenchman who gave us the most joy in this venue, the Marquee.

I hate to admit this but I'm pretty sure I heard Mic Conway's Junkyard band back in the mid-90s at the National. I still love his irreverant, sometimes bawdy, witty word play, often slapstick, comic, ridiculous and playful music. This man is a long-lived, musical clown who never fails to amuse and entertain. This clip below is subtle by the standards of his other songs...but gotta love someone who plays a saw, in a tuxedo. 

That's all for this year's report. See you next year. We'll either do two days again...or make the jump to a season family pass. Not quite sure were up to the jump yet. We'll see.

Previous posts

National Folk Festival (April 2011)

National Folk Festival

I love Easter. I love that it is a celebration but yet so much more low key than Christmas. I love that it happens in Autumn, when Canberra is in technicolour landscape mode. I love the chocolate, the lazing around, the longish break from work. It is all-round good. This year I didn't manage to stitch any small felt objects for the kids. Sigh. I had plans and had dragged out patterns and books and gathered supplies but they just kind of sat in the loungeroom. Somethings just aren't meant to be.

But what we did do, was rediscover the National Folk Festival. We used to go prior to having children, and then we went once in 1999 when our first born was 2 but I must have found it overwhelming. Perhaps back then there wasn't childcare available, or if there was, I wasn't interested in leaving my toddler with strangers, or remembering back to that toddler maybe he wasn't interested in staying with strangers...anyway, we took a long hiatus. Last year in 2010, we went back and spent a fantastic day with the whole family and bumped into friends, work colleagues and acquaintances, heard great music, ate fantastic food, enjoyed each other's company and vowed to make it a regular event. The kids were very ready for this world and wanted to spend more than one day there this year. Unfortunately, this also wasn't meant to be. We've got a range of family commitments this Easter that prevented us spending more than one day. But still, one day was fantastic.

These are the felt wallets that came in the lucky dip from the Canberra feltmakers stall. Tess kept one and gave me the other. In preparation for the Festival, Tess had done jobs around the house for about a week to earn extra pocketmoney. It worked well for both of us, she had her own money and so there were not so many negotiations. Though I did need to spend reasonably long periods waiting for her to make her selections. Still, way better than nagging and grumps.

We hung out together because we wanted to check out the stalls. The boys went straight to music venues. For us - Canberra feltmakers was a highlight as was the wool clothing, the artistic paper folded botanical specimens under bell jars, the Nepalese felt stall, and the South American Llama stall. Last year we hadn't anticipated the chill that descends in the afternoon, that morphs into deep cold by the evening, so the vague member of the family, who came without warm clothes, purchased a beautifully soft jumper. We were all very happy to cuddle up to him. This year I bought both children an amazing, knitted, zip up jacket, which is lined with fleece. Very warm. The teenage son's one is significantly more modest than this colourful bird. The gloves were from the same stall - the Nepalese Felt stall, but again, purchased with her own money.

After our purchases, we tried to enrol for the feltmaking session from 1:00pm-2:30pm but it was all full. When I asked how early would we have to sign up, the volunteer replied "on Thursday". Oops not quite that organised! Still it is free and all. She encouraged us to drop back later "just in case" and when we went back later and looked over their shoulders, they were doing amazing things with felt.

After all this, we were both ready for a sit down, some lunch and some music. I spent the afternoon at the Troubador sitting outside, drinking coopers, with the sun warming my back, listening to a range of eclectic folk music from Australian performers, much of which included fiddle (yay, love a bit of fiddle). It was wonderful to just sit and unwind and be in the moment and surrounded by the music and to periodically watch the crowds. I had nowhere else to be. Later in the day, we moved between the Flute and Fiddle, the Budawang, the Marquee and the dancefloor. I love the dancefloor. This hit a chord with us last year and I was very keen to do it again. My son had been given a Mbira from my brother, who is a bit of whiz at this instrument, and had spent a bit of time in Zimbabwe learning how to play. So last year, we were keen to do a workshop with Fabio Chivanda – Mbira player , and as he was playing a dance set in the early evening, we went to that as well. Boy, was that exciting. The beat, the crowd, the dancing, the ages from 8-80 all doin' their thing, the safety, the joy. I loved it. So, this year, we made a beeline to the Piazza and joined the crowds enjoying Afro Mandinko.

We were putty in their hands with the beat..waiting...

Here's my brother's mbira playing. It's more folky than the rollicking dancefloor above.