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)