the spirit of Woodford continues into the new decade

An hour inland of Australia's glorious Sunshine Coast is the small farming town of Woodford where at the end of December each year a gathering of unique and inspiring of festival entertainment can be found. The annual Woodford Folk Festival commenced on 27th of December 09 and ran for six days until the late hours of the 1st day of the new year.

Don't be fooled by the word 'folk' in the title, many Brits would be imagining old bearded men playing banjos and washboards, but the truth is far broader and all encompassing. 'Folk' in the truest sense is embraced here and that is simply music for the people, by the people. This may be anything from reggae to rock, drum and bass to funk. The style is unimportant, what can be said is that the music here celebrates the theme of human existence and what it is to come together and enjoy each others company. This is perhaps 'folk' in its purest form and most of the acts here create their sound organically using non-digital instruments with the emphasis on fun and showmanship.

After last years intensely hot affair I now understand why Aussies are delighted when it rains, as its wonderful chance to cool off with the knowledge that it wont be long before everything will be dry and hot again. This seasons event produced a bit of everything, a nice balance, without anything too extreme to hamper the proceedings and enough pre-event rain to ensure the surrounding forest was verdant.

A seemingly slow start to the proceedings at Woodford 09, most likely due to the turbulent weather on the coast deterring festival goers from making the journey inland, served as a good build up as during each day the numbers and tempo grew as new year's eve approached. Street theatre and side show was strong this year and the colourful parades and ceremonies created a buzz on the site. Jam sessions began and people partied all over the festival area creating their own entertainment in addition to that provided all increasing the flow and excitement that was unfolding.

Whilst the scheduled music of this season's Woodford Folk Festival lacked the massive variety of previous years the quality wasn't compromised. A welcome back to John Butler Trio saw him play twice, one in the huge natural outdoor amphitheatre. His set was blisteringly high in energy with the perfect mix of new and old songs. The full venue lay witness to his guitar genius showcased impeccably and perhaps best on the instrumental track “Oceans” in which he dug deep to release many changing guitar riffs as the song changed from intro to crescendo.

Other notable gems of the festival were Dubmarine, a local act who could easily challenge on an international level given the opportunity and Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro who hailed from Japan and came to get funky. The six piece package of energy masterfully created a playground of noise to get feet dancing regardless of language or culture and the crowd responded to them each time they performed. Many other artists were there fitting the mood or style of a particular time or place and whilst there are more than can be mentioned Woodford's festival patrons had many chances to listen as many of the acts played three, four or even five times.

As is Woodford Folk Festival tradition at about 5am on the first day of the new year anyone still functioning from the night before, or keen enough to wake early, migrates to the hill to watch the first sunrise of the coming year. Accompanied by Tibetan monks chanting and musicians this symbolic act seems profound and rejuvenating – giving hope for the coming year ahead.

As the Tibetans finished and hundreds of people lay in the grass admiring the first rays of sun upon the hill something magical happened. A few drummers began drumming, slowly other musicians gravitated towards them adding more sounds such as trumpet, guitar and trombone. Within minutes smiling faces everywhere could be seen as people dance to the Can-can, Birdie Song and as many other ridiculous songs as the musicians could reproduce. How many people on earth can say their first memory that they took into 2010 was one quite so farcical and heart warming.

After the sunrise the remains of the festival are perhaps anti-climax or at best a warm down but people continued to enjoy the entertainment for another day, many with reluctance for it to ever end. Woodford Folk Festival is special and the majority of the organizers and those attending are very aware of this and care for the place without taking it for granted. There is a kindness and spirit on the site that may seem almost naive to those in the 'outside world' and like a nature reserve (,which it almost is as thousand of new trees are planted each year,) it is lovingly protected and developed for future generations. The future for Woodford Folk Festival is strong whilst its spirit remains and it's attendees will take their positive experiences into the outside world with them.

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