Maldon Folk Festival
The hill was alive with the sound of music
Ah the Folk Festival! It took over the town yet again last weekend for the 38th year in a row with an amazing array of musical talent in the town, in every pub, church, hall and all around the streets and up the hill, more commonly known as Mount Tarrengower. In spite of the rain on Friday night, the event took off with a bang.
As ‘The Times Team’ traipsed around from venue to venue with camera and notebook in hand, the most obvious thing about the Folk Festival was the fact that it is pure fun. Maybe it’s hard work for the organisers, but they are well and truly recompensed by the sheer popularity of the event with all age groups. From ‘Snake Busters Alive’ at the Maldon Primary School Market, serious soul music at the Penny School Gallery, to the eternal buskers and their Irish jigs outside the Grand Hotel. No one was left out of the toe tapping, high frequency excitement of live music in all its variations.
There are so many terrific performances. The sheer constancy of them kept eager busloads of participants moving from Francis Street to the mountain in a never-ending round trip all day and night from Friday to Monday.
On the first night after hearing a particularly beautiful song at the Penny School by Meryl Wilkinson, ‘The Times’ ventured through the rain to the Bush Dance in the Masonic Hall. The Gay Charmers from up near Boort were, in some cases, even older than the reporter, but they had everyone in the hall up and dancing instantly with old time favourites like the ‘Pride of Erin’.
While the Maldon Brass Band played to relaxed Folkies around the Rotunda on Saturday, various buskers drew crowds to their performances as the Morris Dancers were strutting their stuff in Main Street with gay abandon. They even jingle when they walk!
The Instrument Makers’ Exhibition was totally fascinating, particularly when you realise complexity of the craft involved in making them. The range of guitars, harps, flutes and such, as well as an instrument for cutting the shapes was quite an eye opener. There was even a singing dog in the Main Street. I think it was howling because it hated its master’s mouth organ.
Local MP Maree Edwards dropped in on Saturday and was full of praise for the amazing amount of voluntary work that had gone into staging the Festival. She noted that she had reported on the two most recent Maldon events in Parliament, which means they are recorded on Hansard for all time. After a coffee at the Penny School, Maree and her husband Steve went on to wander around to other venues and performances following a busy morning at the opening of the Bendigo Primary Care Clinic.
At the Poet’s Breakfast on Sunday, bush poet Ed Walker from Narre Warren played MC to a varied program of poetry and yarns, including Campbell the Swaggie and a number of young contenders. The ballad of an ex-surfer, ‘Clancy of the Undertow’, was a great hit.
Up the hill at The Butts it was on for young and old in spite of the chilly weather, with non-stop activity in the Guinness Tent and the Wine Tent. While children were kept busy with various activities including the Balloon man and art workshops with Newstead artist Karen Pierce.
There were so many highlights during the weekend that it is quite impossible to do them all justice in words, so the pictures in this edition will tell the story better than 1000 more words.