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Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Woodford Files 1

Woodford Folk Festival, day one, and everyone is wearing their best festival gear. I should know, I helped sell a lot of it to them from Wild Chilli, my bro- and sis-in-law's stall.

I also mean 'festival' rather than 'hippie' gear, because the range of outfits is vast, from full-blown Goth to eccentric circus to surfy-wurfy kids accompanied by batik- saronged grandparents. Very colourful, as entertaining as the programmed entertainment.

At the moment I'm sitting at a hard-fought for table in The Muse, waiting for Martin Pearson* to get on stage for his first FYI morning show of the festival

Martin is a festival staple, both here and at the National, and this year he starts at 10am rather than 9, hurrah, so things can be done beforehand or sleep-ins can be slept.

I won't be coming to Martin tomorrow because I've enrolled in a morning of life drawing at the Visual Arts festival. But I do hope (now writing after the show) that he chooses his next batch of guests carefully; today he introduced as his regular panellists the marvellous Kristina Olsen and the fantabulous Sandy McCutcheon, and then added two of his (married) mates as the guests for the day, and they sucked all the oxygen out of the session. It will be a lot more fun when he starts pulling the daily guests from the amazing pool of talent whirling around this festival site.

Today I'm hoping to see (hoping, because plans change by the second around here): Jigzag, The Ellis Collective, Pirate Brides, Kristina Olsen, Juzzie Smith, Lior (I'm chasing down a few of my East of Everything favs), Dev'lish Mary and Doch. The Tiny Top is back this year, and The Space Cowboy has brought a freak show he calls 'The Mutant Barnyard' that has Best Beloved salivating.

The weather is perfect so far: warm with cloud cover and a cool breeze that hits every now and again refreshingly. There are threats of rain, but we'll see.

*I can't seem to do links or photos yet from this blogging app, so you'll have to do your own google about things if you want more info. I'll mount photos when I get back.


-- Post From My iPhone

3 comments:

Michelle said...

So much fun you're going to have! I love Doch. I wish they'd come to the National.

Michelle said...

I mean, I wish they'd come to the National AGAIN.

Mummy/Crit said...

Martin is a dag. I remember seeing him in 199mumble (first National in Canberra, at ANU) and laughing until it hurt.