The Festival Explored

Aside from the amazing music there is art, cabaret, ceremonies, circus, comedy, debates, films, food, forums, poetry, shopping, street threatre, walks, workshops and more…

There are also numerous venues for forums and presentations on all topics from A-Z; like alternative health, healing, the environment, politics - the list is varied and endless. Or you you’re a hands-on type of person you can (amongst many other things) learn to: basket weave, dance (in many styles & nationalities), fire twirl, or even play the tin whistle. Something for everyone!

Some further explanation of events:

Klownsville
Excerpts: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” “Do not enter if you are timid and don’t wish to be confronted with the freaks that live in Klownsville.” “Watch for the weird and wonderful, the unusual, the obsessive and the manic.” “… but be careful, you may never leave.”

The Tiny Top - Sideshow show
Excerpts: Gasp in Horror! Laugh with amusement! Real People Doing Real Things! It’s a variety of freaks, natural born oddities and trained humans performing elegant stunts of daring and dexterity

Woodford Street Procession & Performers
Every night in the festival streets there is a single file, silent parade, this year featuring “the Festival lantern boat project”.
As well, many performers roam the streets interacting with the crowd, such as Big Rory, The Giant Seagulls, the Butt Hunters, the Unicycle crew and many more.

3 Minutes of Silence
Quote: “The whole Festival comes together before the New Year to experience something special at the Woodford Folk Festival - a shared silence. Light your candle and ponder the past and future.”

Fire Event - Safe Journey (Closing Ceremony)
The closing ceremony takes place New Years Day evening, up at the Amphi. This year the fire event “theme” was a large lighthouse which was burnt.
Quote: “Climb aboard and sail away with the artists, actors and musicians of the Festival’s Closing Ceremony - The Fire Event - as they leave the shore for the voyage to the unknown.” - Paul Lawler, Director

Those marked “excerpt” or “quote” above from Woodford Folk Festival site - see for further details.

Of course there’s also such a fantastic peaceful feeling to the festival, the performers, the volunteers and the crowd. It is by far the nicest festival I’ve had the privilege of enjoying.

Some Woodford stats:

• 6 days and nights
• 340 acres
• Over 130,000 aggregate festival goers (avg 20,000 each day)
• Over 2000 performers and 400 events in 20 venues
• 40+ food stalls/cafes

• ??? campers

Anyone know a reliable figure for how many season campers Woodford takes? I’ve heard 15,000, I’ve also heard 25,000 - but I have no idea. There are hundreds of same-looking streets in the season camping area in which to get lost so… Would love to hear if anyone knows the answer to this.

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Time to welcome in the New Year

It’s now officially 2008, the silly season is supposed to have come to an end. New years resolutions have been made (will they be kept?). Many are sleeping off the effects of the previous evenings events, or, even continuing on?

Woodford Folk Festival has another tradition of welcoming the first sunrise of the New Year with a ceremony on the hilltop amongst the Tibetan monks and many festival goers. The only downside was that the sun didn’t show itself. Now, we know it did rise (one of life’s certainties), it just wasn’t very visible. Never to mind, surely it doesn’t mean that our year will be in clouded in doubt as well??

Guess I’ll have to wait for another Woodford festival to experience this.

Musical highlights of our last day - Day 6:

• TeTe (Fra) - self taught musician sometimes called the “French Jeff Buckley”
• Dick Desert & The Shotgun Country Club (Aus): Dick mixes upfront and honest political views with comedy in lyrics. Genre? uhm… avant garde punk (outlaw) country?
• Bablyon Circus (Fra) - 10-piece blend of raw energy ska, punk, afro-beat, folk and reggae

Another highlight (no), experience - was keeping out of the rain in an almost empty bar when all of a sudden we were surrounded by about 30 clowns… Luckily, I don’t have a clown phobia, however, you still couldn’t help but feel you were a part of Stephen King’s “It”, or “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” or something… weird! Of course, there was a logical explanation - Woodford’s Klownsville had just closed for the festival.

The rainy yet spectacular closing ceremony will have to wait another year as well — 6 days of rain have tired us. Or was it the festival itself?

Hope you’ve enjoyed our shared experiences and musings. If some things I’ve mentioned over the past 6 days have baffled you, check out Woodford - Not Just Music - or drop us a comment below.

Cheers

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