Port Fairy Folk Festival retrospect

Well the 30th Festival has come and gone and what a fantastic weekend of music it was! This year we weren't able to book accommodation, so dusted off the 30 year old tent and joined the many other hardy festival goers under canvas both day and night. After a very long and trying journey to Port Fairy on Victoria's south west coast, with a detour to Forrest in the Otways to collect our festival chairs, we finally arrived at the Gardens Caravan Park around 9:15 p.m. on Friday 10 March. Tempers became very frayed when Sir Sean (so-called because of an apparent resemblance to 007 Sean Connery!) discovered he'd left the mallet at home and had to hammer the tent pegs in with his boot, the car jack and any other implements he could find in the dark! The application of a hot baked potato soon restored blood sugar and tempers, and we enjoyed a late night concert with Graeme Connors.

The Festival is a very well-organised event, with so many musicians to see in a very wide range of venues, from the five stages in the Festival Arena to small church and school halls and the streets of Port Fairy. New musical highlights for us included The Wailin' Jennys, (a superb Canadian acoustic trio), Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies (Northern England), Gerrry O'Connor & Gilles Le Bigot (amazing fiddler from Ireland and guitarist from Brittany), Chris While & Julie Matthews (England), David Francey (Canada), and Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion (USA, grand-daughter of Woody, daughter of Arlo Guthrie). Familiar favourites included Eric Bogle (an oldie but still a goodie), Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys, Bruce Mathiske and The Bushwackers, with lead Dobe Newton being the PFFF Artist of the Year for 2006.

It was a weekend of total immersion in the music, with the biggest problem being the choice of what to see. The Festival organisers this year had some theme concerts showcasing several artists, which was a great way to sample their music. The one 'issue' for us is the continuing use of low beach chairs, which festival goers carry from venue to venue. In theory this allows everyone to have a good view of the musicians, in practice people spread out and actually take up more room than a normal height seat. Perhaps it's time to rethink this tradition and provide fixed seating in all the venues? Then we wouldn't all complain of PFA (Port Fairy Ar#e!).