Woodford Music Festival 05/06

There's only one word to describe this year's Woodford Music Festival - HOT! And I'm not just talking about the music [tho some of that was hot too]. While temps in Sydney and the Mountains soared, they rose even higher in SE Queensland I am betting tht the humidity was around 90% for 100% of the time. This was my second festival. Last year I was a newbie and I also managed the heat better. Fans and spray bottles of water help a lot.

There are lots of things going on at the festival all the time and not just in the music tents. There is shopping, eating, massages, reiki, dancing workshops lecutes [I wandered into one about teeth and he had me until he started showing slides of infected mouths] and street theatre. Or there is just wandering around looking at all the people. There is a series of "streets" which are in a loop with connecting side streets. So there is lots of look at, and it only takes about 1/2 day to figure it out.

This is the pedestrian bus [one form of street theatre], which goes all through the festival at various times. It is totally propelled by feet and the "drivers" are pretty entertaining giving instructions to all the people on board on how to make a left turn. Anyone can hop on the people mover bus at any time.

The festival management made lots of improvements this year...new landscaping and street widening and so there were little lakes to sit by. One was near the Coroborree Grounds and it was wonderful to see everyone lounging around on the sloping hillsides watching dancers from all over Australia do their thing. At night, the sand stage became a fire show with fire dancers etc. Pretty spectacular. So while the population this year was actually bigger, it seemed smaller because a lot more space was created in the festival grounds.

The usual suspects were there: Fruit, The Bluehouse, Ember Swift, and the endless line of folk singers and celtic bands. One really entertaining group were 3 French Canadians who sang french songs that are meant as sing a longs. Even tho none of us could sing along, they had a rousing reception.

Also the Tibetan Monks were there making a sand mandala which was spectacularly beautiful and oh so temporary. It was one of the most popular tents and watching them work was a treat. Seemed like everytime I went into the tent the sunlight was streaming in on them in the most perfect way.

We spent our time moving between the pool at the caravan park where we stayed and the festival. Thank goodness for the pool, I say. One day I put on a singlet at about 8 AM and it stayed soaking wet until I took it off at around midnight.

I felt sorry for the performers. All we had to do was sit there, they had to spend energy and stand under hot lights. The Fire Event at the end was highlighted by Rachel Hore's direction of what must have been 600+ voices in the festival choir. It was truly an amazing feat. Oh yeah the fire works were pretty good too. I can never work out what the theme is for this performance, [didn't manage to figure it out last year either] but it is always entertaining. The bit I like the best is at the beginning, where children and adults walk down the hill into the amphitheatre with paper lanterns swaying in the air. Lovely.
The drive home was quiet....it was an exhausting 6 days!