Worlds away from the big stage experience of the internationally renowned Woodford Folk Festival, where 120,000 people converge on this former dairy farm over 6 days each year to create a living, heaving ‘city’ in Jinibara country, the 2024 programme launch feels like a neighbourly BBQ in comparison.
Looking around, you see kids poking sticks into a (controlled) fire, a growing line at the bar (happy hour prices all night, a handwritten sign says) and a big marquee dripped out in tinsel curtains and glittery fabric. There's massive banquet tables and plastic BBQ chairs filling up with mostly older people – the first reminder of the astounding legacy that is Woodfordia Inc.Dinner is on, with people lining up in front of the orange-lit bain-marie as kitchen crew hand over roast-filled plates before punters head back to their tables. There's a big stage upfront. To the left of that stage is a DIY dish rinsing and tea-making station. Buckets of soapy water are ready for people to rinse their plates off after dinner, stack them for the dishwasher and head back to their seats.
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As the country ponders the future of live music festivals in the wake of some significant festival false starts and losses, tonight's invite-only programme launch (19 October) offers an insight.
Memories of the Woodford Festival experience creep back in at this point: that perpetual DIY vibe. . . the sheer scale of community effort – an essential part of how Woodford does what it does, year after year; and they've been doing it for 37 years.
Tonight is intimate and intergenerational. It's surprising and fun, even for those in the know. People here include the adult grandchildren of some of the festival's original performers, all excitedly awaiting the 2024 programme drop and four-act preview.
However, first proceedings kick off with speeches, punctuated by Woodfordia Inc president Lachlan Brown awarding the Order of Woodfordia to Uncle Noel Blair to a roaring, standing ovation.
Traditional custodian of the Woodfordia site, West End-based artist and Jinibara delegate to the festival committee, Uncle Noel embodies the spirit of the festival, Brown said. "He includes everyone in this experiment of humanity that is Woodfordia." What a way to describe the whole thing – an experiment! Thirty seven years in, this experiment is still hustling hard, still innovating and still networking like a bad-ass.
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Announcements continue before the feature acts Elana Stone (SYD), the Grigoryan Brothers (ADL), Amaidi (BNE) and The Seven of Ska (BNE) take to the stage.
Co-founder and Managing Director, Amanda Jackes announces significant local and State government support, and funding received in the run up to tonight. She also thanks a handful of service providers for contributing both their services and cash donations to the festival. "Every dollar counts," Jackes said.
When it's time to announce the programme, another stream of volunteers arrive in the marquee, their arms stacked with the 125-page, high gloss A4 programmes. They hand them out one by one to audible excitement. One girl runs over to another asking excitedly, "what's in there?" This is a thing – and they're all here for it.
Programme Manager Courtney Wild, responsible for booking the 450 acts heading to Woodford come December, including headliners like Baker Boy, Ball Park Music, Megan Washington and King Stingray, credits the community. "Woodford is not about one person. . . it's not driven by one person – it's so, so many," Wild said. "Thank you."
There's 400 departments that make up Woodfordia Inc. How, even?! 2024 is the 30th anniversary in Jinibara country / Moreton Bay region. I met the very friendly guy who hosts all the MCs each festival, he's the go-to guy for the compares. I met another festival legend, Big Sign Brian, a man nudging mid-70s I'd say, who made the massive wooden 'WOODFORD' letters sitting on top of the sunrise hill.
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Just two people in a marquee full of diverse, chill, friendly humans who all contribute to Woodfordia Inc's 500-year plan. 'We'll cultivate a convention of decision-making, strengthening through time, that will resonate in our work and nurture our future. We'll plant a forest of goodwill and benefit from its shade. We will build with the eyes of artists.' That's ridiculously beautiful and wholesome and ahhh. .. yes please and thank you!
The live music continues into the night, with the occasional punter slipping out to the bar or off to side stage to fix themselves a tea from a big silver urn, put there just for them. What a glorious mix of energies, contributions, tastes and skills. . . here's to Woodford 2024!
- written by Alison Mooney
Check out the 2024-2025 Woodford Folk Festival line-up.
Woodford Folk Festival takes place at Woodfordia (Sunshine Coast) from 27 December, 2024, until 1 January, 2025.
