Australia's largest gathering of artists and musicians is gearing up for the annual Woodford Folk Festival.
The theme for the 2014/2015 Woodford Folk Festival will be carnival-esque, with masked and unmasked creatures and characters bringing a spirit of misrule, adventure, mystery and mirth, of discovery and freedom.
Festival Director, Bill Hauritz, offers further insight into the festival theme. “The questions we ask of ourselves are: ‘What truth behind the mask may lie?’ ‘Does your mask conceal or reveal?’ By revealing what’s behind the mask, maybe we can discover a truer sense of ourselves.”
Gavin Ryan, the artist who annually transforms the festival's theme into a visual experience, has once again brought the anticipated and collectable festival poster to life. One of the many Woodford traditions, this year's poster expresses a lively procession of fellows in colourful celebration on their suspended mushrooming cityscape.
With plans to bring the adventurous girl at the foreground of the poster to life, Bill explains how the six metre high puppet will feature at the festival. "We want to tell this story of exploration through the eyes of a giant masked puppet girl. She is going on the journey to find freedom and in her story perhaps we’ll see a part of ourselves. We’ve called her Tilda. She’s our journeywoman, our dancing dreamer, waltzing wanderer."Designed and built on site in collaboration with Irish spectacle company, Macnas, Tilda will be operated by Queensland University of Technology Creative Industry students, who will have the opportunity to undergo training in large-form puppetry with internationally acclaimed Macnas artists. Prior to the festival, Tilda will journey to the Sunshine Coast where, through workshops with the community, she will be blessed with the qualities needed to complete her journey to the festival.
Set to launch their 126 page festival programme on Saturday the 18th October, the Woodford Folk Festival will highlight a mix of international and Australian artists and musicians crossing genres of folk, blues, rock and pop, world, indigenous, vaudeville, circus, dance, visual arts workshops and a children’s festival.Woodford Folk Festival runs from the 27th December until 1st January. More of Gavin Ryan's stunning art and illustration.
