National Folk Festival

  Canberra, Australia
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia... sweet. My cousin Hilary(ous) told me that I'd love it so I signed up as a volunteer (because paying for entry would suck). The festival brought together a random assortment of 'took too much acid in th 70's' hippies, poets, wanna be hippies, me, amazing musicians and a billion other different people. I wound up as a venue manager running one of the medium sized stages. The venue was great, as the zero grass and enclosed space of the massive tent worked together to create an 'el natural' smoke machine effect which involved truck loads of dust floating through the air. When the performers would comment on how hard it was to breathe or that all their equipment has a thick layer of dust covering it I just told them it was helping to create the 'organic folk festival' feel... what? I thought I was convincing.

Billy :)

Aside from the random and diverse music there seemed to be a void in the age demographic right around my elderly mid 20's (shit i'm old). There were thousands of 15, 16 and 17 year olds then again people late thirties, forties and above. What happened to all the hippie's of my generation damn it!? I did my best last year to change that while teaching... I guess I'll just have to send good vibes to everyone... can you feel it? Yeah, thought so... Say Om with me...

Tom & I in the Session Bar

Nights at the festivals became mornings and subsequently sleep deprived days.  The Session bar was a massive alcohol fueled jam session with groups of musicians playing in little groups for anyone who was interested but mostly for a bit of fun. You could walk in an see ten groups of musso's playing ten different styles of music in every corner of the place. Good vibes... oh yeah. Eventually though I'd end up playing music on the oval with Leo, Tom C., Hilary, Billy, Ellen, Nic and whoever else we had befriended over the night. This would usually end with everyone who didn't actually have a camping ticket cramming into our tent. Ha! The first night was hilarious as half of them piled into the tent next door (friends of ours). When they showed up there was this shocked "who the f*ck is in our tent!" before a rapture of laughter from all. I took to sleeping in the car... there's only such 'just friends spooning' that I can handle.

The Girls.

Anyway it was awesome. Ado and Simon would have loved laughing there asses off at how awesome it was. Aside from the folky I'm off to Melbourne on Thursday and then to Gembrook (Vic) for my wilderness first aid course. The course will be especially useful considering I've just been offered a position with Broadreach running an adventure summer camp to... of all places... Costa Rica! Ha! I'll have to get a residents visa there with all the time I'm going to be there. For those who don't know I've got a contract with YCA starting in Costa Rica in November. The training for the Broadreach is in Raleigh, North Carolina at the end of may which should be sweet! Still a little vague on the details but I will let you know when I work them out.

On that note, Peace, Love, Jebus, Buddha, Allah and amen to all.