MY Friday night experience at the 42nd Port Fairy Folk Festival started with the wildly entertaining Canadian-born American raconteur Steve Poltz’ one man show of madcap stories and songs.
The night ended around five hours later with the stage packed with more than 32 musicians for the infectious and raucous sound of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra, led by the charismatic Nicky Bomba, who infuses the stage with joy no matter which act he leads.
That first night of world class performances was illustrative of the quality and diversity of one of the nation’s great festivals, less than a two hour drive from Mount Gambier.
While some South East music lovers annually head to the equally highly regarded WOMADelaide festival, many familiar faces in the crowd at Port Fairy have grown accustomed to eagerly anticipating the March long weekend for an annual four-day fix of folk and world music and culture.
The crowd of 11,000 people enjoyed a selection of 90 acts across various stages in the arena pavilions or on the street fringe stages this year.
It is not only the acts, but the presentation that is diverse.
Sunday morning began with the emotional Women Out Loud concert, featuring nine performers, mostly singer-songwriters, introduced by entertainer Susan Carroll, who chatted with each lady on stage before they performed two songs each.
One artist shared insight into her personal situation that left the other women on stage and many people in the audience in tears, while the show finished with everyone on their feet jubilantly dancing to the United Kingdom’s Yolanda Brown and her soaring saxophone sounds.
Such features of the festival allow audiences to become familiar with the artists – many of whom they have not been exposed to before – and hear a selection of their work, often then scanning the program to look for full shows by their favourites later in the day.
But it is not all a matter of sitting down and listening to intimate performances – from the political to the deeply personal – with the nearby Shebeen beer barn featuring upbeat performances for thousands of jovial fans singing along to classics from the likes of Mental As Anything and dancing to new discoveries from around the world.
There is so much to experience over the days of festivities that memories will continue resurfacing until the eagerly anticipated next festival of great performances, amusing anecdotes and acts I promise myself to explore further each year.
Like Mount Gambier with Generations in Jazz, Port Fairy has cemented its position over decades on the music festival circuit, demonstrating small regional towns can host world-class
events.
