Spat back out into the cold and grey real world...

Where, after a twelve hour sleep and a long shower I feel much more human. I could go back to the final day of the festival today but I think I've done everything I wanted to and so will try and ease myself back into normal life.

If you want a bit of a virtual folk festival you could watch fabulous local boy Fred Smith:

(listen to more here and buy his CDs here)

The Spooky Men's Chorale:

(listen to more music and buy CDs here)

And finally, and most importantly (and not just because he gave me a free CD and so I promised him lots of publicity!) the wonderfully talented Boo Hewerdine.

I first met Boo's music (not that I realised it at the time) when I worked in student radio in the late 80s and used to play a lot of tracks of a record called Walking the ghost back home by a band called The Bible (which has to be one of the worst band names in the universe to google along with The Christians):

Years later I was introduced to the music of Eddi Reader, which I loved, without realising that some of my favorite songs of hers were written by the very same person who wrote those Bible songs:

(Listen to and download more Boo Hewerdine here and buy CDs here)

Sunday snaps

(More photos on FLICKR)

Sunday's highlight

Urban sea shanties with Fred Smith, The Spooky Men's Chorale and The Fuelers. Here's a wee taste of the madness for you:

Now don't you wish you were there for the whole thing?

Saturday at The National Folk Festival...

A talking treea Pan pipe invasionjust before the second Frencham Smith performance in 24 hours(and I'm not counting the fabulous Fred Smith Party Band which marked the end of last night) with much needed rain starting up while we were listening...(the above photo is in colour, believe it or not)Sloshing back to the car after Boo Hewerdine...

Highlights for me so far:

* Boo Hewerdine (more about that later)

* Frencham Smith (of course)

* The Spooky Men's Chorale (brilliant!)

* Dunumba

Today

You knew it wouldn't last, didn't you?

Wanted

Blogging live from the first day at The Folk Festival where Community Arts have asked me to send the call out for the following items:

* Red, black and/ or white sewing thread
* Nails (of any size)
* Paint (house and/ or craft)
* Old brushes of any size
* Cane and/ or basket making supplies

If you can donate any of the above please Shane on 0406 375 691

Cheers

Folk Festival Public Service Announcement

CUT YOUR CLUTTER

Community Arts needs donated materials for our creations this year. Do you have any of these you could fit into your backpack, boot of the car, suitcase, trolley or private jet to the festival*?

We have no money to pay for them but can guarantee them a good, useful life.

* lengths of timber, any width
* pieces of dowel, any length
* small cuphooks
* wooden toy wheels
* fabric pieces or lengths
* card-weight board - eg cardboard
* clean old cotton towels, sheets, pillowcases, nappies, rags clean socks and hats
* beads and old necklaces, broken or whole
* natural fibres - fleece, bamboo, raffia knitting yarns, knitting needles and crochet hooks
* decorative buttons, ribbons, feathers, thread, sequins
* egg cartons, small cardboard boxes
* coloured magazines and paper for collage
* old pure wool cardigans or jumpers for felt-making, eg shrunk in the wash
* wooden boxes any other interesting recyclable materials suitable for sculpture

A basic electric sewing machine that can sew forwards, backwards and zig-zag and an electric drill. We will use these for making banners and bunting and return them to their owners after the festival.

Please call Shane on 0406 375 691 if you can help