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Here’s an article from Ed Lowe that might just get you fired up and ready for the festivals this year:

I’d like to encourage you to go to a bluegrass festival in 2010.

Four years ago I made a spur of the moment decision to go to the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention. I mentioned this idea to my friend Jeff White and he decided to go too. We had a great time and learned as much about playing bluegrass in four days as we normally did in a year of messing around at home.

Since then we’ve been back to Harrietville three times and last year we went to Redlands too. We’ve met a lot of great people, made friends of some of them and look forward to seeing them and playing with them again each year.

Redlands late afternoon jam-2009

Most festivals are a mix of the activities listed below. Each festival has its own character, which is determined by the particular mix of these elements, the size of the festival and the nature of the venue. You can get a good idea of what a festival is like by looking at images of previous festivals on the various websites. ( I’ve listed as many as I could find at the end of this article).

                Concerts;

                                  These are scheduled events featuring a mix of visiting and local artists and bands.

                Blackboard concerts;

                                   These are opportunities for “unknown” bands and scratch ensembles to play to an audience. An MC will take down the names of those people who want to play and put them on.

                Workshops;

                                     These are essentially group lessons on a particular topic,e.g. Harmony singing, beginning the banjo, Eskimo nose flute etc.

                Informal jamming sessions;

                                     Good festival organisers try to encourage these sessions by providing suitable areas for them to happen but they’re always ad hoc. Take your instrument with you and carry it around!

Jamming at Harrietville. Geoff Bridgeland (banjo) and Lindsay Clapperton

Some people have a schedule of concerts and events that they plan to see which makes the D-Day  invasion plans look half-baked. On the other hand,it’s quite possible to attend a festival, have a great time,play all weekend and not see a single organised event.

The Bing Brothers with Charlie Walden. Concert at Harrietville 2008

Festival tips;

Make a plan;

Decide where you are going to go and start planning to get there. It gives you something to look forward to during hard days at work.

Accommodation;

This can be tricky in some places. Check the festival’s website early and be prepared to book early. Some festivals, such as Yarra Junction have fairly primitive accommodation. Do some research!

Travel;

You’ll probably want to fly. Watch out for specials on  the airline websites. If you’re travelling with someone else you’ll need to agree on an airline and flight times. Don’t forget to allow for the time you’ll need to drive between the airport and the festival site. Harrietville has a concert on the Thursday night before the festival programme starts. We get there early enough for that and get in some extra jamming time.

In most cases you’ll want to hire a car. If you share with someone else you can save a lot on this. Tip: Get low-cost travel insurance that includes “Hire-Car Excess” cover. Then you can get the hire car at the cheapest rate.

You can usually carry a mandolin or fiddle onto a plane but you’ll have to check everything else in as “oversize” luggage. Do some research on how to best pack your instrument for flying. Watch out for weight limits. Qantas has a 23kg limit for economy passengers. If 13kgs of that is a banjo you’re going to have to pack light to stay under the limit. Consider instrument insurance.

Join in;

If you play an instrument, take it with you and carry it around. If you find a jam that you might fit into, screw up your courage and have a go.

The author (mandolin) having a good time at Redlands-2009

Websites:

As well as the sites listed below I suggest that you look at the Australian Bluegrass Blog for updates, reviews and lots of photographs.

Here is a link to the blog’s festival page.

http://australianbluegrass.com.com/?page_id=2193

Dates                                          Events

Jan 2010                                      Girgarre Moosic Muster

                                                         http://girgarremusic.blogspot.com/

April 2010                                  Mt. Beauty Music Muster

                                                         http://www.musicmuster.org.au/

April 2010                                  Yarra Junction Fiddler’s Convention

July 2010                                   Redlands Bluegrass Convention

                                                        http://www.redlandscountry.asn.au/bg.htm#intro

August 2010                              Kelly Country Pick ( Beechworth)

                                                         http://www.kellycountrypick.org/

Sept 2010                                   Guildford Banjo Jamboree

                                                        http://www.banjojamboree.org/

October 2010                         Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival

                                                http://www.dorrigofolkbluegrass.com.au/

Nov 2010                Harrietville Bluegrass and Old Timey Music Convention

                                       http://bluegrass.org.au/index.cfm?pid=111727

Jan 2011                           Australian Banjo Conference

                                         http://www.bellbirdbanjos.com/banjo_camp.php

. This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 9:13 pm and is filed under WA Bluegrass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.