The final week of the tour started with some routine one nighters with us returning to Melbourne, flying to Sydney, driving to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and then on to Camberra and the National Folk Festival. I was looking forward to Katoomba to check out the Blue Mountains and maybe see some wild life. For the first time in Australia I was a bit disappointed. The mountains were nice, but nothing special despite all the tourism hype about it. We have prettier mountain views in Western Mass!
The drive to Canberra was full of empty farmland and long vistas. We passed ‘Lake” George, a huge expanse that was completely without water. Apparently it’s only a lake in the rainy season. Canberra is Australia’s capitol (who knew?) and doesn’t feel much like a city at all. The story goes that the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne was so intense that when it came to creating a capitol they chose to build a city in the sheep farming country equidistant between the two. They built to impress. Canberra is all wide leafy boulevards and beautiful parks. The city has a mall of museums and government buildings ringing a large man-made lake (hmm, where did they get that idea?)
The National Folk Fest is a five-day event held over Easter weekend at a horse race track on the outskirts of town. It is a much bigger deal than it looks like on paper. The festival draws over 12,000 a day for a line-up of mostly Australian performers and a handful of international acts. I was proud of the fact that the two biggest names on the bill were Signature Sounds artists (Chris and Patty Larkin). The festival has 20 different performance spaces from big indoors stages for 2-3 thousand with video screens to small tents for workshops. Many of the stages seemed to have themes; my favorite was an outdoor stage that hosted lots of belly dance and other forms of traditional costumed dances.
This is sweetest festival I’ve ever attended There were street performers, parades, buskers and kids performers in Kangaroo and bird costumes. There were lots of goofy morris dancers and even a labyrinth. The food and crafts were fabulous. The whole thing was very much a family event with several generations together having a blast. The music was secondary to a fantastic scene.
Chris performed three sets during the festival and killed each time. The first set was on the main stage Saturday night. Neither of us was prepared for the incredible reception he received. The minute his set was over the merch table was swamped with buyers. I sold all 100 CD’s that we had brought within 5 minutes. I could have easily sold another 100. The same scene followed each of his other sets. We sold every last disc we had, a perfect way to end the tour.
We took off after our last set Monday for the drive back to Sydney and the long (20+ hours) flight home. It was a great tour, but we’re both ready to head back home to our families and the springtime As we were waiting for the plane Men At Work’s old hit “Down Under” came on the airport muzak……..perfect!
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