National Folk Festival (Australia)
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The National Folk Festival is a festival celebrating Australian folk culture, first held in Melbourne in 1967.
From 1969 until 1991 the festival traveled to different cities each year. It was hosted at least once in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Fremantle, Alice Springs, Perth and Maleny. The increasing size of the festival was making it harder for the hosting states to organise the festival every year, so since 1992 the festival has been held in Canberra. However each year a state is 'featured' which entitles it to a proportionally larger number of entertainers, and discounted tickets for entry. This year the featured state is Queensland, with the overall theme of the festival being working life, and Italians in Australia. Held for 5 days over the Easter long weekend in Exhibition Park on the outskirts of Canberra, the 'National', as it is known, attracts thousands of people of all ages from across Australia.
The festival has over 100 concerts, plus numerous impromptu street performances, workshops on making, playing and repairing musical instruments and dancing workshops from around the world. With 55 craft stalls, 30+ food vendors, 2 bars & a supermarket onsite, there is plenty of shopping to do if all that entertainment isn't enough. For the 5 days of the festival, there is also an almost continuous Session in one of the bars, that only stops briefly due to alcohol licence restrictions.
Every night the festival has a grand dance, starting with a Scottish Ball on the Friday night, an Irish Ceili on the saturday, and a Australian Colonial Ball on the sunday night.
Since its inception, the National Folk Festival has had numerous international and australian folk acts performing, including Alistair Hulett, Dick Gaughan, Cloudstreet, Andy Irvine, Seaman Dan and many more.
