The Woodford Folk Festival will include some new features this year including a spectacular Bamboo Tunnel.
This is the 28th year of the Woodford Folk Festival on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and festival director Bill Hauritz is continually looking for new ways to make it different. “We know that if we aren’t masters of change, we will be the victim of it. If something was right last year, good chance it will be wrong this year. 2013 has been a year to really push the envelope with fresh projects and new ideas”, Bill said.
The Bamboo Tunnel is a new feature on site. It is a specially commissioned tunnel entrance to the Amphitheatre and crafted from bamboo and local materials by Taiwanese master sculptor, Wang Wen-Chih.
According to the Woodford organisers, “Many of the performances will take place in the Amphitheatre against the backdrop of this installation, designed to create a place of peaceful reflection, blending into the Woodfordia landscape.
“In a joint project with Cave Urban, and architect, Nici Long, Wang Wen-Chih has been building with a team of 30 people for the last two weeks to create a 100 metre bamboo tunnel and tower in the final stages of the walk into the festival’s largest venue.
“The world renowned artist and his team are building the entire structure out of bamboo poles that have been split into four pieces by a device Wen-Chih himself created.
“Organisers hope the installation, entitled “Woven Sky” will stand for three years and become a symbol of inspired transition”.
Artists performing at Woodfork this year are Beth Orton (ENG), The Basics, Clare Bowditch, Matt Corby, Tim Finn (NZ), Half Moon Run (CAN), Julian Marley (JAM/ENG), Busby Marou, Buffalo Tales, Chance Waters, Thelma Plum, Shellie Morris, Blue King Brown, Brendan Maclean, GANGgajang, Jordie Lane, Rose Cousins (CAN), Babylon Circus (FRA), Breabach (SCOT), Rachel Sermanni (SCOT), The Twoks.
The cultural aspect will feature former Prime Minister Bob Hawke will speak. His wife Blanche d’Alpuget will launch her new book. ‘The Young Lion’. Other speakers are Professor Ian Lowe, Dr Stuart Glastonbury, Anna Rose, Simon Sheikh, Denise Scott, Susan Johnson, Benjamin Law, Michelle Law, Melanie Tait, Kevin James Carroll, Robert Pekin, Dr Jessica North, to name just a few this year.
The Woodford Folk Festival is on from December 27 – January 1.
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