Fairbridge Festival
| Fairbridge Festival | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Folk, Blues, Roots, Acoustic, Celtic, A cappella, World music |
| Dates | April |
| Location(s) | Western Australia |
| Years active | 1993–present |
The Fairbridge Festival is a music festival held annually since 1993 at Fairbridge village near Pinjarra in Western Australia. The festival is held over a weekend in April.
The Festival was established by Max Klubal and Sally Grice, who at the time were committee members of the Western Australian Folk Federation (WAFF). The WAFF already ran a folk festival at Toodyay and formed a partnership with the organisation Parents for Music to run the festival at Fairbridge, with the intention of making it a more family-orientated event than Toodyay. The two festivals continued in parallel for two years but eventually Toodyay was closed down. In 1996 the Fairbridge Festival disacocciated itself from the WAFF to its present status as an incorporated not-for-profit association. Nowadays, the Fairbridge Festival is presented by the not for profit organisation FolkWorld Inc.
Visitors staying for the whole weekend can camp in the surrounding fields or book on-site cottage accommodation. The event takes place over two days and three nights, in seven main venues that include marquees, a chapel, dance stage and workshop rooms. The program features a variety of musical styles such as blues, roots, Celtic, folk, dance, a cappella and world music as well as acts and activities specifically catering for children and young people.
In 2012, the Fairbridge Quest songwriting competition for high school-aged young people was launched and has been unearthing new talent from across Western Australia every year.
The Fairbridge Festival has had a steady growth of audience over the years and now has about 15,000 day attendances. The most common patrons are families, but the Fairbridge Festival is enjoyed by all ages including teenagers, young adults and the elderly.
The upcoming 2017 Fairbridge Festival is celebrating the festival's 25th anniversary. To celebrate, the festival will run for four days and three nights from April 21-24 2017.
Site
The festival site was originally Fairbridge School, a combination of orphanage, farm school and Imperial social engineering project set up as part of a colonial vision by Kingsley Fairbridge in 1912. The school was founded with the mission of taking deprived children from the orphanages (such as Dr. Barnardo’s Homes) and streets of Britain and giving them a healthy life in the Colonies, (while ensuring that the Colonies continued to be populated with sound Anglo-Saxon stock, as was the prevailing ethos of the time), the school functioned until the early 1960s.
Fairbridge Festival 2016
The 2016 festival was held from the 15-17 April 2016. The acts included:
- Jaron Freeman Fox and The Opposite of Everything (Canada)
- "ARRR is for Adventure" presented by Pirateman (WA)
- 'Uptown' Brown (Vic)
- Amazing Drumming Monkeys (SA)
- Andrew Winton (WA)
- Andy Baylor’s Cajun Combo (NSW)
- The Baker Suite (SA)
- Iris (WA)
- The Mae Trio (Vic)
- Neil Murray (Vic)
- Inglorious Bardsters (Vic)
- Fásta (Ireland)
- The Freewheeler (Vic)
- Chris Matthews (WA)
- Jacob Diamond (WA)
- Scoth Youth Voices with Andrew Winton (WA)
- Tony McManus and Beppe Gambetta (Scotland/Italy)
- Voicemail (WA)
- Eastwinds Persian Music Collective (WA)
- Devon Sproule (USA)
- Double Entendre (WA)
- Cat and Clint (Vic)
- Galloping Foxleys (WA)
- Freddie White (Vic)
Fairbridge Festival 2008
The 2008 festival was held from 24–27 April 2008, taking advantage of the ANZAC day long weekend. The acts included:
- Rory McLeod (UK)
- Kieran Halpin (Ireland)
- Zulya and the Children of the Underground (Vic)
- Monsieur Camembert (NSW)
- Jugularity (Vic)
- Kavisha Mazzella trio (Vic)
- Stiff Gins (Qld)
- Bruce Watson (Vic)
- Tonchi Mcintosh (NSW)
- Chris Duncan and Catherine Strutt (NSW)
- The Hottentots (NSW)
- Jane Saunders and Michael Fix (NSW/Qld)
- Andy Rigby and Friends (Vic)
- Mal Webb (Vic)
- Klezmeritis (Vic)
- Tinpan Orange (Vic)
- Judy Small (Vic)
- Double Entendre (W.A)
- Junior (SA)
- Jenny M Thomas(Vic)
- Danny Spooner (Vic)
- Camoon (NSW)
- Coolgrass (Vic)
- Alex Legg(Vic)
Tinpan Orange were accompanied by Harry Angus of The Cat Empire, who features on their album.
Fairbridge Festival 2007
The 2007 festival was held from 13 – 15 April 2007. The announced performers as of January 2007 include:
- Jeff Lang
- Saltwater Band (NT), replaced by Bomba
- The Mammals (USA)
- Pacific Curls (NZ)
- Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick (UK)
- Chipolatas
- Narasirato
- Linsey Pollak (UK)
- Nick Charles
- Clarke’s Gray Vest
- Mystery Pacific
- Loren & the Grow Your Owns
- Kate Burke and Ruth Hazelton
- Bernard Carney
- Tetrafide Percussion
- Enda Kenny Band
- Jigzag
- Tulca Mor
- Trouble in the Kitchen
- Rebetiki
- Fred Smith and Liz Frenchan
- Mike Jackson