Last Tuesday my husband Colin and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Woodford Folk Festival
http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/main/index.php
It was even more wonderful than usual, presenting a bewildering smorgasbord of music – too much choice for a person as indecisive as me. In previous years excessive heat and/or rain at the Woodford Festival seemed inseparable, but this year (mercifully) the heat was tolerable and rain only threatened.
The highlights for me were:
Sheva – a group of Jews and Muslims from the north of Israel – showing that peace is possible. Never before, in the 20 yrs I’ve been attending the festival, have I seen the entire audience of the Big Top on its feet dancing. Perhaps America should send musicians instead of soldiers to the Middle East.
Msr Camembert – a gloriously energetic gypsy jazz group (Australians from various ethnic backgrounds)
Bohola – American-Irish group from Chicago, who rose above the purely traditional Celtic music genre by being absolutely extraordinarily good, and injecting a touch of ‘something else’ which is hard to define.
The Plague and the Moonflower (a contemporary oratorio, complete with dancers and audio-visual – produced by the smallish NSW country town of Armidale). Performance was in the open-air amphitheatre, surrounded by trees and hills. Lovely. And powerful.
If only the world were like Woodford. Sigh …
“I’m not afraid of your Yahweh
I’m not afraid of your Allah
I’m not afraid of your Jesus
I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God.”
(Chorus of one of the songs from the Sing Out for Peace session)
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