I have found Utopia. Some of my bestest friends and their family have been going to the Woodford Folk Festival annually for years. I have always wanted to go but always had an excuse. I’m pregnant. My kids are too young. My kids are still in nappies. This year, I'm not pregnant (woohoo), the kids are older, they are out of nappies, and they are old enough to enjoy it. No excuses. We bought tickets for one night to test it out. The Woodford Folk Festival has been taking place for over 30 years. According to the Woodford Folk Festival website, the 400 acres of land the festival takes place on is owned by the producers of the Festival (the Queensland Folk Federation). It shows. The infrastructure is amazing. From permanent performance/music tents, to bridges, to the new on-site General Store. They have spent money on the site to make the festival as user friendly as possible. I have been to festivals all over the world. I have never been to a festival with the infrastructure that Woodford has. Anyone who has been to music festivals can sympathize with the toilet situation. Porta-loos or drop toilets that you can smell from 300 metres away. Toilets that you can’t tell what is mud inside and what is poo. Toilets without hand soap where you make the decision not to wash your hands because touching the taps would give you more germs than not washing your hands at all. To my pleasant surprise, Woodford has proper toilet blocks with plumbing, soap, flushing toilets and drinkable water. They didn’t stink. They weren’t dirty. I washed my hands….. with soap. This seems trivial however for a festival, it is like the Shangri-La. Utopia. Festivals I have been to in the past have had showers however there were so few of them that you would have to line up for over an hour to get anywhere near them. I never once saw a line-up for the showers at Woodford. They are cold water only but when the days are 35 degrees, you really don’t need hot water anyway. Utopia. Which brings me to my next point…… The heat. It seems odd that a 6 day camping festival would take place over the hottest time of the year. The Queensland heat and humidity definitely adds another element to the festival. For this reason, I am glad we waited until the kids were a bit older. Baby-wearing in the heat would have been sweaty hell. For the toddlers and younger kids, the preferred mode of transport at the festival was a Rock and Roller Wagon: Best. Invention. Ever. Prams usually only have a sun cover that covers the kids faces however leaves their little legs exposed to the elements. Prams for 2 kids also seldom lay completely flat for sleeping. This wagon was amazing during the day. It provided a shady haven for the kids as they were pulled around the festival looking out the side with eyes (and mouths) wide open. Knowing your kids are safe, in the shade and most importantly can’t run away, makes for a relaxing festival for the parents. And at night: The kids laid down top to tail at 8pm and went to sleep. We parked them at the bar and had drinks with our friends until nearly midnight. There were loud noises, there was loud music. They slept through it all. And EVERYONE was doing it. There were other wagons and prams all around us. Parents having a good time, with kids in tow and asleep. Utopia. The festival patrons were another thing that made the festival wonderful. A wonderfully socialist community. Everyone was respectful of each other, there was not ONE scrap of rubbish on the ground, and the festival was full of families. If the world was populated by the type of people that go to the Woodford Folk Festival, then there would be no war, no pollution, and no hate. There were people from every decade of life from babies to the elderly (wheelie walkers in tow). Everyone seemed present, happy and open to conversation with each other. A stark contrast to any experience in the city where people avoid eye contact let alone a speak to a stranger. Utopia. The food was all fresh, mostly local, and mostly organic. Another product of the clientele that attend. These people care greatly about what they put into their bodies. The usual deep fried shit was nowhere to be seen. If you wanted you could refill your drink bottles with Beerwah Spring Water at $3 per litre or you could fill up for free from the taps under the sinks in the bathrooms. There was no shortage of water (yet another thing that I have previously found at music festivals……very little free water to keep you purchasing drinks). At the bars, they used Globelet BPA-free reusable cups. You bought your cup for $3 and reused it instead of using disposable plastic cups. The Woodford Festival say that by doing this, there are nearly a quarter of a million cups less being transported off site over the 6 days to go to recycling. As mentioned in my previous blog post, recycling is a good alternative to landfill however not using plastic in the first place is best practice. Bravo Woodford. Utopia. There was a whole section of the festival for the kids. Bouncy balls that you could throw up into a huge bamboo structure: A covered massive sandpit. Face painting, magic shows, puppet shows, a cool down area with misty water spray and MORE! Utopia. The campsite was very comfortable. You are able to drive your car in and park next to where you set up your tent. This is so convenient to be able to keep things in your car close-by. Festivals I have been to in the past, you park your car and carry everything in by wheelbarrow to the campsite. This situation would have been awful with kids. We were fortunate to walk into an already established tent village made by our friends who were there for all 6 days. They had marquees for shade, stretcher beds to rest on under the trees, a table and chairs for eating meals, and a stove for cooking and coffee. I must admit that our camping experience might not have been as comfortable if it wasn’t for this. To have a shady area to come back to in the heat of the day was a godsend. Utopia. And what acts did I see? Well I couldn’t tell you. I was only there for a day and mainly wandered around with my mouth wide open looking at the performers both on-stage and off. I didn’t have a map, I didn’t have a program. I sat and listened to music coming from the tents but didn’t know who I was listening to. But I enjoyed it that way. Woodford Folk Festival. I’m in love. See you next year. Have you ever been to the Woodford Folk Festival? Did you find it as magical as I did?
1 Comment
Ian
1/5/2017 03:21:28 am
Woodford is AMAZING!
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