Big crowd for 25th festival
COUNTRY music fans, grey nomads and ute and truck enthusiasts converged on Boyup Brook for the town’s 25th Country Music Festival at the weekend.
Organisers did not have final attendance figures yesterday but said there were at least as many as last year and probably more. Early-arriving campers secured prime spots beneath the shady gums on the banks of the Blackwood River, ready for five days of music, poetry and art.
Wednesday night’s casual Camp-fire Yarns and Ballads on the footy oval was a taste of things to come, while in the Town Hall the inaugural Boyup Brook Art Awards display was opened. It attracted artworks from around the state. Two hundred people turned out early Thursday for a bush poetry preview (clever and witty) and breakfast at the tennis club.
With music coming from all corners of the town, workshops in poetry and song writing, free concerts, busking and the continual rolling in of more four-wheels-drives, caravans and RVs, the excitement was building for another great festival.
A balmy evening with flood lit gumtrees was the perfect setting for Thursday night’s Music Park concert.
Friday morning’s Hot Country Brekky out at Harvey Dickson’s Country Music Centre was a laugh a minute with Pixie Jenkins, Melanie Hall, Susie Carcary and Dave Proust.
Finalists in the WA Country Music Awards performed at Friday evening’s concert. The winners were presented with their awards.
Boyup Brook Country Music Festival is credited with giving many artists their start in the music industry. Performing at the weekend were Rose Carleo, winner of the inaugural young encouragement award in 1986; Terry Bennetts, 2001 male vocal winner; Ronnie Rae Rivers, 2004 winner; Debbie Beckett, 2005 winner; and the Sunny Cowgirls, first noticed in Boyup Brook at a Winter Star Search in 2001.
Rose Carleo remembers sitting on the lawn in 1986 after receiving her award and having her photo taken with Wayne Pride. She said she remembers thinking, “This is something special, this is what I love doing, is this the start of something?” It started her career.
On Saturday morning Boyup Brook’s main streets were bursting with country music fans taking part in the dynamic Lotterywest-sponsored street carnival with buskers, street theatre and a huge variety of market stalls. At 11am revving engines, custom horns, sparkling chrome and sub-woofers announced the spectacular Ute and Truck Muster as it wove through the streets to Music Park.
The warm day merged into a star-studded evening as the music rolled on. Headline act, Tania Kernaghan delighted her audience, especially when she lassoed two cowboys. Songs from her CD Living the Dream were a hit.
Australia’s biggest Bush Poets Breakfast featured 10 poets who took the audience on an emotional rollercoaster ride – one minute rolling in laughter the next with tears in their eyes. Two pocket-rockets, national bush poets, Melanie Hall and Susie Carcary, blasted the audience with poetry, yarns and songs while the domestic banter between Dave Proust and his wife had the crowd loving it all.
The weekend included an amazing line-up of stars including Ernie Dingo, Brian Letton, Sunny Cowgirls, Country Horizon, Girls with Guitars, Graham Roger, Connie Kis Anderson, Fitzroy Express, Tony Wagner and more had the crowd singing, up on their feet applauding, dancing and boot scooting.
The Boyup Brook Country Music Festival, Tamworth in NSW, Gympie, Qld and Mildura are listed as the top four country music festivals in Australia.
“After 25 years the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival is still as friendly as ever, and it just gets better every year,” said Victorian duo Carter and Carter.
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