Quinty Festival

[Stephen Whiteside]

I've just returned from the Euranquinty Folk Festival. It's the first time I've been to this little festival at a small town 12km south of Wagga Wagga on the Olympic Highway. Had a great weekend.

I left Melbourne after work on Friday, and got there about half an hour after midnight after taking a couple of minor wrong turns along the way. I had no idea where to put up the tent, or where anything was really. I walked out onto the oval a short way to try and get my bearings in the darkness. There was nobody to be seen. Then, in the middle distance, I saw a person walk around the corner of the pavilion. I squinted harder in the star-light. Could it be? Surely this was too fortunate to be true, but no, it was! It was Jan Lewis!

It was almost as though she'd been waiting for me. Imagine if I hadn't got lost? I'd have missed her!

Needless to say, Jan was quick to sort me out, and find a place for my tent just near her and Linton.

Had an intimate but very enjoyable Poets' Breakfast on the Saturday, and a larger, also enjoyable one today. Lorraine McCrimmon and Maurie Foun were also there, so there were plenty of poets - also David O'Connor who, though really a singer, does a very nice job doubling up as a poet and reciter.

It was a great weekend, and it's a really great little festival. I even got involved in the dancing on the Saturday night!

To cap it all off, I caught up with Geoffrey Graham's unmistakeable van on the highway on the way home (he'd been somewhere else for the weekend), and we had a good old chin wag.

Check out Quinty Folk Festival next year if you're free. Definitely worth a visit.