Folk Festivals

Each year from the last week in June through the Fourth of July, the hills around the little college town of Kutztown, Pennsylvania ring out with the sounds of old-time putt-putt farm engines and the oom-pa-pa of brass bands. The air fills with the oily aroma of funnel cakes and the baked goodness of homemade bread and apple dumplings. It's time for the annual Kutztown Folk Festival and everyone's "a-coming."

Woodford, held on Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland one hour north of Brisbane, is now one of the largest folk festivals in the world, hosting more than 2,000 performers and 120,000 visitors from throughout Australia and overseas for six days from December 27 to January 1 each year.

"Being KIND is cool." These are the first words in the Spring 2004 brochure for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF). Since 1995 this semi-annual festival has nested around Lake Eden in Black Mountain, North Carolina on the site of the historic Black Mountain College (now the site of Camp Rockmont).

They say that at certain times of the year, the veil between our world and the otherworldly realm of Faerie becomes so thin as to be non-existent. When that occurs, Faeriefolk glide and gambol through this, the human domain, magic fills the air and anything is possible. The date is May 10th, 2003 and once again the veil is at its thinnest. The event to mark this auspicious occasion is the first ever Faerieworlds Festival, a celebration of music, art and imagination for the 21st century.

The event is a complex and heady mix of music - folk, blues, tribal and world - oodles of street performers too. This is complemented with literally hundreds of talks, poetry, alto comedy, demonstrations and hands-on craft and arts workshops.

Me, I haven't rebounded on Earth since the Stones. Not yet. I'm a day back and my head is still somewhere on that wind, rain and mist-filled Plain of Salisbury. The Y2K solstice party seemed to be full of good vibes.