The Fairbridge Festival 2016 was a huge success for Neil McArthur and myself AKA The Inglorious Bardsters.
Our poets breakfasts went extremely well with excellent attendances both mornings. We got to meet and perform with plenty of talented local poets who really enjoyed the walk up opportunities provided by the festival. Hosted by Phil Gray from local band Loaded Dog, the mornings rolled along very nicely indeed.
Our Poetry Workshop entitled ‘Who Says Rhyme Doesn’t Pay’ was very well received by the 35-40 people who took the opportunity to sit down in a Q&A type session and discuss with us all types of topics related to Bush Poetry. We discussed performance techniques, recording and publishing, writing techniques, the ABPA and state affiliated organisations and much more. The workshop was fun to run and the feedback was fantastic. Hopefully we helped and inspired a whole new group of writers/performers to get their works out there and have a go.
Our last gig for the festival was on the big stage on Sunday arvo along side the lads from Loaded Dog. We executed a meticulously well planned performance (about 2 hours and a few drinks) to a great crowd who had no idea that we had no idea what we were doing, but hey, it all went down very well so everyone was happy. It was a pleasure to meet and work alongside the boys and we hope to do it again some day, perhaps over here in the east.
All in all the Fairbridge Festival was an absolute ripper and we thank everyone involved for making us feel so welcome right from the start. We hope to do it all again one day.