VBPMA Muster At Benalla

[Stephen Whiteside]

Last weekend I had the good fortune to attend the Victorian Championships of the Victorian Bush Poetry and Music Association (VBPMA) at the Benalla Bowls Club in Benalla, in central Victoria.

I didn't arrive until 5 pm on Saturday, so I missed the Yarn Spinning on the Friday night, the Saturday morning Poets' Breakfast, and the Traditional, Original and Music competitions on the Saturday. I did arrive, though, in time for the Saturday night show, featuring ex-Seeker Keith Potger, the Sunday Poets' Breakfast, the Contemporary and Junior competitions, the One Minute Poetry comp (which I was asked to MC), the raffle draw, the awards presentations...and the AGM of the VBPMA.

It was a great weekend, the obvious highlight being the show on the Saturday night. It was well attended, and everybody was raving about it the following morning. Keith Potger did a wonderful job. He had a great variety of songs, and also varied much in the way he presented them - using both 6 and 12 string guitars, singing unaccompanied on one occasion, and also reading a poem. (The poem, by the way, was a very moving piece written by Glenny Palmer about her son's search for his biological father. Keith has written a tune to sing the poem to, but chose to simply read the poem on the weekend to an audience of poets - a very appropriate decision.)

I particularly loved hearing Keith reminisce about the Seekers' glory days in England in the 60s. I had not realised that many of their hits were written by Tom Springfield, brother of the famous Dusty.

There were many other great performers on the night, including both the judges for the weekend and the winners of the musical competition held earlier in the day. Geoffrey Graham did a great job as MC, as he always does (in spite of a rather obscure reference to me having taken a Learjet down from Sydney to join them - I must ask him about that one day!).

Sadly, though, as became clear during the AGM, this will be the last of the Victorian Championships to be held in this format, at least for the time being. Much of the discussion during the AGM centred around both the workload and the financial cost involved in staging the Vic. Champs.

A couple of key motions were passed. The first was that the titles of Victorian Champions (Male and Female) next year will go to the highest performing Victorians at the ABPA National Champsionships, which are to be held at Corryong, in Victoria.

The second motion related to the event that will replace the Vic Champs. The consensus was that the Benalla Bowls Club was an excellent venue, and should definitely be retained. The timing - usually, I believe, the second week in October - was also felt to be right. However, it was agreed that a less structured and financially costly event would take place next year instead - to be called the 'VBPMA Muster at Benalla'. There will still be competitions in the categories of Traditional, Original and Contemporary poetry, but they will be decided by the audience rather than by official judges. There will also be one or more workshops offered. Possible subjects for these would include Performance Tips, Poetry Writing, Promotion and Publishing, a Technology workshop related to use of the Internet, how to use a sound system, writing for children, and others.

The meeting ended on a high note, with attendees feeling excited about the prospect of the new opportunities presented by the 'Muster', rather than simply feeling sad at the demise of the Victorian Championships.