Maldon Folk Festival

[Stephen Whiteside]

I've just returned from a very enjoyable weekend at the Maldon Folk Festival.

Maldon is a very old festival - this year was the 40th - but it has always stayed small and 'grass-rootsy'. It got a bit too small a couple of years ago, and almost folded completely, but is currently being resurrected under a new committee. This was the second year with the new gang.

Spoken word has always been an important part of the program, with three Poets' Breakfasts, a Yarn Event, and whatever else the poets can come up with.

I always try to do a children's show at Maldon, and that was probably the highlight for me this year. I had a good little crowd of children and parents, and we all enjoyed ourselves. It also gave me another chance to promote my new book, coming out next March...

The other feature poets this year were Geoffrey Graham, Ed Walker, Colin Carrington and Col Driscoll. Other prominent poets in attendance were Carol Reffold, Ken Prato, Ted Horton, Alex Ruschenow, David O'Connor and Campbell the Swaggie. Fine reciters such as Ruth Aldridge and Tom O'Connor were also there.

The other wonderful thing about Maldon for me is that, because there is also so much music, my children and their friends will also join me, so we have a great time camping together.

The audience numbers do not match those of a decade ago, but the figures showed an increase on last year. The weather stayed fine, though it was windy and cool for much of the weekend, so there was a lot to be thankful for.

I will post some pictures elsewhere.

Oh, I should make special mention of the Yarn Event. It was looking particularly sick a couple of years ago, but this year, partly perhaps due to a later time slot, it was the best for a long time. The word "yarn" is interpreted very loosely, which leads to a wide variety of performance styles - all of which adds up to a very entertaining couple of hours!