Woodford!!!!!!

Ooh, ooh, I got a pack­age in the mail. It’s my Wood­ford Folk Fest­ival presen­ter’s kit com­plete with pro­gramme star­ring *me* (well, okay, I’m giving three classes on Journalism).

More import­antly, I can see who *else* will be there. I am par­tic­u­larly excited about the return of Skin, Ember Swift, Kristina Olsen, Penelope Swales, The Bird and Sheva, the amaz­ing Israeli/Palestinian group from last year. Also Gypsy Fire, the best firetwirl­ing group ever and Algorythm and Promis­cu­ous who were great trance/jungle last year. I am bemused by the inclu­sion of Regur­git­ator, Resin Dogs and Machine Gun Fel­la­tio, but whatever. Deep Child will be there, and so (very excit­ing) will be the Mu Meson Archives. 

Want more? Cat Empire, Conan the Bubble­Man, the Happy Sideshow, Things of Stone and Wood, and more. There seems to be slightly less of the funky African ensembles and a few more Latino and Islander and Jazz things this year. Also a return to some Celtic roots that will please some. And of course there will be the groups I’ve never heard of from wherever that turn out to be the word-of-mouth hit of the fest­ival, like Les Hur­le­ments de Leo were last year (oh, and I was right… Les Hur­le­ments will be play­ing Sydney and Mel­bourne dates in April as a lead-up to WOMAD).

So, who’s coming to Queens­land for New Year?