Among the crowd at the National Folk Festival, Eamon Mary is hard to miss.
“Someone said, ‘nice costume’ but I said, ‘Costume implies that I am dressing as something other than me,'” he said.Â
“I like dressing up silly.”
He is one of thousands of attendees who have travelled to Canberra for the festival’s 60th year.
“It’s good fun, it’s great craic,” he said.
“There is music happening everywhere; every corner you come around there is something happening.”
The five-day festival features a wide variety of entertainment. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
With the cost of fuel skyrocketing, Mr Mary said it was “very expensive” to drive more than seven hours from Maryborough in Victoria to attend the festival.
“It’s an extra couple of hundred bucks but I wouldn’t miss it,” he said.
That sentiment was shared by other festival attendees, and organisers say high fuel prices haven’t affected crowd numbers.
“No-one wanted to miss the 60th year,” according to co-artistic director Holly Downes.
“Folks have found a way to get here, even if that is jumping on public transport, car pooling.
“Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Thousands of people travelled to Canberra for the 60th National Folk Festival. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
Numbers up despite ‘challenging environment’Â
The festival was first held in Melbourne as a student-run event in 1967.
It spent many years being held in other locations before finding a permanent home in Canberra in 1992.
Holly Downes says the festival is supported by a “large team of volunteers”. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
Ms Downes said while it was a “challenging environment”, attendance this year was up from last year.
“We are looking forward to the next 60 years,” she said.
“It’s really a community spirit and support of a large volunteer team that makes this event what it is.”
The festival has faced challenges in recent years as a result of falling attendance and ticket sales, combined with rising costs.
Business slow for some stall holdersÂ
Business owner Aya O’Connell, who has a stall at the festival, said business had been slow.
“Obviously they are not really trying to spend much for the things they don’t really need,” she said.
“They just look but they don’t really want to spend. I can feel they are just trying to reserve the money for what they actually need.”
Festival attendees take part in a Scottish country dance workshop. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)
The five-day festival, featuring musicians, dancers and poets, has become an Easter tradition for many.
“There is almost a group of people who identify as folkies and they all show up and they are like, ‘I am the most comfortable while I am here,'” one man said.
“We come a day early, we leave a day late. It’s a gathering of family and friends,” another attendee said.
The festival wraps up tomorrow.