{"id":211231,"date":"2025-12-30T10:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T10:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211231\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T10:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T10:32:14","slug":"woodford-folk-festivals-thirty-eighth-year-platforming-australian-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211231\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodford Folk Festival’s thirty-eighth year platforming Australian artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 110,000 people have so far been through the gates of one of Australia’s longest-running festivals, deemed “more important than ever” this year.<\/p>\n

Now in its 38th year, the festival at “Woodfordia” \u2014 a makeshift town that comes to life for the annual event near Woodford, north-west of Brisbane \u2014 has more than 450 artists performing across six days.<\/p>\n

\"Crowd<\/p>\n

Woodford Folk Festival 2025 was filled with lots of colour and fun. (Supplied: Woodford Folk Festival)<\/p>\n

Visitor numbers are already up about 10 per cent on last year, according to festival director Amanda Jackes.<\/p>\n

But one familiar face is missing this year \u2014 founder Bill Hauritz, who passed away on December 8 after battling a long illness.<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old, who was honoured at this year’s festival opening, was a “pathological optimist” and left an unwavering legacy, Ms Jackes said.<\/p>\n

“He couldn’t see roadblocks. He just had incredible big ideas and dreams.”<\/p>\n

With several major festivals cancelled in recent years, Ms Jackes said the 2025 event was “more important than ever”.<\/p>\n

\"Woodford<\/p>\n

Amanda Jackes says we need to embrace live music and events. (ABC News: Owen Jacques)<\/p>\n

“Woodford is a place where dreams are seeded, and the future is about making those dreams become a real opportunity,” she said.<\/p>\n

Escape after ‘tough year’<\/p>\n

Australian artist Katie Noonan said she had attended Woodfordia for 30 years, but this event was a much-needed escape for festival-goers after a “tough year”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never needed Woodford more than I needed it now,” Noonan said.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about belonging and community, and the world has been so broken in many ways, personally for me but also globally.”<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/p>\n

Katie Noonan has enjoyed watching new artists perform at Woodford. (ABC News: Madeline Grace)<\/p>\n

The singer-songwriter said she had enjoyed discovering other artists at Woodfordia.<\/p>\n

“Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has a song to sing,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The wonderful thing about Woodford is that they are about supporting Australian independent artists.”<\/p>\n

For the younger generation<\/p>\n

The five-time Aria-winning artist said she particularly enjoyed seeing young people lean into the celebrations.<\/p>\n

Among the many young ones at this year’s event were 12-year-old musicians Keanu and Ezra, who attended the festival for the first time this year alongside their parents.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

Ezra (left) and Keanu dream of one day performing at Woodfordia. (ABC News: Madeline Grace)<\/p>\n

“Just being with the community and hanging out with people that I love and listening to music,” Keanu said.<\/p>\n

“I love seeing other people’s music \u2026 you get inspired by all the other bands.”<\/p>\n

Keanu said he dreamt of one day performing on the big stage at Woodfordia.<\/p>\n

“I want to be famous,” he said.<\/p>\n

Gathapura Mununggurr, the drummer from the Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, valued the connection with younger generations.<\/p>\n

“We want to build a good relationship and leave a pathway so the next generation can come to this festival,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mununggurr travelled six hours to play at the festival.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Gathapura Mununggurr and Andrew Minyapa Gurruwiwi at Woodford Folk Festival 2025. (ABC News: Madeline Grace)<\/p>\n

“People coming in from around the world and sharing their culture and their songs and stories \u2026 it’s really good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about your culture, your language, and understanding to send a message to people about where we come from and who we are.”<\/p>\n

‘People and culture’<\/p>\n

The event wraps up on New Year’s Day after six days of music, dance, circus, comedy, street theatre, and local food.<\/p>\n

Melbourne visitor Clare Cremin has returned to the festival, embracing its “great vibe”.<\/p>\n

“What Bill Hauritz has created here is just something spectacular,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Clare Cremin and Suzanne Doyle at this year’s festival. (ABC News: Madeline Grace)<\/p>\n

Suzanne Doyle from Dublin said she was blown away by the lively celebrations.<\/p>\n

“It’s a dream come true,” Ms Doyle said.<\/p>\n

“I just hope it continues for a very long time to come.”<\/p>\n

\"crowd<\/p>\n

Woodford Folk Festival has fun for all ages. (Supplied: Woodford Folk Festival)<\/p>\n

That is very much the plan, according to director Ms Jackes.<\/p>\n

“We need to support our artists; we need to attend live music,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We need to treat our artists as if they’re a sporting team and be their biggest fans.<\/p>\n

“A world without art and a world without creative expression is a world without our humanity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 110,000 people have so far been through the gates of one of Australia’s longest-running festivals, deemed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[117750,146,879,34665,85,46,409,117749],"class_list":{"0":"post-211231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-australian-artists","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-festival","11":"tag-folk","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-woodford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}