It’s time to travel up the mountain and get yourself along to the Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival.
An amazing opportunity to bathe yourself in all that is music.
The marquees are up, stages set and the showground is turning into a visual treat with murals, bunting and creativity – all just waiting to embrace you for a weekend of amazingly wonderful music, workshops and joyfulness.
You will be able to join dances in the Main Pavillion with our Old-Time music band – Tallowwood and The Johnny Can’t Dance Cajun band. You can sing your heart out with new friends in the Festival Choir and join in workshops learning beautiful folk harmonies with the Maes; or learn how the structure of Bluegrass Harmony plays out with The Borough or Charley Castle and the Boys in the Well.
We have two full days of workshops, so bring your instrument along and get ready to join in! The kids have a beautiful creative area where they will be painting their own little piece of bunting, they will have stories, dance and a magical puppet show, as well as potting up a tree and finding out where festival compost goes!
Shake Shake Theatre return with new plays and another great workshop. If you have ever wondered about having a go at being in a Bluegrass band then The SINners workshop is for you. They welcome one and all to learn a couple of songs.
All the venues are covered, with seating provided. Dorrigo has always encouraged listening audiences to acknowledge our visiting performers who love being there on stage for you.
If Bluegrass music or Old-time music is something that you have put aside, the festival is a great place to see what incredible diversity there is within the genre. We have some very well-known and respected players and a host of young folk acknowledging tradition and pushing boundaries. We have a Poets Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings at the festival site, with local youth providing scrumptious egg and bacon rolls and the ever entertaining and unexpected Bluegrass Breakfast on Saturday morn.
Once more we are focussing on our collection of eclectic mandolin players, inviting them to feature in Mandomania. Our lives unwrap in songs and there is always something new to sing about.
Come and support the many singer/songwriters at the festival as they share their worlds with you.
Just before the last dance on Saturday afternoon, we ask folk to gather in the Main Pavillion to join a group of our performers singing Ruth Moody’s Far and Wide; a small gesture, a moment of coming together to sing or just breathe for those whose lives are so different to ours. You will be able to get good sustenance and refreshments from our local providers, and as initiated from the start, the festival is a no alcohol, smoke and drug free area. We have found that this creates something special amongst our festival community, alongside our commitment to leaving as little mark on the environment as we can. So bring along your water flasks, use our keep mugs and say hi to our lovely green room volunteers.
There will be music on the street and in cafes early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, a chance for the community to share in a little bit of the festival and be inspired to come along and see more! We are holding a concert in partnership with the Coffs Harbour Conservatorium on Thursday evening 23rd October at 7 pm, featuring Carr Mackintosh Plumb. This is an exciting new venture and hopefully the start of many more activities between the Festival and the Conservatorium.
Tickets to the Festival will be available on site throughout the weekend . Do come and join us and have a wonderful time.