The Yungaburra Folk Festival is a music festival held in the historic village of Yungaburra, in north Queensland, Australia. The festival of 2006 marked the 25th anniversary of the Festival. The first ever "Festival of the Tableland", was held in Herberton on 8 May and 9 May 1981. It then moved to Yungaburra in 1982, where it has been held ever since. Various individuals and groups - including locals, the Cairns Folk Club and the Townsville Folk Club - ran the Festival for the next 11 years. Since 1994, the Festival has been organised by a committee of Tablelanders. The festival is kept going by the passion and commitment of the organisers.
The festival celebrates world-wide folk traditions through music, storytelling, circus, dance, and crafts, and features musicians, dancers, circus and fire artists, comedians and festival performers. Yungaburra is surrounded by World Heritage rainforests, lakes, waterfalls and Queensland's tallest mountain, Mount Bartle Frere.
Intimate concert settings showcase music across a wide range of blues, roots, jazz, world and folk styles, plus comedy, poetry and dance. The combination of young and old, modern and traditional enhances the intimate, feel-good atmosphere.
This combination of young and old, modern and traditional is just one of the ingredients that has made Yungaburra Folk Festival such a great local event. The Festival retains an intimate, feel-good atmosphere in the midst of its undoubted success and popularity. Barbara explains the factors that has seen the Festival grow over the years but still keep close to the 'Old Folkies' vision.
Festival Name Change From 2010, the festival will be called: 30th Tablelands Folk Festival @ Yungaburra. This development means the festival celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2010 with the first Folk Festival held on the Tablelands in 1981 at Herberton.
The Festival was called the Tablelands Folk Festival (TFF) for 21 years, the name was then changed to Yungaburra Folk Festival (YFF) and has been for the past 8 years. The members of TFF Assn. Inc. have always been the organising team behind the Yungaburra Folk Festival. The TFF Members’ post-festival analysis and plenary session of November 2007 led to an awareness of the need to plan for the longer term, within the TFF Objects and Mission Statement. The membership voted to return to the former name in February 2010 This development allows for future events at locations around the Tablelands region, and provides an avenue to umbrella periodic events, showcase performances, bush dances or other festivals. Confusion amongst the public was apparent in 2009, with the Yungaburra Folk Festival presenting the Thursday night anniversary concert at Herberton. The change of name will alleviate such issues.
The Festival is being positioned for the positive growth which is likely to become available. Given the restructure of the local government region, it is a prudent time for our organisation to take a broader view of where the Festival fits. The new Cultural Plan by the Tableland Regional Council should lead to further development of the region as a whole.
The 2010 TFF@Y will be the same world class festival as in previous years. The change of name will not alter the program, or change the volunteers, or change the wonderful feeling. The warm heart of this incredible festival is beating stronger than ever; it comes from the passion of our volunteers.
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or festival:
“Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He’s the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.”
—Allan Massie (b. 1938)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)