Cardrona Folk Festival 2009

 

Another great festival last year, with the side splitting humour of Fred Wedlock, the sensitivity of Valdy and the guitar wizardry of Graham (Fingers) Wardrop making it what many felt to be one of the best yet. But we say that every year. Our 34^th festival this year promises to be quite different but equally enjoyable, with a great line-up of guests. As always it will be held at the old Cardrona Hall and surrounding reserve from Friday 23rd to Monday 26th October 2009. This year’s confirmed guests are:

 

 

PAT SMITH and NED CLAMP (Llantrisant, Wales)

Anyone who has met Pat on her three previous tours of New Zealand as part of the duo Calennig will never forget her impish sense of humour, her vibrant concertina, her wonderful dance calling and the playing of the spoons taken to new heights of visual artistry!    And not ignoring her excellent singing in both Welsh and English either.   Pat runs the best and longest running folk club in Wales at Llantrisant  – who incidentally are unofficially “twinned” with us.   So this will be a welcome return to her other home.   With Pat will be her new musical partner of several years Ned Clamp – a fine guitarist, singer and harmonica player, who originally came from England but who saw the light and moved to the friendly valleys of South Wales.    Together they perform a variety of traditional Welsh and other tunes and sing songs in both languages – sometimes even at the same time.

 

They will be running the Saturday night Twmpath (a Welsh ceilidh) in which the Welsh dances are always great fun to participate in.    They will also be doing an afternoon concert as a duo and we certainly won’t let Pat get away without another of her wonderful spoons workshops.   Everybody bring a pair of spoons – preferably EPNS soup or desert spoons – tea spoons are definitely too small and plastic ones don’t work!

 

 

MARCUS TURNER (Dunedin)

One of New Zealand’s finest multi instrumentalists and superb songwriter, it is always a pleasure to invite Marcus back to Cardrona, where he first played 33 years ago.    A regular member of “The Chaps” and various other groups, it is when playing solo that in my opinion you see and hear the very best of Marcus’s talents.    In January this year he absolutely stole the concerts he was in at the Auckland Folk Festival with several stunning new compositions  and as a result completely sold out of CD’s.  As well as presenting songs in concert spots on his own,  Marcus will be using his instrumental skills as part of the Twmpath band with Pat and Ned on Saturday night.    The very best of New Zealand folk music, this guy is world class!

 

 

DAVE HART (Christchurch)

Our much loved melodeon player and performer of traditional songs and poems, often of a very humorous nature, music hall ballads, morris dance tunes and just about everything else, absolute variety is what you get with Dave Hart.     He is a regular festival goer both at our festival and at most of the others around the country, just for the pleasure of being a part of our very special “folkie” family, so we thought it was time to feature him as a guest.    Like Marcus he too will be an integral part of the Welsh tympath band on Saturday night.    He will also be doing a concert of his own and hosting the acapella harmony session in the church on Sunday.

 

 

As always there will be several blackboard concerts, so that all singers and musicians - and children - can let us hear what they can do. And of course no Cardrona festival would be complete without our traditional PERFORMANCE POETS session on Saturday morning. Each year it is getting longer and better and the theme being picked up by more and more festivals around the country.      By popular request we will again have our unaccompanied harmony session in the wee church on Sunday morning.   We have plenty of space and time for jamming sessions.   Remember to bring earplugs if you don’t want to hear music in the small hours – after all, this is a folk music festival, and there is always time for Just One More Chorus.

 

The cost for a weekend ticket (Friday to Monday) will be $70 for adults, with secondary children at $25 (wee ones are free). Bring everything you need, as all we supply is a flat (and usually dry) paddock, a couple of taps, fine weather and heaps of music and fun. The new luxury toilets are now working perfectly but the historic longdrops have also been recently renovated for festival-goers who suffer from nostalgia or who don’t like queuing!  This is a self-catering festival but meals are available, at a price, up the road at the Cardrona Hotel, along with luxury accommodation.  We regret that the ski chalets next door to the site are now almost fully booked already but there are still rooms available in the luxury “townhouses” up past the hotel.  Other affordable accommodation is available in Wanaka, 25 kms away, along with a wide choice of restaurants and cafes.  Best book now though.   Showers are also available at nominal cost at the Wanaka motor camp, so if you go down to top up liquid supplies, take your towel.

 

Pre-registration is not yet necessary, though if the festival gets any more popular this may have to come one day.

 

See you there.

Martin Curtis

 

For further information and bookings contact

Martin & Kay Curtis ; Cardrona : RD1 : Wanaka.

Tel/fax  : 03 443 8152.

Email: martincurtis(at)clear.net.nz (you need to substitute the @ sign, to discourage spammers!)

Website: www.martincurtis.co.nz

 

Last Updated: 5^th August 2009