Archie Roach. Our national treasure curates a stage at Port Fairy and hosts a video series.

UPDATE

Bluesfest will be back at Easter in 2022 with an all-star Australian line-up!

“It is obvious that we cannot present Bluesfest in a safe manner in October, so we have re-scheduled back to our usual timing with dates over the Easter Long Weekend next year; a time we expect things to be returning to normal,” said Bluesfest Festival Director, Peter Noble OAM, just before we went to press. Noble also hinted that there would be a very special act booked for Easter Thursday, which is currently free. Showcasing an All-Aussie (with some special guests from NZ) music bill in Byron Bay, Bluesfest is Australia’s most awarded music festival, and was recently nominated as ‘Best festival of the Decade’ by industry bible, Pollstar. From the humble beginnings in 1990 the festival now takes place at the beautiful Byron Events Farm (formerly the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm), attracting an audience of over 100,000 in pre-Covid days. Located just 10 minutes north of Byron Bay, NSW, Australia, Bluesfest is well situated and surrounded by the charming village of Mullumbimby and the beach towns of Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads. “We are a resilient bunch,” continued Nobel. “We have worked so hard since May 2019 to make Bluesfest happen and, guess what, we are not giving up. We are immensely proud of who we are: we are proud of the Bluesfest name and what that represents, immensely proud, and we are already looking forward to Easter. I thought this decision would be hard to make, but it was the reverse. The safety and protection of our loyal Bluesfesters, our festival staff, our performers, our volunteers, stallholders and suppliers is paramount, and I will not put anyone at risk right now. So, the decision to reschedule was a ‘no-brainer’.” “Now we concentrate on the future, and it’s a bright future - and the return of Bluesfest over four days next Easter: FRIDAY 14TH APRIL – MONDAY 18TH APRIL 2022. PLUS … we are working on something special for Thursday 14th April. I am confident that, by the end of this year, Australia will have achieved at least a 70-80% vaccination rate and will have achieved at least ‘Stage Three’ in the plan to open up the whole country. Lockdowns will be consigned to history. Perhaps we may even see international artists returning. If they can come we will be presenting them! ” “Almost all the October 2021 artists will return for Easter: Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, Pete Murray, Kasey Chambers, John Butler, Xavier Rudd and all of your Bluesfest favourites will be back to play over the Easter Long Weekend. Only two or three can’t make it. It’s great to be adding Fat Freddy’s Drop, Josh Teskey & Ash Grunwald, John Williamson, C.W. Stoneking, and the return of RocKwiz Live next Easter: the first of dozens of artists we are adding to celebrate, including more of the biggest and best artists this part of the world has to offer, with many Blues & Roots artists added too.” ”And … guess what … I have been working hard to fill these gaps. And … guess what … I HAVE !! And … guess what … You are going to love the new names – and I’ll let you know who they are soon.” “In the meantime, I do ask and urge every ticket holder to hold on to their October ticket – and roll it over to Easter. I promise you will not be disappointed. As soon as this outbreak is over and we are out of lockdown safely, then I will be announcing the incredible new names joining our lineup, and then you can make an informed decision. Rest assured, we will continue to offer refunds until after the new artist announcement.” “We will return and when we do it will be the greatest Bluesfest atmosphere you have been part of, with easily the strongest bill of Aussie and Kiwi talent ever seen in this country.” Don’t say we didn’t tell ya!!” “After all – its only 35 weeks to Easter! !!”

PETER NOBLE OAM CHAIRMAN, BLUESFEST GROUP OF COMPANIES

Bluesfest will take place over 4 days from Friday 15th April to Monday 18th April 2022 at the Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah, NSW, AUSTRALIA. All ticket options plus camping, parking and VIP are on sale now via the Bluesfest Website.

BY BRIAN WISE

ARCHIE’S CHOICE

Archie Roach is curating a new stage for the Port Fairy Folk Festival and is presenting Kitchen Yarns, a YouTube series of interviews.

He might not be able to tour at the moment but Archie Roach has remained busy since we saw him at Womadelaide earlier this year. He has just announced the inaugural Archie Roach Foundation stage for 2022 Port Fairy Folk Festival. The stage will be curated by Archie Roach and the local Gunditjmara community of southwest Victoria, and will provide the opportunity to share the ancient knowledge of the Gunditjmara people through dance, art, music, storytelling and conversations about native plants and bush medicines. “We’ve been thinking about it, the stage, and how to curate a stage,” explains Archie when asked about how it was initiated. Fortunately, we were able to get that up and going, but I just need to figure out what that’s going to look like, and talk to community up here and see what they can present also as part of the stage. So, it’ll be interesting, I think.” “Oh, it is,” he replies when I suggest that Port Fairy must be one of his favourite festivals. “I can’t remember the first time I played it…….way back. It’s one of those great festivals. You get to know people and you see that acts come back. The great thing about playing festivals is that they have other acts that you’ve never seen before - especially Port Fairy. They support local and Australian artists as well. So, that’s the good thing about it, as well as overseas artists. That’s the great thing about Port Fairy.” “It will just give, I suppose, a little bit more understanding of the mob down this way,” he continues, “the culture and also their music and dance and whatever we can present and things like that. So, it’ll be good. We’ve certainly got some ideas, and I’ve talked to community over there, and they’re eager and keen to present something.” Archie has also unveiled the Kitchen Table Yarns – a twelve-part YouTube series initiated to support emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander singer songwriters. It’ll be a story of intergenerational celebration and connection through music. The first episode saw Archie invite talented Yorta Yorta woman, Allara Briggs Pattison to yarn with him (via Zoom) at his kitchen table to share stories about her songs, her community and her language. The second and third episodes featuring Rulla Kelly-Mansell and Marlon Motlop and Lydia Fairhall have already landed. New episodes will be released at 5pm AEST on the first Wednesday of each month thereafter, all available to stream on Archie Roach’s YouTube Channel (YouTube channel www.youtube.com/archieroachmusic). “Well, we did something last year, a YouTube series on Charcoal Lane - Songs of Charcoal Lane - and the inspiration behind that,” explains Archie when asked about how the series came about. “So, we thought that this time it’d be good if we could perhaps talk to up and coming First Nations singer-songwriters, and just have a yarn with them about community and their music and songs, and inspiration behind their music. And it’s at the kitchen table.” “Well, some we already know, like Allara, our first one,” says Archie talking about how he chose the acts to have a yarn with. “In Adelaide, we ran into Rulla Kelly-Mansell and Marlon Motlop, who sang their song ‘Black Swan’ to me acoustically, which just blew me away. Others, some from Victoria, a few that we’d already heard of, and others that we haven’t actually. But that’s good too, you know, so we can have a yarn to them.” What’s it like being a video star now, being on camera and having his own video series? “At first, I didn’t know what to think. I thought, this is a bit strange,” he replies. “But it was fun, the show we did last year, it was really good, and I reckon this’ll be good as well too. It’s good, and having conversations with each artist, it’s very exciting.” Archie will certainly be bringing attention to a lot of artists that most people would not have heard of, which must have been one of the main aims to do this series. “That was I think the main reason that we wanted to do this,” he agrees. “When I started playing music people didn’t know who the heck I was, what I was about. I remember doing a show somewhere and somebody yells out from the audience, ‘Who are you?’ I went, ‘Oh, my name’s Archie Roach, and I sing songs.’ It was a bit of an awkward moment. Also, because they get a chance, if they wish, to ask me questions, and then hopefully I can give maybe some sound advice and some tips.” Archie Roach’s YouTube channel can be found here: (YouTube channel www.youtube.com/archieroachmusic).