It takes a dedicated team of volunteers to produce the annual Illawarra Folk Festival, Brian Kelly reports.

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If you think the local stars at the Illawarra Folk Festival merely swan up to the microphone, do their thing and walk off into the sunset, feel free to think again.

“There’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen, which is great in a lot of ways because the festival is so big,” is how Kay Proudlove, the Thirroul singer-songwriter with a growing CV, puts it.

Kay is co-artistic director for the festival, and many emails, calls and chats formal and informal need ticking off before all hands get to go on stage to sing up a storm with traditional festival closer Time is a Tempest (by veteran Illawarra folk figure John Broomhall).

“It was a natural progression into the admin side of it because I had played at the festival for so many years – I started when I was probably 15, doing the blackboards and stuff like that, and it progressed from there,” she said.

“It kind of feels like giving back to it in a way, because it had a really big impact on me growing up as a writer.”

At a recent sitdown chat with the Flame, Kay and fellow performers Cody Munro-Moore (co-artistic director) and Shalani Thomas (Instagram social media manager) pretend to complain about the endless reams of emails they churn through daily, but all agree they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t love it.   

It’s been 11 years since Shalani, who grew up in literal earshot of the folk festival in Bulli, busked up a storm as a kid enchanting passers-by at Tamworth Country Music Festival, and folk is much more her flavour now.

Shalani will appear in her duo, Frankie & Albert, named after a murder ballad (which she will play with duo partner Saxon). The pair started jamming about a year ago after discovering a shared love of the genre – “he showed me this big thick book of like thousands of folk songs in it”. Frankie & Albert have recently played several Sydney gigs and Kiama’s Folk by the Sea.

Shalani has even taken on Instagram duties for the festival and is being schooled in the fineries of how ticketing works. And, as a younger participant, she is conscious of getting more of her generation to the event.

“A lot of people are interested but I think sometimes it’s financially hard for young students to come who aren’t working full-time,” she said.
“A lot of the time, they might hear ‘folk festival’ and a lot of people have no idea what that is. I think there’s a lot of potential for young people to come; I think it’s been a bit inaccessible.

“People who have been doing these jobs for years have slowly had enough, and they want to get mainly younger people involved.”

Such is the sense of community during the event, Kay asserts, that it’s easy to miss the main reason you’ve attended.

“Sometimes you don’t get to see any music,” she said. “You’re walking to a stage and you’re just talking to about 10 people on your way there. By the time you get to the stage, it’s over!”

With the event in its second incarnation since the pandemic, Cody, who will play with Morning Star, says organisers feel they know what they’re getting themselves into.

“We’ve put a cap on our expectations,” he said. “The festival was so big in past years, and Kay and I have definitely tried to bring the scope of it down to a great size, not a massive size. I think last year everyone was a bit unsure of what we were heading into … we’re just finding our feet in what is achievable as volunteers without wearing out.”

As the event offers an annual chance to catch up with fellow fans, many performers are returning, among them Maurie Mulheron of Austinmer, formerly head of NSW’s teachers union and handy with a stringed instrument.

He plans on presenting a mix of old folk favourites from the ’60s “because people, young and old, know them and sing along. It doesn’t get much better than to hear a crowd join in a chorus or two”.

Maurie plans to revive a new chapter of the banjo workshop he has done in previous years – with a little help from overseas.

“There’s a good friend of mine from Vermont performing – Rik Palieri, a wonderful banjo player,” he said. “I’ll be roping him in to help out with the banjo workshop. For that, he’ll get free bed and lodging and my place!”

Having sorted through 430 artists who submitted works, organisers will present 87 international, national and local acts for the 2024 festival at Bulli Showground on January 19-21.

Acclaimed Irish singer-songwriters Wallis Bird and Andy Irvine, young Scottish fiddle maestro Ryan Young and his countrymen, celebrated Celtic band Tannahill Weavers and the Scottish/Irish quartet Dallahan head a strong international line-up, while national acts range from National Living Treasure Ted “The Drover’s Boy” Egan to singer-songwriter Alana Wilkinson, Jordan Ireland from Queensland Indie band The Middle East, and Indigenous performers the Stiff Gins, Jessie Lloyd and Pirritu.

The Illawarra Folk Festival returns to Bulli Showground from January 19-21. For more information, visit illawarrafolkfestival.com.au