Tablelands Folk Festival
The Tablelands Folk Festival is a music festival held in the historic village of Yungaburra, in north Queensland, Australia. Also known as the 'Yungaburra Folk Festival'. 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 North Queenslanders. 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: Tablelands Folk Festival. 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) for 8 years. The membership voted to return to the former name in February 2010.
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.
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 2013 TFF will be the same world class festival as in previous years. The warm heart of this incredible festival is beating stronger than ever; it comes from the passion of our volunteers coupled with a return to the Yungaburra Pub as the focal point for the weekend. A visit to the beautiful Atherton Tablelands during October would be incomplete without experiencing the 2013 Tablelands Folk Festival.
External links
Coordinates: 17°16′08″S 145°34′58″E / 17.26889°S 145.58278°E
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
