On Sunday 19 February a full day of poetry, prose, music and song was held at the Banjo Paterson Museum at Yeoval.
Alf Cantrell from the Banjo Paterson… More Than a Poet Museum reports on the day:
The Arts OutWest CASP Grant, which was awarded to Mulga Bill Festival Inc, was used last Sunday 19th February when a full day of poetry, prose, music and song was held at the Banjo Paterson Museum at Yeoval.
The weather was quite hot but under the very shady tree which covers the grassed backyard a very pleasant full day was enjoyed by a large crowd numbering over 250. The performers, many of whom were locals, also came from the Blue Mountains, Sydney, Lightening Ridge and Queensland.
There were 14 Bush Poets in attendance. Most Bush Poets were given a morning and an afternoon spot on stage intermitted with musical items of bush songs and stories by musician Chris McGinty of Toogong and there were two surprises on the day. 10 members of the renowned Sydney Bush Music Club arrived and did 4 spots of original Australian Bush Songs which was very well received. The other surprise was a local lad Rob Osborne who came on stage and gave two very comical stand-up comedian recitals.
The Lions Club of Wellington cooked on a barbeque all day and Clancy’s Café, the fundraising arm of the Museum, sold coffee, cakes, sandwiches and Devonshire teas throughout the day. Starting at 9am the concert went on without interruption until just after 4pm. Jim Lamb from the Wombat Bush Poets in Young performed on stage as well as acting as MC during the morning and then Robyn Sykes of Binalong took over as MC and gave several performances herself. We were fortunate to gain good publicity and in addition to the program and press releases we had 3 additional radio interviews – two on ABC Central West and the third which continued for the week prior over Wellington Radio Binjang.
The whole day was a huge success and on behalf of every patron and performer we all sincerely thank the New South Wales Government who through Arts OutWest made this whole venture very successful.
