Dear Asparagus: The National Folk Festival

Hello :) I'm feeling quite happy at the moment- having completed my mid session exams! Now I just have to start studying extra hard for final exams...fun times!

In my last post I mentioned that during the Easter long weekend I was going to the National Folk Festival. It was held in the exhibition park in Canberra in which there were 5 days filled with music, dancing, street performers, buskers, stalls and food! My mum, dad, sister and my friend came too. We usually go every year and its such a great way to spend the Easter break and there's something for everyone!

Now onto some photos...and there's quite a few! Also, some of them appear blurry but if you just click and view them larger the quality is better :)

Our tent. Every year we camp at the festival and this year my friend and I were lucky enough to be staying in 'tent city' which means when we got there there was already a tent waiting for us, with two small beds and mattresses. What luxury!

Volunteering. This year, to save money my friend and I volunteered at the festival which meant we had to work for 20 hours (5 hours a day). We chose to be on the 'waste and recycling' team...don't ask why! It basically involved walking around the site, peering into bins and if they were full we wheeled them to the depot and replaced it with an empty bin. Some days we had shifts from 7am-12pm which was hard though after not much sleep! Sometimes we had to wheel these huge bins around which was quite funny as they just kept rolling away and a lady told us we should be filmed...

Alas, it was an empty bin. Disappointment!

Chilling with a bin and a can of chickpeas.

Food. There was such a great mix of food at the festival and you could basically try something from every culture each day! Here's a few of my favourite meals...

Hare Krisna 'The Feast'. This was a super filling and delicious lunch! I wasn't too keen on the deep friend kofta balls but the curry and the halava we're great! Does anyone know what halava is made from? We were thinking semolina.

There was a stall called 'Food of the Earth' which had great vegetarian options. I got this wrap made from a homemade spinach tortilla and they filled it with lettuce, hummus, falafel balls, tabouli and a choice of dips. We got this for lunch on the fourth day and it felt SO good eating fresh, healthy food after consuming too much white bread and rice. Just delicious.

Some late night vegetarian pizza. My friend and I were actually lining up to buy some cider at the bar and a man asked if we could buy him some beer and bring it to his pizza store and we'd get a free pizza! So how could we say no?!

Music. No festival is complete without music of course! I think the term 'folk' was used quite generally though. There was traditional folk music but also world music and younger bands with jazz, gypsy and even metal influences.

We spent most of our evenings at a venue called 'The Majestic'. There was mainly mix of young bands (usually from Melbourne) and circus/street performances. It was always very crowded though as you can see we're lining up to get in here.

A local band called Mr. Fibby who we'd seen a few times before.

A quirky band from Melbourne called 'Flap!'. There was a trombone and trumpet player which had a jazzy feel. It was good music to dance to!

I thought the guy playing the trumpet was pretty cool. He had the whole look going for him with his duffle coat, skinny jeans and gum boots...

Other bands we liked included Julia and the Deep Sea Giants, The Crooked Fiddle Band and April Maze. Go check em out!

Out and about.

This guy was hilarious! There was actually a person inside that dog costume running around and peeing on people...

My sister and I in the Chai tent. Check out her crazy tights! We spent quite a few mornings at the Chai tent listening to music, drinking chai tea (of course!) and eating there yummy selection of cakes/treats. I found there vegan pear cake divine!

Just watching some kangaroos jumping around! I bought this strawberry beanie at the festival much to my delight and spent most of the festival wearing it.