Nannup

Monday was Labour Day here in Western Australia, and there were quite a few concerts and events on around the state. One of those was the 20th occurrence of the Nannup Music Festival, in the small town of Nannup, about 3 hours south of Perth (longer when it's a long weekend and everyone is heading out of the city). Two of our flatmates had tickets to go, but one of them caught a stomach bug, and they felt that they couldn't really go if one of them was spraying out both ends. As it was we scored the tickets, and their friend was kind enough to drive us there and back. So on Saturday, with their tent, their primus, their tickets and their friend in tow, we hit the road for Nannup.

The festival is essentially a folk music festival, and I had only heard of one of the acts, so we weren't really sure what to expect. When we got there we were welcomed with the news that the campsite was full, despite the fact that 'our' campsites had been booked and paid for well in advance. We went down to the grounds with one of the friendly old volunteers and managed to find a couple of spots on relatively even ground. 'Riverbend', as the campsite was called, was situated next to Nannup's river, which was actually a stagnant stream that probably wasn't doing the local wildlife much good. Safe to say the togs stayed packed in our bags for the whole trip. We got our tents up with no hassles and headed back to the town to check things out.

There were a number of venues, the main one being an amphitheatre specially prepared for the event. It was located at the end of a cordoned off street lined with stalls, hippies and local kids trying to earn a buck playing Mary Had a Little Lamb on their violin. Their was some pretty good deals, and my dinner that evening of a plate of snapper, calamari, prawns and crayfish for $10 was pretty satisfying. Snapper is quite common over here, and oddly enough it is often cheaper than shark in the Fish & Chips shops. Go figure. The other venues included the local pub, the Town Hall, the Churchyard, and the some pretty inoffensive acts in the Playground for the kids. Actually the drumming monkey puppets were pretty impressive...

TinPan Orange, Nick and Liesl, Michelle Shocked and Microwave Jenny impressed. Other acts were not so much to my taste. Jez Lowe & Kate Bramley reminded us that we were at a folk music festival. I bought a CD of TinPan Orange and got them to sign it - I now know that I prefer them live but it is still a good wee CD. Other highlights were my first ever sighting of fork lightening on the drive down, the sign announcing the presence of tiger snakes in the vicinity of the campsite, the sighting of a baby snake at night (which in fact on reviewing my photos the next day turned out to be a very small lizard with very small legs - you can not imagine how disappointed I was), and the dolphins in the river at Mandurah on the drive home.

I'm not sure that I would pay to go to Nannup again, but it was a fun weekend and I enjoyed getting out of the city for a while. I think our next musical excursion will be the West Coast Blues 'n' Roots Festival in Fremantle on April 18, headlined by John Butler Trio. Hopefully neither of us get gastro.

TinPan Orange in the Town Hall

Nick and Liesl

Michelle Shocked in the amphitheatre


Folkies (Jez Lowe & Kate Bramley)


Gets my vote!

Snake!