Growing folk fest gets national nod

September 8, 2023 BY Tim Bottams

In the band: The Creswick Brass Band was one of the more than 300 acts that took part in this year’s CresFest. Photo: SUPPLIED

FOLLOWING on from its debut last year, the team behind CresFest 2023 are seeing their sophomore efforts celebrated as a finalist in the Australian Folk Music Awards.

Announced at the start of the month, CresFest has been placed in the awards’ Community/Cultural Project of the Year category alongside four other contenders.

CresFest director Judy Turner said the nod is a national endorsement for the organising team.

“It means validation for the team and all the hard work and time they’ve put in,” she said.

“It means they’re on the national stage because this is a national award and as a team of volunteers in a tiny town like Creswick that’s pretty exciting.

“Two years in a row now we’ve been a finalist and this means out of some 140 applications we’re one of the ones selected. People are noticing what we’re doing out here.”

This year’s CresFest saw more than 2000 attendees entertained by 300 musicians performing across three days from late March into early April.

The team behind the event included a committee of 10 as well as 105 volunteers and about a dozen contractors.

Ms Turner said this year’s CresFest built upon the previous with new initiatives.

“We really grew it this year,” she said. “We had a whole new component called The World Comes to Creswick in partnership with a Melbourne organisation called The Boîte.

“That enabled us to showcase music from China, Persia, Macedonia, India, Italy, Lithuania. A whole lot of multicultural acts came to perform and that was free. There was also our Courthouse Conversations series.

“There’s a desire in festivalgoers for small. Sitting in a small heritage venue with 200 other people, there’s an appetite for that. That’s a point of difference for us.”

The winners will be announced during an awards night on Wednesday 25 October at the Brunswick Ballroom in Melbourne.

CresFest was previously a finalist for Folk Alliance Australia’s Cultural Project of The Year, and Music Victoria’s Best Regional Festival 2022 awards.

Next year’s CresFest is set to run from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 April.