Buchan Foothills Festival 2003

I had planned to stay at Buchan Friday night but a gig got in the way, you know how it is.

Set up under the verandah of the Black Marble Hut wool shop. I asked the owners if it was all right to Busk outside their shop and they happily said it was fine with them. I started playing my slide set but had to stop at 2:00 for the parade. The parade comprised classic cars, vans and trucks, Ulysses members on their motorcycles, side cars and trailers and finally the local teachers and children all dressed up marched by. This year all of the vehicles did a U-turn at the top and came back for a second pass, a good idea. Started up after the parade and finished up at 5:00.

Drove up to the Buchan Motel and was given a warm welcome by the owners Gary and Jan Bogaart. I stayed here two years ago but missed out last year because I left the arrangements too late. All of the rooms have a wonderful view across the Buchan Valley. Watching the shadow move across the valley at sunset is a very pretty sight. Although I'm not an early riser I made sure I had the curtains open the see twilight turn into dawn with all of those gold colours. With the mists still in the lower parts of the valley a truly spectacular sight. Shut the blinds and went back to sleep to the sounds of the birds, very relaxing.

Set up outside the Black Marble Hut again and started playing from about 10:30 and finished up at 3:00. Hardly anyone about today, but hey, the view was great and I was enjoying myself. It seems that the festival has moved from the first weekend in January to the second weekend in January and that has placed the festival in conflict with other established events. Just not enough weekends in the year it seems.

The only other musical entertainer that I saw was a solo lady performer, Yolanda Klaus, who had backing tapes and a huge PA at the old Butter Factory. You could hear her for miles and made the music coming from the Willow Cafe seem like a transistor radio by comparison. I'm thankful she shut down around 11:00 Saturday night as there was just no escaping her sound.

The weather was warm without being hot and there was always a light cool breeze making conditions very comfortable.