Town abuzz in Port Fairy Folk Festival lead-up

The fun begins on Friday with a mix of international and national artists to perform during the long weekend.

The iconic festival, which began on the back of a truck in 1977, has become an annual pilgrimage for music lovers and performers.

Visitors began arriving early this week and the arena will be filled with almost 12,000 patrons during the weekend. 

The 40^th running of the event will be tinged with sadness as the Folkie farewells retiring musical director and founding member Jamie McKew.

The event brings in more than $2.5 million in ticket sales alone and provides a significant boost to the Port Fairy economy. 

Port Fairy Folk Festival president Bruce Leishman congratulated Mr McKew on his work with the festival, which included putting together another eclectic line-up for this year’s event.

“From my point of view it will be sad in a sense with Jamie leaving and then a positive with (incoming director) Caroline (Moore) taking over,” Mr Leishman said.

Mr Leishman said many artists were discovered at festivals gone by and this year’s would be no different. 

“The most important thing we say is if a venue is packed out, go somewhere else – there are some great artists to be found,” he said.

“From a committee point of view you start to taper off. All the work is done well in advance, apart from the construction crew. It’s pretty well planned.”

Port Fairy Visitor Information Centre tourism officer Sharon Parker said the town was already “incredibly busy”.

She said she had received lots of accommodation inquiries and while vacancies were “tricky to find” staff would do their best.

Last year 2700 people visited the centre during the festival, compared to an average of 300 people per day. 

“People are excited,” Mrs Parker said.

“They can see everything happening. The signs and banners are going up. It’s all shaping up to be big and exciting and very busy.”