2018 Director's Note,
April Festival Review,
October Festival Theme Song,
The April 2018 Festival Poster.
Director's Note 2018
For almost 15 years Stephanie Tonkin, Peter Driscoll and I have shared enthusiastic ideas for music driven projects. For the last 4 or so they have involved the Eudlo community and the Eudlo Music Nights at Wominjeka Park is the most recent of these. For myself as a “creative” there is nothing more exciting than sharing your artistic visions with like-minded people, and I thank Stephanie and Peter from the bottom of my heart for being such responsive listeners, colleagues and friends for this period. 12 or so years ago Peter researched some of the birds Olivier Messiaen “used’ in his Oisteauix Exotiques, to present a lecture to accompany that extraordinary piano work, performed at that time in Townville as part of an artistic residency I coordinated for pianist Michael Kieran Harvey. I do hope Peter doesn’t need to work as hard for the birds of Wominjeka Park on Sunday October 7, but we’ll see…
It is a great honour for me to be directing the Eudlo Music Nights with the support of Peter, Stephanie, the Eudlo Hall Association and the Glasshouse Musos. I would like it to be an event run by artists for the community, but more importantly, I’d like it to be a small festival for artists - somewhere they can try out new work, launch projects and be heard by an attentive audience. For me it is the creatives who mirror at a deeper level the voice of the community. Not the mundane voice, no, but the profound deep expression which is found at the root of all of us.
Eudlo Music Nights then is dedicated to all those artists who have developed that gift. Who are able to touch that source, that wellspring, to bring forth the expressions of the soul.
I’m pleased that singer songwriter, Noel Gardner, who has had a long artistic association with the region, and is a featured performing artist at this event, is happy for me to reproduce the lyrics of a beautiful song of his, written after a three day bushwalk with friends through Cooloola National Park to the Noosa River.
Michael Whiticker
Walking this Land
Casuarinas sing in the gentle breeze
Yellow blossoms sway at ease
Droplets cling from dew-lined leaves
We are walking this land
Hakeas line tannin creeks
Branches arch above sky-stretched streams
Ripples move ‘cross naked reeds
We are walking this land
Melaleucas and bloodwoods show
Kauri pines and messmates throw
An ancient path for all to grow
We are walking this land
Distant views of sun-bleached sand
Framed ‘cross burnt-out banksia land
Scribbly gums, pandanus palms
We are walking this land
Images of tribes long past
Evoke the dreams that could not last
A millennium of ancient dance
Used to walk this land
My thoughts go backwards on a strong incline
As childhood days take up my mind
A freedom sometimes hard to find
We are walking this land
Coloured sands from north to south
Rain-drenched soil and blackened clouds
We spin a yarn around nightime camp
We are walking this land
Noel Gardner
‘Review’ of the April 2018 festival
The inaugural Eudlo Music Nights was held in April and it was a much loved event with about 250 people attending. A promotional clip of that weekend can be found online at https://youtu.be/aqS3pSCXzCQ or just google the event name and you tube. Everyone there appreciated the small friendly festival feel, the fantastic musicians, the home cooking, and the family and pet friendly activities with overnight camping. Dancing was a highlight – maybe it was just the dance-ready crowd and some of the energetic bands appearing? For me a great success was the big fire that attracted some top musicians and people keen to join in - flames seem to inspire passionate musical performances from those partaking, don’t they!
A clip from the October 2018 festival:
Check out the video clip at https://youtu.be/FZV6-6wo8cI
You’ll hear and see Eudlo Music Nights - an infectious bluesy number, written by Peter Gawith (Peter G) and recorded in the Sound Space studio at Peachester by Michael Whiticker who produced, programmed and engineered the song. Peter sang and played those catchy guitar parts. The images are from the October 2018 Eudlo Music Nights festival. Thank you to Jordan Edmeades for the images and editing them to make up the video! A big job for us all but worth it to have a great little clip. Thanks Guys!
Eudlo Music Nights written by Peter Gawith
Verse 1
We’ve got a message and it could be just right
Come spend some time at Eudlo Music Night
Eudlo Music Night April and October
Verse 2
There’s music and dancing and food and fun
A little something there for everyone
At Eudlo Music Night April and October
Bridge
Stay the night the camping is fine
Under the stars of a Eudlo sky
Around the campfire the mood is right
Come be enchanted by a Eudlo Music Night
Verse 3
You know that music is good for the soul
Folk and blues and even rock and roll
If that’s your groove you’d better make it your goal to be at
Eudlo Music Night April and October
