Planning is well underway for the 21^st Illawarra Folk Festival to be held from the Thursday 26^th January  (Australia Day) to Sunday 29^th 2006 at the Bulli Showground.

It may be in a different location but the tradition established in the twenty previous festivals at Jamberoo will continue with eleven venues in operation and performers coming from Australia and Overseas.

Festival Director, David de Santi who is directing his eleventh Illawarra Festival said the Festival had already booked the multi-talented, Jeff Lang to head a line up of over 200 performers and that the make-up would become clear in the next few weeks as performers applications came in.

The Festival is run by the Illawarra Folk Club and its president, Russell Hannah, said the decision to leave Jamberoo and move to Bulli had been the most difficult decisions the club had ever made.  He said a significant financial loss in 2004, the inflexibility of the timing which left the festival subject to the early spring westerlies, the growth in the festival and the lack of facilities  and need to construct a mini-village meant that the Festival had become too large to manage with volunteers alone.

" We needed an enclosed venue, close to public transport, that had camping, shower and toilet facilities, was flexible for timing and was an established site for events. After looking at several sites Bulli was the best fit", he added.

Mr  De Santi said that the club had submitted a development application to Wollongong Council and pending approval the club was going ahead with arrangements to hold the festival. He said major sponsorship had already been negotiated with Clubs NSW and already many community groups in the Northern Illawarra were giving their support.

The Lions Club, The Bulli Greyhound Racing Club, The Bulli Harness Club, The Grevillia Park, the Bulli Uniting Church, The Wonoona/Bulli Ex-Services Club, i98FM, WIN Television, Illawarra Mercury, VOX FM and The Northern Leader were just a few of the groups who are already getting behind the festival, Mr De  Santi added.

While at Jamberoo, The Festival won 3 awards for the Most Significant Regional Festival and Special Event and the Best Tourism Event at the Illawarra Business and Tourism Awards and reached the finals of the State awards.

Mr  De Santi went on to say that the Illawarra was the only large Folk Festival in Australia to be run entirely by volunteers. It required well over 200 volunteers to ensure that the festival operated smoothly and already many people, many from as far afield as Tasmania were offering their services. He said he welcomed new volunteers and that information about volunteering and the Festival could be had on the website www.illawarrafolkclub.org.au

 

 

Further information and photographs contact David De Santi, 0409 57 1788, desanti@bigpond.com

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Prepared by Russell Hannah 42971777,  bigruss@1earth.net , 8 November 2005