AS EPIC goes quiet this Easter weekend, downtown Queanbeyan will keep the spirit of the National Folk Festival alive through “Good Folk”, two days of music-making.

At a launch held in the Royal Hotel this morning (January 29) Helen Roben, managing director of the Folk Festival, suggested that the coming event, “Good Folk”, wouldn’t really be a festival, but rather a program featuring 22 concerts.

But for his part, the Mayor of Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, Tim Overall, described the “festival with a small f” as “very exciting, a great result for the local economy after the drought, fires, floods and covid”. It was sad, he said, that elsewhere in the immediate region the popular Majors Creek Music Festival had been cancelled, and there had been unanimous support on council for a partnership with the festival.

“Good Folk” will be a two-day concert series on April 3-4 at The Royal, The Q and the newly upgraded Bicentennial Hall, with the nearby club, Campbell & George, becoming a two-day dedicated session space.

The choice of Queanbeyan was obvious, Roben said, with its abundance of good venues, accommodation and pubs.

The move to Queanbeyan for a scaled-down event follows the cancellation of the 2021 festival due to COVID-19 contingencies, but Roben remains optimistic about the future, saying that “the quintessential folk festival experience still remains”.

According to Roben, the town’s Crawford Street would be hopping with activity on Saturday, April 3, with folk dancing, a busking competition and local traders encouraged to set up stalls.

On hand to illustrate the festival’s 2021 aim to foster and support regional talent, were Canberra singer-songwriter Kim Yang, who performed her south coast bushfire-inspired song “Garden of Eden (A Living Hell)” and Queanbeyan author, poet and rapper, Omar Musa, who performed his poem, “Capital Letters”.

The line-up of local and national artists performing over Easter will include 2021 Golden Guitar Awards Female Artist of the Year Fanny Lumsden, FourPlay String Quartet from Sydney, the New Graces from Candelo, Central Coast trio Little Quirks, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, Yang and Musa.

With a pared-back team of just three at the festival office, Roben said she was very grateful for the council’s support in making connections with local venues and businesses to ensure “a vibrant and interesting folk event”, which would include sanitisation stations and mandatory check-in for all attending.

Roben praised the show of strength from the region’s businesses keen to join the festival and the council, The Royal, Recruitment Hive and Campbell & George, Bentspoke, Lerida Estate, Central Motel Queanbeyan, Queanbeyan Leagues Club, Thirty4 Cafe, BMA Magazine and Counterfeit Copy.

“Good Folk”, various Queanbeyan locations, Easter April 3-4, bookings now open at individual venues and at folkfestival.org.au