Folk isn't just about the music. Just ask ''Bruce'', of Quialigo in southern NSW, and Dave Upton, of Lockhart in the Riverina. Both have worked as stockmen and have run the Stock Camp at the National Folk Festival for the past five years.
Just like its name suggests, it is a slice of life from a traditional stock camp, which includes performances of bush songs, displays of horse breaking and cattle gear and bush food cooked over an open fire.The men were hard at work for the first official day of the National Folk Festival, turning a hand spit with a sheep speared through it for six hours, and making sure the beef and vegetable stew and damper didn't burn or the billy tea boil over.Mr Upton, who worked as a stockman for 23 years, doesn't have electricity in his house and still cooks his food over an open fire. He is happy to put his trade's ''best foot forward'' and ''turn people on to'' the way drovers and stockmen used to live.
He's been involved in the folk scene since he was a ''young fellow'' and believes it is important for musicians from the city to have a taste of the life that inspired many of the bush ballads.
''The drovers and stockmen wrote the bush songs that we're performing and singing [today] so when [musicians] sing about the whips cracking, [I can say], 'Well, there's a stock whip','' he said.''It's a trade that hasn't changed; we still ride the horses the same, train a dog or a horse the same as they did 1000 years ago.''Back in the real world, people wandered the stalls selling handmade scarves and beanies, hemp clothing, fairy wings and African drums, and dipped into the entertainment on offer.
At the Flute 'n' Fiddle stage Soursob Bob had the audience in stitches with his ''feral folk'' songs, including the tune Reinvent Yourself.''I went to the songwriting consultancy and they told me that I needed to reinvent myself,'' he sang, strumming his guitar, completely deadpan.
''I told them that I hadn't invented myself in the first place and we got into some kind of debate about intelligent design.''The Adelaide musician describes his music as ''rough and raw'' and likes to use humour to entertain in his songs that range in subject matter from ''cars to relationships''.Out on a patch of grass, Kon Kudo, 16, of Kaleen, was making his own fun. He is part of the Warehouse Circus and has been juggling for five years.
Flipping clubs in the air, Kon said it took ''mainly practice'' to become good at juggling.
''To get to this level you've got to start with the balls. The clubs are harder because you have to spin them, it's not just about chucking them.'' About 10,500 people spilled through the gates yesterday, and organisers are hoping 50,000 will pass through over the five days.Managing director of the festival, Jared Wilkins, said the effects of the global financial crisis had not been felt at the festival and that pre-sales this year had improved on 2008.Organisers sold 3800 tickets before the festival, compared with 3500 last year.
He said the festival was a not-for-profit organisation and any surplus made ''goes back into the festival for delivering a better event next year''.
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