Yesterday's sunny weather may have been great for visitors to the 37th Whare Flat Folk Festival, near Dunedin, but perhaps less rewarding for performers in the main marquee.
However, nobody was complaining as between 400 and 500 people enjoyed the entertainment and activities on offer.
Festival director Bernadette Moroney explained that ideal conditions for a festival day were sunny weather in Dunedin but overcast skies at Whare Flat.
Such conditions encouraged day visitors from Dunedin and meant they were keen to get inside the marquee rather than relax outside, but within hearing distance.
Asked about the secret to the longevity of the Whare Flat event, Mrs Moroney said some other folk festivals around the country had also been going a long time. Wellington was in its 45th year and Christchurch was one ahead of Whare Flat because they had "cheated" and held two one year.
Singer-songwriters were constantly emerging and always seemed to move into the folk world because they realised they would be listened to there - "singing in a pub is no fun".
The Whare Flat festival, which is organised by the New Edinburgh Folk Club, offered more than music, with a workshop programme which covered a variety of performing arts, including dance. This year the dance workshops included Bollywood dancing described as "pure entertainment/fun dancing to the rhythms of amazing Indian music".
The festival had always had a youth guest artist and this year it was Eighteen Blades of Grass, Dunedin musicians Maura Turner, Libby Atkinson and Lily Le Brun.
Maura was festival stalwart Marcus Turner's youngest daughter, an example of how the next generation was helping to keep the festival going, she said.
Logan Park High School musicteacher John Dodd had done much to encourage the involvement and attendance of young people and there had been a large contingent from the school.
Another feature of the festival was an extensive programme for children and this year it featured Canadian singer-songwriter Chris Rait.
Among the overseas artists this year were the Karen Lynne Bluegrass Circle, Twisted Oak and the Kelly Family (all from Australia) and Bob Soper and Elizabeth Nicholson from the United States. The festival continues today and this evening for the several hundred campers whose numbers are likely to be swelled by people visiting for the final day.
