Cockatoo Island Festival @Cockatoo Island, 25-27/03/05

Mon 28th Mar, 2005 in Gig Reviews

What a piece of REAL estate! Surrounded by joyful souls, artists, clowns, musicians, children, parents and water, the Cockatoo Island Festival had a little something for everyone. A smorgasbord of entertainment, a feast of food, and a skyline to die for, the inaugural Cockatoo Island Festival is surely the beginning of a major festival event for Sydney and Australia.With a take on the Manly mantra of seven miles from Sydney, we, the new citizens of Cockatoo Island were galaxies away from anything resembling care.

Being needy for a weekend away and abandoning ourselves of our children, my wife and I threw ourselves deep into the history and the event that the festival organisers ambitiously advertised as something spectacular. Three days of camping lay ahead for us and after a week of rain preceding the festival, we were a touch concerned!

Setting alight from Birkenhead Point on Good Friday, the weather promising and the island in view, our oasis for the Easter break was looking promising.

The chores of setting up camp and getting our bearings on Cockatoo did not take long. Before you could say,”Cockatoo”, we were listening to the slide and low mumbles of Chris Whitley (“the soul of the blues” as Jaslyn Hall introduced him). A nice bluesy start to a festival that runs parallel to the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron. But this festival is not about the blues, it is certainly not just about music. It is about a chance for people to mingle with history, listen and talk to artists, eat, drink, and stroll around while taking in the sights, the sounds and the flavours offered.

And what a hell of a lot on offer!

You had an opportunity to go to a Laugh Workshop and stretch your lungs and heart, yoga classes to start the day for all the 1,500 campers who could raise their weary eyelids and spines, poetry readings in the eerily lit guardhouse ruins, shaking it all out in the Tunnel Dance Club, shooting pool in the Pool Hall, having an hour long massage (thanks Josie!), warbling out some Karaoke, catching some films, or listening to some writers, buying collectable records and comics and goodies at the marketplace, and eating some of the most yummy cuisine I have had at any festival (not to mention boutique beers, cocktails and wine!). Cockatoo had it all covered and there was always a surprise. These surprises were either brought to you by Mother Nature (think rainbows and sunsets) or by the organisers, by the island and its history and architecture or by the fellow residents for this long weekend. Did anyone else think that jester Rumpelstiltskin wandering the trails of the island was a bit freaky and scary? Or why were so many visitors to the island wearing wigs? Maybe they weren’t wigs??

Of course, and there was the live music. The Turbine Hall, an immense room formerly used to manufacture parts for naval ships, was an event in itself. With acts like The Waifs and the Wailers on Friday, Machine Gun Fellatio and Gomez (I think everyone was in there for Gomez… I’m sure I felt the Island tilt East!) on Saturday and Eskimo Joe, Pete Murray and the disappointing Cubanismo! (Was it the sound mix or were they just bad?) on Sunday, the room looked like some sort of historic industrial concert hall. High beamed ceilings and natural light coming through to light the angles and the corrugated walls, made it a very special environment indeed!

But not everything was behind walls, much of the music was exposed to the elements and fortunately the elements were with us most of the weekend. A bit of rain, a bit of cold and then the most gorgeous Easter Sunday to top it all off. Tim Rogers, with the fabulous Shane O’Meara on guitar, Millers Tale, Ash Grunwald, Rob Hirst and the fabulous vocals and guitar of Paul Greene and my favourite find of the festival King Tide fronted by Tony Hughes (I am still skanking), all graced some of the outdoor venues. With 120 acts, I am running out of room!

And let’s not forget the Cabaret venue where Cabaret Fantastico, stand up comics and the amazingly quirky and somewhat silly. Picture a guy playing old 78 records and miming and dancing, you got it! Gramophone Man entertained the noon day crowd on Saturday for a short moment. I wondered how in the world this guy got gigs. I found out later in the evening when he materialised as Steve Griffiths, the Creative Director of the festival. We ran into Steve in the Bolt Coffee shop, this café was one of the many spots on the island where you could relax, chat, eat and rest those dancing bones.

Easter Sunday brought out a smaller crowd then Friday and Saturday, it appeared. But the number of people attending did not affect the overall positive and friendly atmosphere we experienced everywhere. And with the just been and gone full moon rising directly over the Harbour Bridge and a big man in the moon smile overlooking Cockatoo Island, the ambitions of the organisers and the enjoyment of those in attendance seemed fulfilled.

And though we left the Island with a bit of melancholy this morning, our king size bed is looking so good right about now!

Long Live Cockatoo!!!