Port Fairy

We headed down to Port Fairy for their annual Spring Music Festival on the weekend. A four hour drive, but well worth it. I had the chance to experience four whole concerts, in child-free bliss. The first was violin/piano duo who played Beethoven's Sonata No.7 in c minor, op.30, No.2, which was stunningly beautiful. The violinist Cameron Hill especially was, well, just fabulous really. And speaking of fabulous, that night, I was dragged (protesting) from the house at 10:15pm to see the Stiletto Sisters, a trio that combine hungarian/russian style folk music with a dash of french passion and one hell of good time! I can't rave about them enough. The next day gave up some beautiful Schubert played by The Benaud Trio, and some very good (if rather unchallenging) Jazz. A great festival, but really, they do need to try and expand their audience somewhat. I'm sure I'm not the only person under 50 who enjoys a bit of classical and/or jazz every now and then. But sitting up the back (as I often was) my field of vision was filled mostly with a sea of grey. Which is fine. It's a grown-up alternative to the folk festival. But still, that's a whole two thirds of the population that they seem to be neglecting in their marketing.


Of course, being in Port Fairy, Mari was very interested in looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden, with moderate success, spring being the right time for fairy watching and all. And Rosa had fun playing with her very good friend Alannah. We also got the chance to walk along the wharf to check out the boats and soak up some sunshine between performances.