Music is coming to Queensland's small towns

Produced by Woodfordia Inc. in partnership with the Woodford Folk Festival and Mullum Music Festival, the Festival of Small Halls is a locally driven music tour bringing high-quality live original music to small towns across Australia.

Festival producer Eleanor Rigden says the tour offers more than just a rare opportunity for towns to access a high standard of music.

“In general, access to the arts improves everything from quality of life to economic outlooks for small towns.

“This particular project goes even further; and empowers communities to create their own space, giving them the skills to deliver similar projects independently,” she says.

The Festival of Small Halls Summer Tour 2017 will start in Wyreema, a tiny town in the Darling Downs region with a population of little more than 1,000 and will finish in Eudlo, a hinterland village on the Sunshine Coast.

Both artists on this year’s tour are seasoned performers looking forward to the intimacy of playing a regional tour.

Vance Gilbert has released twelve albums since bursting onto the New York singer/songwriter scene in the nineties. His work is an ongoing commitment to traditional folk storytelling, yet remains true to his jazz roots.

He counts opening for soul legend Aretha Franklin among his many achievements.

Melbourne-based musician Liz Stringer is one of Australia’s most respected songwriters and performers. She is fresh from a year-long tour of Australia, Canada and the United States, where she recorded her latest album in Portland, Oregon.

For Liz, already Festival of Small Halls alumni, this tour is all about the inspiration she finds on the road.

“Folk music is all about telling stories about culture, about life, about each other,” she said. 

“It’s about making sense of being a human and, because of that, it has the ability to connect humans to each other.”

Now in its fifth year, the Festival of Small Halls tour will take in 20 regional towns across Queensland and New South Wales in 2017 before moving on to Victoria and Tasmania in the New Year.

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