G'day All,

Teasle: Somebody sure enjoyed the (Australian) National Folk Festival when they held it at Alice ... it was just about the last of the peripatetic series to make a healthy profit. I remember analysing why it profitted and finding that it was because they kept control of the bar sale - and they paid for everything else. Actually, an ABC programme on Great Train Journeys of the World had an episode on The Ghan and they went through the Alice durung the NFF. I clearly remember their footage of (the late ... and even lamented) Keith Snell, who ran the band I played with in the 1970s, Rouseabouts, crawling across the Festival bar floor, pushing a full glass with his head!

It was the growing (and growing) losses that forced the National, having united the national folkie scene, into a fixed venue and the advantages that flow from a developing a body of expertise and known venue. Some great aspects were lost, some good points were gained, the whole show now works and will keep working ... and Queenslanders thinkl it is a Southern plot (plus ca change, plus ca meme).

See you in Canberra in the new millennium! (The one that starts we we complete the 1000th year of this one!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton