The Nariel Creek Black and White Folk Festival started as a result of a workshop weekend (the Eight Hour Day weekend in Victoria), in 1963, on dances and tunes collected from the Nariel Valley (NE Victoria) in late 1962; at the Nariel Valley Boxing Day dance, actually. The players from whom the tunes and dances had been collected were the local band and that band played both at that workshop weekend and the festival that grew out of it. The festival was held on the local Recreation Reserve, alongside the creek and near the site of a Corroboree Ground, hence the reference to "Black and White".

The Nariel Creek Folk Festival (as it's now known) is the longest running folk festival in Oz and its workshop beginnings set the tone and style for the early National Folk Festivals that commenced (in Melbourne) in 1967. The last surviving member of that original Nariel Band (Keith Klippel) stll plays in the current Nariel Band and descendants of other originals still live in the area and play in the band. One, Ian Simpson, makes and plays Anglo concertinas and uses Australian timbers to make "penny whistles" that Disie, his wife, plays in the band; the whistles are highly thought of by the likes of Gray Larsen.

Unlike most festivals (many of which, to me, are really just concerts that take over a town for a while) Nariel is low key, with no electricity, minimal cost ($25 to camp by the creek and $5 to go to the dances at the local hall (now in Cudgewa; the New Year's Eve dance on the Nariel green is free), nobody gets paid and communal cooking is 'the go' and lots of engagement. There's even a Beginners' Tree, where you can sit and play Boys of Blue Hill ad infinitum (and even poorly) free of criticism.

Not quite the same model as some of the high profile bands mentioned but probably even more influential over the long term.

Cheers, Rowan