Childers by Hayley

Well Childers. Where to begin….

First of all, Sarah is right. (For once hehe) The seats in the back of the van are not conducive to long trips. After a while, I forgot what it was like to feel you had a bum :P But it was a fun-filled four hour trip despite that. And, it was Flook I was bopping along to, not John Butler. The boys were in fine form, we laughed and talked, and I had a great time catching up with Seh in the back. The trip was great.

We stayed with Jan and Col Perrin in Bundaberg all weekend and we couldn’t have asked for a lovelier couple to have welcome us into their home! They were gems, truly. Our first gig wasn’t till 4:30pm on Saturday so we just settled in and walked around, checking out what there was to see in Childers.

So then we did our first gig at the Cultural Centre Stage. I have never enjoyed performing so much! It was fabulous. Kristy was walking around advertising the EP and promising that we would sign them for free. Sure enough, we sold heaps! She did an awesome job. Thanks Kristy! Love your work :) We did another gig at 7:00pm which was fantastic as well. I particularly enjoyed singing Dreams and Galileo. Mine and Seh’s harmonies were really together. And it was almost a full moon, which was beautiful.

The next morning our first gig was at 9:30am. It was a gorgeous day, quite warm but still breezy. The festival was in full swing with the main drag being shut off for HEAPS of stalls. There were heaps of people already! If I had any choice I wouldn’t be up before noon, but it was a great morning despite some technical difficulties with sound. If it hadn’t been for our brilliant sound team, we wouldn’t have been able to perform to the best of our abilities. They were awesome! We sold all of the EP’s and were seriously considering auctioning off the last one as there were so many hands up for it! Lol It was a pleasure to sign them for all the people, who were lovely and supportive. It was a first for me as I’ve never sign my autograph and I could definitely get used to it! We were on a high after we finished our noon gig and walked around the festival for a while, checking out stuff. We saw a Sand Mandala completed by some monks of the Dalai Lama. It was so cool! The intricacy of it and the detail with just sand was unbelievable. Also the band bought me the coolest and most beautiful scarf made out of coloured, shredded bits of wool, satin and silk. I was so glad to have a memento of such a wonderful experience. Thanks guys! I love it :)

One of the highlights of the festival for me was seeing Walisuma no less than four times! They are an incredible four piece band who play music from the Andes. They play (and with much gusto and loads of talent) pan pipes, flutes, little guitars and those things that look like a bunch of nuts strung together on a rope that sound really cool when you rustle them. Lol. You know the ones? Anyway, no matter how many times we saw them, they almost always slowed us in our tracks just so we could listen to their music. If you ever catch them at a shopping centre, or at a festival like this one, count yourself lucky!  And come to Childers next year, it won’t disappoint!

Cheers. Over and out.