PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL STORYTELLING

The Pat Glover Memorial Storytelling Award attracted a good audience and some fine storytellers this year at Port Fairy. As a three time recipient of the award, I stepped down from the mic and Jim Haynes gave me a spot on the judging panel instead. One of the delights of this event is catching up with folk I rarely see otherwise. Rob England was in fine form. Rob can be heard sometimes on Bush Telegraph on Radio National - he's passionate and articulate about the plight of the Coorong but at PF he was in full comic yarn mode. David Demant from the Storytelling Guild (Vic) took a turn at the mic as did Stephen Whiteside from the Australian Rhyming Verse Orators (ARVOS) and Toolangi CJ Dennis Festival and Sheilagh Kentish, from the Ballarat Storytellers was in the audience. This year's winner, Terry Rooney (Sydney) had us in stitches with his tale, Passage to Coffs Harbour. It's hard to get a good pic of people in a line up but here you can see the judging panel and Terry - L to R : Paddy Ryan from Duri (south of Tamworth), Peter Mace (Empire Bay), Me, Terry and the indefatigable Jim Haynes (host). Thanks to Port Fairy Festival, the late Pat Glover and his family for continuing this wonderful gathering of yarn spinners. Jim has a great website. There are some terrific resources here for storytellers. His latest book The Big Book of Verse for Aussie Kids is a great one. http://www.jimhaynes.net/contact_jim.html