The last time I went to Woodford Folk Festival I was 19 and I had a bad “trip” and a bad attitude.

It was 2002 and I was still partying like it was 1999.

Hot, sweaty, dancing gypsies. Young, wild and free.

My best friend Claire – who I’ve known since Grade 5 – introduced me to the folk life, and being a kooky and wild, dopamine-chasing monster, I was hooked on the curious, latern-lined kingdom, full of hopes and dreams, and everything in between.

Except, sometime in the early morning, the ecstatic good times had all but worn off, and I had lost Claire.

My Samsung flip phone was flat.

We still relied on pay phones back then, but I didn’t even know Claire’s mobile number. So I rang dad instead just to hear a familiar voice and he assured me to stay put and that I’d find her.

Walking through a sea of colourful tents, I did find Claire.

There she was living her best vagrant life with newfound friends, Woodford-style.

All was not lost.

My slight misadventure ended with these two carefree besties watching a glorious sunrise ceremony, which soothed our frazzled hearts and souls.

The mystical potency of community provided by our like-minded village friends restored my leaky aura with the cup of life, and it turns out that 20 years later, we would re-visit the cultural cocktail of Woodfordia together again.

I was so glad to be able to finally get there on Wednesday night. After interviewing Ben Lee as a major headliner for Yelo a few weeks ago, I was certain now was the time to boomerang back to the land of Hobbit-like, lush green pastures at the iconic Sunshine Coast annual festival.

Yelo co-founder Marty even popped by (see the three crazy cats to left) and it was now time to soak up this magical motherland through a new set of (slightly older and wiser) lenses.

While I originally thought I would drive back from Woodford to the Coast at midnight, Claire (the sensible one) said we needed to stay in Tent City, so we did.

Tent City is located at Woodford Showgrounds, a five minute drive from the festival, with air-conditioned coaches running 24/7.

Hot tip: Make sure you get all the add-ons. Your tent will come set up, which is great and just what your jelly legs will need after a long day in the festival heat, but if you aren’t getting the tent extras, make sure you are bringing them. Because in this wet-season mania, the weather can take you in any direction at any time. And don’t forget your gum boots! Ponchos and umbrellas are also a must.

A few more tips on surviving Tent City:

1. It’s hot, like heat-wave style hot. The Eastern Bloc tents are pitched in the middle of an exposed oval. While the grounds were delightful and green, there was no proper shading for the tents and this exposure, with no tent fan, meant we were forced to evacuate our humble abode by 8am, a little earlier than planned.
2. A light is super handy too for finding your tent during midnight bathroom visits, and also because the tents are pitch black inside.
3. Don’t be like us and assume the mattresses for the beds are included. Thankfully we were able to borrow a couple, but if we hadn’t it was going to be a tough night’s sleep on the bare, metal stretcher bed. Ouch.

It was soon time for our fave Aussie pop-rock man to perform.

Large blow-up dice were tossed over the revellers, as our main man Ben Lee took to stage to pump out 20+ years of a thick music catalogue including favourites such as, “We Are All In This Together”, “Catch My Disease”, and my personal OG fave, “Cigarettes Will Kill You”.

Somewhere a few songs in, Ben started passing around a tray of the classic Australian biscuit, Iced Vovos, and we were right in there to grab one of course. Yum!

The LA expat rounded out his set with an over-sized suit of rainbow streamers, reminiscent of a giant 80s tinsel hair wig, in an Elton John-inspired “big is better” moment, as he danced around on stage like a Chinese dragon.

We hung around for Resin Dogs, who I was a big fan of back in the early 2000s, and they rocked!

It’s also safe to say, Woodford is so much more beautiful as a not-so-angsty young adult.

From the minute I first walked in the entrance I was legit shook – for reals!

I turned to my companions, as though I’d just been let in on some big secret, and said: “Did you know it was this good?” Everything was so pristine and perfect.

“These are my people!” I said to Marty to which he replied: “Yeah P, this is definitely you all over!”

High on life, and maybe a crumb or two of some cosmically-charged chocolate brownies, we wandered around discussing the exceptional-looking grounds with many “oohs” and “ahhs”.

Claire and I giggled our way through delicious food vendors as we followed our noses to the Pink Lotus restaurant, which glowed in pink neon, and chowed down some seriously top Vietnamese nosh, while Marty fetched beers for them and a Coke for me.

It was eerily quiet on the first night of the festival, as though there was a bewitched spell on the forest gatherers forcing everyone to leave their Christmas baggage at the door, and just chill the F out.

The word I kept coming back to was “respect”.

There’s so much consideration for the fellow human here, with minimal rubbish and well-behaved punters.

You’re encouraged to buy a plastic cup at the bar, which means barely any litter anywhere, with revellers ultimately “cleaning” as they go by taking their cups with them – genius!

As I wandered through the sea of lanterns, which lit up in the night, I pondered the effort that goes into this quiet, clean, peace-loving, hippy festival.

Claire said: “Oh, it’s a full time production, they work all year on it.”

It reminded me of the beautiful country fairs you see in TV shows such as Yellowstone or Gilmore Girls.

Cosy, quaint, perfection. Except loaded with way more culture and worldly flavours, with performances from our First Nations people to international cuisine and artists.

Oh, and there was a ‘storybook’ full moon hanging above our heads the entire night.

Can you really get any more perfect?

I’m officially hooked. I’ve decided to go to Woodford Folk Festival every year now. I want to camp and get to know the community. One night simply wasn’t enough.

If you truly want to suck the marrow out of this festival you must stay the night in the camp grounds, and get to know the people. If you can’t afford to stay, you can volunteer your time and earn your keep.

If you do camp, please remember to over-prepare. Take the tent fan (again a must!), pack the mozzie spray, bring the extra bedding so you’re super comfy. Book a few swims at Lake Gkula (where you might even catch a splash mob!), and stay hydrated.

The more prepared you are the better your experience will be.

Whatever bad “trip” here will be made up in droves by the spontaneity of child-like innocence throughout, and a beating community heart.

It’s simply spellbinding.

Thank you Woodford, 2023. Bring on next year!