Вудфордия: Австралия халық музыкасы фестивалі

Annual Australian folk music festival held near Woodford, Queensland

The Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music and cultural festival held near the semi rural town of Woodford, north of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events of its type in Australia.

Unlike many festivals which are held in or near urban centres, the Woodford Folk Festival takes place on a 500 acre rural property known as Woodfordia, situated approximately north of the Sunshine Coast town of Woodford. The land is owned by Woodfordia Inc (previously Queensland Folk Federation), who are the producers of the festival. The 2011 flooding throughout Queensland also affected Woodfordia, leaving the Queensland Folk Federation (QFF) with millions of dollars of repair bills. To save the organisation, the Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) purchased the land from the QFF and then leased it back to them for 50 years. The MBRC owns the land, however the QFF still owns all infrastructure and improvements made to the land.

The Woodford Folk Festival developed from the Maleny Folk Festival which began in Maleny in 1987. The final evening of the Woodford festival culminates in a spectacular New Year's Day closing ceremony, The Fire Event. In 2008, the festival won the FasterLouder Festival Award for the most Green Friendly festival. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Woodford Folk Festival was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an "event and festival". In 2014, the festival attracted more than 126,000 patrons and generated 22 million dollars in direct visitor spending. The Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015, transforming from a homegrown event to one of the largest cultural celebrations in the southern hemisphere and welcoming more than 2 million people since 1994. In 2016–17, the festival attracted over 135,000 patrons, which was its largest year to date. The COVID 19 pandemic caused the 2020 festival to go on hiatus. After a two year hiatus, the 2022 Woodford Folk Festival programme was announced on 22 October 2022 featuring a score of Australian and international artists returning to the Woodfordia parklands.

In 2011, organisers of the festival were criticised for inviting known conspiracy theorist Meryl Dorey, president of anti vaccination pressure group the Australian Vaccination Network to speak at the festival. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) described the group's views as "dangerous", and said organisers "had a responsibility to add speakers who could provide the medically approved side of the argument" so the audience were aware of "the risk of the information being presented [by Ms Dorey]". In response, festival director Bill Hauritz defended Dorey's appearance, saying "We've had a number of speakers, environmentalists and such, who have been discredited by some people in the past, this is no different." Queensland Health Minister Geoff Wilson advised attendees "not to take [Meryl's] nonsense too seriously".