How to get the best out of a music festival. Volunteering at Nannup Music Festival 2021

There’s an old military saying “never volunteer for anything,” but that is certainly not my adage.WA has truly been one of the lucky states in Australia for the  12 months since Covid19 first impacted our country. In Western Australia, following the initial lock down of April 2020, we enjoyed many days of Covid free living, apart from the recent 5 day lock down. A stark contrast to our friends in Victoria and NSW.     

I attended Nannup Music Festival this year as a volunteer. I drove the shuttle bus a 3km round trip from camp site to town , while  my friends worked the bar, (wo)manned the gate and MC’d the stages. The fact that we could attend a music festival at all was not lost on any of  us.

Nannup Music Festival is a  three day festival set in the Western Australian bush, situated in the quaint town of Nannup https://www.nannup.wa.gov.au/, which is 3.5 hours south of Perth.  The festival usually attracts artists from the national and international stage and sells around 4000 tickets.  2021 saw crowd numbers limited in venues,  due to Covid19 restrictions,  and the talent was very much a Western Australian affair with some artists travelling interstate from Darwin and Queensland.  http://nannupmusicfestival.org/the-festival/

Nannup Music Festival 2021 will forever be etched on our minds as “the year of no beer”.  Over the many years I have been attending music festivals with my friends,  there is usually a single event or a series of events that define that year.  There was “the great flood” of Fairbridge Music Festival in 2008 when torrential rain flattened our tents and cut off power to the main stage.  Particularly memorable because one of  our children called 000 as they were caught in their tent when the rain started and did not know what to do.  The first we knew of their panicked call for help was a police car turning up and 2 puzzled constables wading through mud, searching for “the scene of the crime”.

There was “the big wind” of 2017, also at Fairbridge,  which ripped tents and shelters out of the ground and generally wreaked havoc.    A foray into the earnest world of folk music at Nanga Music Festival is one we always remember and laugh about, and we will never forget sleepless nights at Wave Rock Weekender , when we camped beside the soundscape, which ran all night. I have attended many festivals in my time but this is the first one I have known to run out of beer. 

  I had first hand information on Saturday afternoon that some types of  beer had already run out and there was only a small selection of other beverages available.  By Sunday lunchtime the alcohol situation was pretty dire despite more supplies arriving.  Sunday night I was driving the shuttle bus from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm and word on the street was “the bars have all run out of alcohol!”  Following what had been a fairly raucous Saturday night of ferrying inebriated patrons to and from the camp ground, Sunday was a fairly sober affair!

Nannup Music Festival is an artists festival and it can only run with the help of volunteers.  I only received my volunteer rosters 2 days before the beginning of the festival so I did not get a lot of choice about the timing of those shifts. Two late nights shifts meant I missed all the evening performances and had the added joy of dealing with drunk passengers with no extra support. So the lack of alcohol on Sunday night actually made my life easier!

It’s these moments that I will remember with a smile: The group of 20 somethings who sang a canon of “The Wheels on the Bus” with ALL the verses; the inebriated guy who sat in the front seat and got into a discussion with me about teaching and then asked if he could do another loop to continue the chat; the young girl who got on the empty bus alone, and when I asked her if she was having a good festival, she burst into tears and told me she had just broken up with her boyfriend and he had left her alone with no transport home; the group of lovely young women on a “hen’s” weekend who were constantly ferrying members of their group back to the campsite because they had too much to drink; the countless young men who thought they could pull the wool over my eyes and pretend there was a seat at the very back of the bus when there wasn’t; and the laughter when I told the whole bus I was a school teacher and that I wasn’t going to take any shit.

Despite the lack of alcohol, the crowd kept dancing and the bands kept playing. The world did not stop turning and I think I could safely say that everyone who attended this years festival would have only good things to say.  It’s just a shame that this glitch might mean the difference between a festival that breaks even and one that doesn’t.

Musical highlights for me: Ruby Gilbert @ the Secret Garden on Saturday morning; Ben Evolent @ the Nannup Hotel on Sunday afternoon; Alter Boy @ Tigerville ; Gina williams & Guy Ghouse also @ The Secret Garden; and John Bennett Trio @ The Amphitheater on Sunday night.

My next volunteer gig is Fairbridge Festival 9th – 11th of April in Pinjarra, where I can be found in the Woodshed helping kids hammer nails into wood and use electric drills. What could possibly go wrong?

Think you might want to volunteer? Most festivals require that you do 3 x 3 hour shifts over the weekend. If you can get there early and have some extra time you can get your shifts out of the way in the set up and take down. Fancy a bar gig? Get your RSA online. Like working with kids? Apply for your Working with Children Check. Bus driving ? An F Extension on your driver’s licence is all it takes! You get to be part of the fun and enjoy all the music, all while feeling like you are doing something good.

If you would like to read about volunteering at another great WA festival. Fairbridge Festival is a must for volunteers and music lovers alike. https://www.lisabenjess.org/fairbridge-festival-2021-rocking-out-with-the-kids/