Blue Mountains Music Festival.

The first Blue Mountains Folk Festival was conceived in March 1995, with a challenge from American folk legend Tom Paxton to ‘ just do it’. Paxton was on one of his very rare Australian tours and local Blue Mountains guitarist Al Ward was travelling with him as sideman and support act. During the tour they had played the Port Fairy and Jamberoo festivals amongst others and had sung the praises of those events to the Clarendon’s Bob Charter.

For some time Bob and Al Ward had had an informal arrangement for acoustic concerts which had replaced the more regular folk club run by Stuart Cowell, Nigel Foote and Dawn Egan. As part of this informal concert series, Tom Paxton was doing two nights at the Clarendon. Over a few drinks after the second show Bob, Al and Paxton were discussing the viability of a local folk festival, especially since the Blue Mountains had just been named ‘Inaugural City of the Arts’.
Paxton threw down the gauntlet, and in 1996 his good friend John McCutcheon became the first international artist to play at the festival.

The first festival was a modest affair with 24 concerts on three stages, and included Dave Swarbrick, The Bushwackers, The Backsliders, Broderick Smith, Bernard Bolan, Jeannie Lewis, Alistair Hulett, Al Ward, Pat Drummond, the Fagans and a host of other acts from Sydney and the Blue Mountains. The second year saw more high profile artists, including Andy Irvine, Eric Bogle, Judy Small, Kev Carmody, Irish sensations Lunasa, Riley Lee and The Well Oiled Sisters from Scotland. The festival expanded to cover five stages.

The Katoomba Public School and the Katoomba RSL have been partners in the festival from the beginning, providing venues, logistics and volunteers. The RSL has become a major sponsor, and houses the Blues stage.

The name change to ‘Blue Mountains Music Festival. Folk, Roots and Blues’ was made to more accurately reflect the musical profile of the festival. The difference between this and other folk festivals is that right from the outset it meant to provide performance opportunities for professional artists, who have been seriously affected by the decline in the number of live performance venues across Australia. It has presented acts as diverse as Eric Bibb, Bruce Cockburn, Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch, Rory McCleod, Chris Wilson, The Stiff Gins, Andy Irvine, Patty Larkin, Paul Brady, Tiddas, Mic Conway’s National Junk Band, Harry Manx, Seamus Begley, Andy M Stewart, Bert Jansch, Eric Bogle, Chris Smither, The Bluehouse, Jeff Lang, Dick Gaughan, Waterson Carthy, Guy Davis, Ember Swift, Colin Hay, Kristina Olsen, Fourplay, Fruit, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, Altan and Felpeyu, just to name a few.
The event is now based around seventy or so concerts by world class acoustic practitioners, both seasoned campaigners and emerging talents.

With the financial support of all levels of government and corporate sponsors Guinness, the festival has acquired an enviable international reputation for the quality of programming and production, and there is fierce competition amongst the touring fraternity of musicians for inclusion. In 2003, Festivals Australia provided funding for a nostalgic return to the big band jazz age when Katoomba was the honeymoon capital of New South Wales. In 2004 the Blue Mountains City Council entered into a cultural partnership with the festival to present a ‘Blue’ Mountains of Music showcase featuring some of the best of the home grown high ground talent. The headline acts for 2005 include Janis Ian, Eric Bibb, The Whitlams, Mia Dyson, guitar wizard Tony McManus and separate Irish singing sensations Brian Kennedy and Sean Keane.