Woodford Folk Festival - History

History

The Woodford Folk Festival developed from the Maleny Folk Festival which began in Maleny in 1987. In 1994, the festival was moved 20 km away to Woodford when it outgrew the Maleny Showgrounds site.

Unlike many festivals which are held in or near urban centres, the Woodford Folk Festival takes place on a 200 ha (500 acre) rural property in a forest setting. The land is owned by the Queensland Folk Federation, producers of the festival and is also home to The Dreaming Festival, Australia’s International Indigenous Festival, which is held annually in June.

The final evening of the Woodford festival culminates in a spectacular New Year's Day closing ceremony, Fire Event. Over 20,000 festival goers seated on a grassed hillside witness a spectacle of dance, music, theatricality and fire - with the burning of a large structure heralding the New Year. The Fire Event was developed by Neil Cameron at the former Maleny festival and continued at Woodford, Paul Lawler worked with Cameron and took over as creative director of the event in 2003. The January 2000 Fire Event was featured in the global live TV broadcast heralding the new millennium.

In 2005–2006 a record aggregate attendance of over 130,000 visitors attended the festival, injecting $21 million into the Queensland economy.

In 2008 the festival won the FasterLouder Festival Award for the most Green Friendly festival.