After turning thousands away in 2022 after tickets sold out, Woodford Folk Festival organisers are expanding the camping offering to cover extra festival-goers.
Festival director Amanda Jackes has revealed that new camp areas have opened at the Woodford Showgrounds, 4km from the main festival site, to accommodate this year’s overflow of keen campers.
“We think the option of powered sites, spacious and quiet grounds, hot showers and a dedicated 24-hour shuttle bus will be a great offering for our patrons,” Ms Jackes said.
Related story: The show will go on at Woodford Folk Festival
Online ticketing for the upcoming festival now officially open.
“It feels great to be able to plan this year with more certainty and more creativity,” she said.
This year, Woodford residents were given the first opportunity to purchase tickets, resulting in a record number of tickets being sold in the first few days.
“We have been enthusiastically working through the many areas which we want to improve,” she said.
“It is a luxury to have the time this year to make changes which will improve the experience for our patrons.”
The celebrated festival is one of Queensland’s major events and last year delivered a record economic impact of $21.25m.
This economic activity is responsible for generating 167 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in the Moreton Bay region and a further 101 FTE jobs across Queensland.
“The festival is an economic powerhouse for the region,” Ms Jackes said.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe agreed the festival is a major event for Queensland.
“The Woodford Folk Festival is a favourite on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar, with crowds of more than 120,000 coming back each year for this iconic Queensland event,” he said.
“It’s a celebration of storytelling, culture and tradition played out over six days by one of the largest gatherings of some of Australia’s greatest artists and musicians.”
Mr Hinchliffe said it was the 10th year the state government had supported the festival.
“Through the Growing Tourism Infrastructure Fund, we also supported 20 new permanent glamping tents in 2022, because it’s important that we deliver more quality tourism infrastructure so that visitors get the best festival experience,” he said.
“This will also be a boost for the Moreton Bay region, as I know many festival-goers will extend their stay to explore all of what the region has to offer.”
Woodford’s popularity over the years has seen patrons arrive earlier and earlier, and this year organisers are also introducing staggered entry for Christmas Day add-on holders.
“Christmas Day entry has always been a big day for us – this year we’re trialling something quite new to help minimise the queuing and traffic,” Ms Jackes said.
Patrons will be able to purchase a pass to access the site either on Christmas morning (from 8am) or Christmas afternoon (from 1pm). Queuing access will be strictly limited.
She said organisers were aware the glamping offering is well undersized with all glamping tents being sold out in March this year, well before the festival tickets were even announced.
Other accommodation offerings have been launched with ticket sales, including Pitch Luxury bell tents and an onsite Tent City motel.
The Woodford Express returns this year, with the option to pre-purchase bus tickets from Brisbane, North Lakes, Caboolture and on the Sunshine Coast, direct to the festival.
Woodfordia has also launched its latest environmental project, Conservatree. Modelled on the successful community engagement framework of the festival, the ambitious project aims to regenerate the 500 acres of land on which Woodfordia stands.
Since stepping down, festival founder Bill Hauritz has been able to dedicate his time to the development of the project.
Related story: ‘Indulgent’: folk festival’s glamping evolution
“We’re very conscious about our role, not just in minimising our impact on the environment but setting targets that really challenge our resources and ability,” he said.
Ms Jackes added: “The organisation is looking to see what more we can do to address our environmental footprint.
“Woodfordia has been looking at itself critically, across the whole organisation, to see what more we can do.
“While it has been wonderful to plant over 100,000 trees on this land, develop our own water and sewage treatment plants, compost large volumes of organic waste during events and limit packaging to reuseable or biodegradeable, there’s a lot more we can and should be doing.”
Extending the organisation’s solar harvesting is one such project on the horizon.
“Our dream is for Woodfordia to be a place of arts, creativity and environmental development throughout the year and not just for the six days between December 27 and January 1,” she said.
The festival is known for its diverse program which includes music, circus, cabaret, comedy, talks, workshops, ceremonies, yoga, dance, street theatre, installations and a dedicated children’s festival.
With over 2000 performers, Woodford Folk Festival is the largest gathering of artists and musicians in Australia. The event is held on Jinibara country in the Moreton Bay region.
To purchase tickets to this year’s festival click here.
SUBSCRIBE here now for our FREE news feed, direct to your inbox daily.
