The sold-out final of the sixth annual Act-Belong-Commit Fairbridge Festival Songwriting Quest was a resounding success, with more than 200 people heading to Clancy’s Fish Pub in Fremantle to celebrate the winners.
Fairbridge Festival, Peel’s, and possibly the state’s, pre-eminent folk and world music festival, has now hosted Fairbridge Quest – a songwriting competition aimed at finding the most talented young songwriters in the state – for the past six years, with the talent galvanising more and more every year.
Fairbridge Festival artistic director Ron Vervest said after six years, he believes the competition has become established enough to welcome in new and exciting types of acts.
“We feel like the Quest has become established enough that we can raise it up a little bit, give it more promotion and try and get more people involved,” Mr Vervest said.
Mr Vervest said while the competition has traditionally seen solo singer-songwriters, the festival is raring to see a broader range of music.
“We’ve always had a lot of solo musicians, either on guitar or piano,” he said.
“And that’s great, it does capture the idea of Fairbridge, but the other part of that idea is exploring and celebrating as much varied music as possible.
“That’s why we want to see people from all over the state taking part, bringing in the music from their own traditional family cultures. There’s so much of it out there, we want everyone to know that we’re excited to hear it.”
West Australian Music officer Kate Branson, who was one of four judges in the final, said the level of skill this year gave good omens for the festival and future Fairbridge Quests.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on performance – how they carry themselves on stage, how they interact with the crowd, those sorts of things – because they’re really important elements that I think competitions like this instill in young musos,” Ms Branson said.
Local band Satarvo took out the song award in the 16-18 category. They were one of the few bands involved, with Sarah Strahan and Jayda D’Agostino taking out the songcraft and perfomance awards in the 12-15-year-old category respectively, and Siobhan Cotchin winning the 16-18-year-old performance award.
“I think what really stood out about Satarvo was their instrumentation,” Ms Branson said.
“They had a range of different instruments which really meshes with the whole Fairbridge aesthetic, but also allow a band like theirs to make a real unique mark.”
Fairbridge Festival runs April 21-24 at at Fairbridge Village. For more details and ticket information, head to fairbridgefestival.com.au.
