Moondyne Joe is still up to his usual tricks; highway robbery, evading the constabulary, getting caught, tried by the judiciary and jailed….then escaping and so on.
….so Marlee Morris had to go to the annual festival in Toodyay to celebrate this “hero”. This is a popular festival for a small Wheatbelt town with extensive crowds, many stalls selling food, craft, historical displays, folk music, inevitable boot scooting and sideshow alley…..AND morris dancing.
The locals are encouraged to dress up in costumes befitting 1880’s Newcastle (Toodyay’s original name) and their creativity never disappoints.
The weather? A perfect autumn day in the west.
Robert and Di were main Marlee musos, Dave and Jenny popped in to help in between other gigs.
We had 7 dancers to entertain the crowds with some lively Morris dancing based on traditional dances from England.
First stand was in the street outside the CWA hall.
The muso and those who arrived first decided to wait for the others by having tea and sticky buns at the CWA. Meanwhile the squire was, understandably, stressed about where most of the side had
disappeared to. Due to the significant numbers of people at this event we danced our set to an attentive crowd! Street dancing means we can take up the space and have a captive audience. Of course, we let the “kiddie train” through along with the sheep dog and his 6 sheep!
On the timetable of events we were given and long lunch break. Good opportunity to see the other attractions, listen to some great music, chat to stall holders and take in the festival.
2 nd stand was in the street outside the Freemasons pub. By this time in the afternoon, much of the crowd had left but we still managed to entertain those remaining with some higher energy dances.
Overall, this was a great event and fun day out for Morris dancing in the street. Notable was the fact there was no loud music to drown out the musos. Marlee only dance to acoustic live music.
Well done Toodyay and Moondyne Festival organisers for putting on a super event. Thanks for having Marlee Morris on the program.
Thanks also to our Squire Alison and Foreperson Dave for organising and preparing us for this event.
As always, grateful thanks to our musos; Robert, Di, Dave and Jenny.
