Village Fair

infobox music festival
music_festival_name = Village Fair


caption = Village Fair 2006
location = flagicon|AUS Australia
founders = Volunteer CSU Students
years_active = 1974 - Current
dates = Saturday, October 27th
genre = Rock, Alternative, Indie, Hip hop, Electronic
URL = [http://www.villagefair.net.au Official Website]
website = http://www.villagefair.net.au

Village Fair (VF) is an annual music festival located in Bathurst, Australia which first started as a community Festival for students from rival dormitories of Charles Sturt University, Bathurst campus, in 1974. It has increasingly expanded to include not only local indie music acts, but also popular Australian headliners.

History

Starting in 1974 as an event to rival another dorm's social activities, Village Fair consisted of a Ferris wheel, giant slides, stalls, and theme-based dorm common rooms. Students of CSU (at that time, a Teacher's College) volunteered to organize the activities. The name originates from where the Fair was originally held; on John Oxley Village Green, where John Oxley Village (JOV) is an on-campus Residence, hence "Village" Fair.

The event became a part of the local community's event calendar, and for many years it was preceded by a student parade through the streets of Bathurst on the morning of the Fair. Each 'Hut' - one of the 10 dormitory buildings that collectively make up JOV - was made responsible for devising and operating a stall or event for the Fair. Over time, it became obvious that one of the most popular stalls was the International Beer Tent run by D and E Huts. By the mid 1990's this had become the main focus, combined with a line-up of musical entertainments to keep the drinkers happy.

20 years after the first event, the Fair took the form of a Music Festival on Saturday, 29th October, 1994.

1995 saw Village Fair with an "Under The Water" theme, aiming to support the State Emergency Service (SES) by donating profits in the aid of upgrading SES equipment.

A large loss (negative profits) was incurred in 1997 when the Fair moved from its home on JOV Green to a space near the campus Rugby Oval. As a result, the 1998 Fair had its funding pulled by the University leaving the volunteer group to move the music venue into the University Bar and place the stalls on the Library Lawn.

In 1999, the venue again changed to University Hockey Fields, but the day was a washout due to heavy rain. A number of people suffered injuries due to drunken mud-sliding. The Fair moved again to a green field site next to the JOV dam, where it has stayed until 2006.

2007 will see a new venue, and a music festival almost double in size of any previous years.

Artist lineups

Village Fair has attracted a number of popular upcoming Australian artists, most of which have gone on to main-stream music careers, including Machine Gun Fellatio, Chaos Maths, Something for Kate, 28 Days, and Little Birdy.
The 2007 lineup included Kisschasy, Blue King Brown, The Basics, Ash Grunwald, The Charlie Lions and DJs The Break Academy (Stuart Chater and Stephen Lyons), DJ Gustav (Tim Doldissen), The Funky Punks, The Purple Sneakers DJs and Craig Dortkamp. The lineup of the 2007 Village Fair was coordinated by Adam Ross.

References

* [http://www.villagefair.net.au/?page=history Village Fair - History] . Retrieved June 2007.

External links

* [http://www.villagefair.net.au Village Fair] Official Website