BULL AND BARRELL FESTIVAL
By Dave Roberts
Got nothing to do this weekend? Got heaps to do but it’s not all that appealing?
Check out the Bull and Barrel festival in Dardanup. It’s a one day festival, and it’s one of the indicators that life in the South West stops for a party. Dardanup isn’t a huge community, but they’ve just decided that the Bull and Barrel is a festival worth getting to, and it happens to be one that we’ve watched for the last couple of years, getting better every year.
This year it promises to be better than it was last year, but from our point of view, last year was a really cool event. It’s all on the one day, Saturday 8 October (yeah we know we should have told you earlier, but there’s a lot on for us right now) and the festival part is running from 10 am to 5 pm. There’s food, kids entertainment, and lots of the stuff that makes a real community festival. Last year my favourites included the trials motorbikes (not fast but really skilful), outrageous vintage machinery, and the local dance school on the stage. This year there is a wine show, and as far as we can tell, it’s all bigger and more exciting than last time. This isn’t stuff you’d buy a ticket for a whole day of, but there is one thing on after another and most of it is great to see for a while, and then you move on.
Entry is free. After the festival itself winds up, entertainment continues to 9pm. There’s a fire sculpture too. I saw last year’s as it was built, not when it was burning. It looks like a great thing, I’ve never grown out of being fascinated by fire.
One community after another, we see things in the South West that excite us and should make community people proud. This is certainly one, and it suggests to us that the culture of the place we’ve chosen to live gets more vibrant every time we check again.
Check out the website at www.bullandbarrel.net.au , it’ll help you decide to go.
October 2005
