Ironfest 2005
‘Heavy metal/Village fete fusion’
by Cassy Cochrane.
all photos by Hamish Rothwell.
Picture this if you will;
A bunch of little old nanas serving tea and scones to a bunch of big hairy bikers in the tea rooms of the Lithgow show grounds.
The bikers, in patched leathers, long beards and dishevelled hair are not at all out of place amongst the colonial soldiers in their red and green uniforms and the Scandinavian Vikings in their helmets and Hessian.
The Lithgow Ladies Auxiliary, all green smocks and blue- rinsed hair, are doing a fabulous job. They are caterers to the eclectic crowd here at Ironfest, the 6th annual Ironfest in Lithgow, celebrating the birthplace of Iron in Australia.
Lithgow is a sleepy industrial town nestled between Bathurst and Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, and was once touted as the ‘Birmingham of Australia’ - not high praise in any aesthetic sense. Lithgow was a hub of industry in the ‘40’s, with over 80,000 residents, dozens of coal mines, two iron smelters, 3 copper smelters, and a munitions factory.
Now the mines are closed, and Lithgow has a population of around 20,000, an eclectic bunch of farmers and arty types escaped from the rat race.
‘Newtown grunge meets small town community on a post-industrial site and location,’ is how Macgregor Ross, founder and director of Ironfest describes the festival.
Ironfest was originally developed as an arts initiative to drum up support for the Lithgow artists’ community and generate revenue in a town where there’s not a lot of spare cash going around.
Ironfest is now touted as a cultural heritage festival, a celebration of - you guessed it - all things iron, metal; and as I found out over Anzac weekend, all things medieval, historic, and alternative.
Ironfest brings together a diverse range of local artists and sculptors, blacksmiths, performers and historical re-enactment groups. This is history, metal, fire, and FUN!
The festival kicks off with a welcome to Dharung, Gundungurra and Wiradjeri traditional lands and a set of original music from Aboriginal musician Bob Sutor. From here on in it’s a free-for-all celebration of culture and history - anybody’s, everybody’s.
It’s good value for money - fifteen bucks gets you a veritable rolling buffet of entertainment from go to whoa; the showgrounds have the required space to host hourly battles, jousts, belly-dances, bands and circus performances and after dark there is a fire garden of flaming sculptures and a pyrotechnics/ fireworks display.
If you need quiet time there are the tea-rooms, the community hall where artists and sculptors exhibit their work, and the hall of industry where the blacksmiths clang away and demonstrate their skills.
The 73rd regiment of foot are Ironfest fans for all the original reasons. Their regiment was first to cross the Blue Mountains and they return to their old stomping ground to set up pioneer camp a few days prior to the event. This ‘living history group’ research period recipes, cook their lunch in front of the crowd, and if you ever watched that great ‘Pioneer House’ series on the ABC recently, they follow living conditions to a T (though I did catch one coming out of a portaloo…)
This rag tag bunch range in age from about 16-80. They base their regimental routines on a period drill manual; though they’d never get recruited into any real military- They’re about as scary as your mum collecting the morning paper in her nightie…
The shout of ‘misfire’ is heard more times than I’d care to name, but there’s plenty of noise and smoke, and they take great pride in their muskets and cannon.
They enlist a local blacksmith to make their weapons and armour but make their own chain mail (it’s a time consuming hobby but a nice alternative to knitting). They call it their ‘alternative to High Tech’, ‘High Touch’ as they work with original materials, take the theoretical and make it practical.
They entertain the crowd doing battle with The Mercenaries, another group of local swords for hire. (Many seem to enjoy the chain mail and the playing dead rather than the running around, but their outfits are impressive.)
This is the ultimate in mutually consenting domestic warfare- Rod and Michelle Walker mount their steeds and ‘have at each other’- the balsa wood tips of their lances shatter with spectacular effect on impact with their 40kg’s of stainless steel armour.
If you need a breather between the hourly rostered battles you can relax and listen to the sounds of bluegrass, jazz and folk bands or head over to the dance arena to catch the local belly-dancing troupe. The potent combination of drumming and cleavage is guaranteed to pull in punters…
Not here the censorship and money-grubbing of much family entertainment these days. No hot chips, candyfloss or vomit-inducing rides of the big city show.
Sure, there’s an element of the trainspotter here, but hey, it’s cool to have hobbies; this is heavy metal/ village fete fusion, and long may it prosper.
Next year’s Ironfest is already in the planning, entitled ‘Circus’.
Dust off your costume, or join a group - the mercenaries are recruiting!