Hi there folk!
Sorry for the delay, but I've been travelling with Henning and Elke and this has been the first opportunity to tackle a short report on our event! Thanks Richard for your initial positive comment and you, Kerstin, for your nice words!
As we have come to expect, our event went really well in terms of the wonderful spirit that is characteristic of the occasion. Everyone I spoke to enjoyed the program and it was great to meet more new people again this year, including one of our Forum members, Blonde Madonna (who lives in Victoria)!
It was especially wonderful to have Henning perform for us – the first international performer we’d ever had! He did his usual sensitive and beautiful performance of Leonard's poetry to music and this was well received.
It was also a privilege to have Ann Vriend (who some will remember from Berlin) perform for us. She had to battle with a bad head cold, was jet-lagged and tired, but still delighted the audience. Despite her unwell condition, she performed well beyond expectations and was a big hit with everyone, many of whom purchased her CDs.
We also had two Brisbane performers: Graham Nunn did a superb selection of Cohen's poetry with musical accompaniment by Simon Sheehy. Simon also did a fantastic version of Bird On The Wire.
John Gallagher (our Toowoomba performer) did his usual enthusiastic and powerful renditions and was accompanied by Henning in a cool little last song duet.
Everyone I spoke to was enthralled by the Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man movie and the soundtrack was one of our 'lucky door prizes'. The San Sebastian concert also proved to be very popular, with folk wondering about how to get hold of copies of it.
The only disappointing aspect of the event was the lower than expected attendance numbers at each of the sessions, varying between say around 30 people up to about 50. However, the overall attendance for all the sessions would be probably a more heartening figure to focus on. Anyway, those who were there had a fantastic time and it really was very special having our wonderful overseas guests!
In due course this abbreviated report will be expanded and complemented by, not only photos, but also a report done by Henning (which I can assure you will be worth waiting for)!
Cheers
Andrew (Darby)