Girgarre Moosic Muster

For me,this year’s Girgarre Moosic Muster had two highlights. The first was to see the local band The Fig Jammers appearing on stage. This group is made up of performers half of whom at the last Muster knew three chords and the other half went to the workshops and learned how to play. They are more like a collection of friends that get together and have fun. Sure they mess up some of the starts and drop a chord here and there, but their enthusiasm is contagious. The audience just could not get enough of them.
The second highlight was young Liam, a three year old fiddle player. There he was, at the beginner fiddle workshop, playing his heart out on that quarter size fiddle. Later in the day, I was walking through the Town Hall and there was Liam crying his eyes out with his head buried in his mother’s lap. I squatted down, patted him on the shoulder, and asked him what was wrong?
He looked at me with tears running down his cheeks and blurted out, "They won’t let me go to the advanced fiddle workshop". My response, “Liam, if you want to go, just go”. The mother then said, “How about an ice-cream instead?". The last time I saw them they were heading to the ice cream van.

Thanks to Fender Australia, this year we nearly had enough loan instruments for the workshops. They donated 8 guitars, a mandolin and a banjo. Although some were damaged, we were able to repair them. Thank you David Aumann for your help with these.  They were all used by some of the 300 people that attended the workshops. Greg McGrath was missed as the convener of the Advanced Banjo Workshop but another couple of Banjo Players stepped in and filled the void.
 
The beginner Banjo session was interesting as always. I introduced the teacher Andrew Barcham and explained that I
was laying in bed the night before trying to imagine what 30 people in a room trying to learn how to play a banjo  would sound like.  As I left I heard what they sounded like. An hour later I returned and Andrew had them sounding brilliant.
 
The 32 spots on the Friday Night Open Mike were all filled. An 8 year old girl and her father turned up from Rochester and asked for a spot. Another Susan Boyle moment! They were absolutely awesome and got a standing ovation. This girl is going places, big time.

Saturday night saw both the outside stage and Town Hall stage operating. The Town Hall was packed and we estimate the audience outside, at over 1000 people. Fat Chance and the Bluegrass Cowboys, Mick Coates and the Wayfarers , Eat Ya Greens, Appalachian Heaven , Clark Morgan, Chris Newman and many others, wowed the audience.
 
This year we continued on the Sunday with bands playing at the Farmers’ Market in the reserve and an impromptu jam on the Town Hall Stage. Meanwhile, the Turnarounds did gospel singing in the supper room to a very enthusiastic audience.
 
It was a great weekend. Thanks to all the volunteers who assisted us. They are far too numerous to mention but, they know how much we appreciate their contribution.
 
One person I would like to acknowledge is Greg Mc Grath. He has quietly encouraged me throughout the year and was
instrumental in our obtaining some equipment that we needed. Thank you Greg.
 
The other person I want to acknowledge is Jan Smith, the Queen Bee of Girgarre. For those who have met Jan, I need say no more and for those who have not met Jan, come to next year's Muster and meet the Dynamo.

Max Amos

The muster went well with a lot of local media coverage, I did two radio station interviews and Evan Webb and Maggie Duncan did a live interview and played live on air.

The newspaper coverage was great, and as a result we estimate we had around 300 people through the many workshops that we held and the friday night open mike concert was well attended.

The town hall was full on the Saturday night and I asked someone to do a head count outside, they came back and said it was impossible to count the crowd. We estimate well over a thousand people.

We also carried it over to the Sunday and had bands playing in the park at the Farmers Market.

Every one is tired as a great deal of effort was put into this years event.

Thank you all for your continued support - Max Amos

 I went up to Girgarre last weekend to get a few things moving and it is all looking good. We are distributing about 2,000 brochures locally and the TV ads will start late December .

Fender Australia have donated 8 Guitars  a  mandolin and a banjo . That should assist with regard to those people that turned up to workshops
and were unable to participate as no loan instruments were available. We will still be short so if you have any spares please bring them.

Thank you again to our many volunteers, this event would not happen without your assistance - Max

The 2010 Girgarre Moosic Muster program is now available for download from our website.

You can download a copy here or go to the program page on our website to view the program online.

This year's Muster promises to be the best yet with a weekend ticket still only $40.00, free camping and a host of workshops, concerts and the famous Giragrre Farmer's Market.

Hope we can see you there.