Mortlake Buskers Festival

Man, Chloe can sing like a woman
by Mary Papadakis. Warrnambool Standard 5th Feb 2000 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2000

Shania in Mortlake... Seven-year-old Chloe Borg-Clark (right) is set to entertain the crowd with a Shania Twain-like performance at the Mortlake Buskers festival today. Corey Rounds, 10, is also playing this weekend.

 Chloe Borg-Clark likes nothing more than to get up on stage and entertain crowds with her favorite Shania Twain song. At today's buskers festival, the seven-year old Mortlake performer will have a chance to put on her top hat and belt out the words to the hit song from the popular country/rock US singer, Man I Feel Like a Woman. An excited Chloe yesterday said she was looking forward to performing for the large crowds expected to  attend the annual event. She said she liked to meet other performers. Performing is nothing new for Chloe: she was a finalist at Mortlake College's minibuskers event last year entertained New Year's Eve crowds with her energetic version of her favorite pop song. Chloe's mother Tracie Borg said she would have the video camera handy to film her daughter's performance but admitted she was a little "sick" of hearing the popular Shania Twain song. Ms Borg said Chloe constantly practised her routine with back-up friends Mat Smith, 12 and corey Rounds, 10, who will be using tennis racquets as guitars during the performance.

Stepping back to save fest

By AMY MARSHALL Warrnambool Standard 13th Oct. 2005 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2005.  All rights reserved

MORTLAKE Buskers' Festival organisers are taking the event back to its roots to save it. The 14-year-old festival will change venue for the third time and embrace the uniqueness of the original busking concept. There will also be a date change from the first Saturday in February to the first Saturday in April so schoolchildren can be more involved and to steer clear of the Commonwealth Games. Since the festival moved from the streets, to the D. C. Farran Oval and later to the Tea Tree Lakes Reserve it has struggled to attract numbers and has been under financial threat. In 1997 the festival was in the streets and 20,000 turned out, but the number fell to 1500 in 2001 and 3500 this year. Buskers will be back on the streets as the festival returns to Dunlop Street and Market Square. Festival committee member Neil Povey said although the event ran at a loss this year, it wasn't the reason for the change. "We could keep going down at the lake, but we did a survey of the community and the results from the survey said it had lost its atmosphere and needed some variation, it was too predictable," Mr Povey said. "With festivals you've got to do something out of the norm to survive and there's a lot of music festivals around. "Buskers traditionally perform in the street." Mortlake Muster members have also been invited to jump on board and will provide street theatre entertainment. "They've gone into recession this year and they've got a lot of talent within that group that we didn't want to see get lost," Mr Povey said. Festival spokesperson Greg Howat dismissed suggestions the weather could be worse in April. "Weather will still be an unknown quantity whatever day we hold the festival on, but we have had a real problem with the lack of availability of various committee members and other volunteers over the December-January period," he said.


Buskers are back
Warrnambool Standard 30th March 2006 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2006.

A TRIUMPHANT return to its roots is the aim of this Saturday’s Mortlake Buskers Festival. After strong beginnings as a street festival in the early 1990s, venue changes and bad luck with the weather saw the event dwindle in popularity. The festival returns to its first home on Dunlop Street on Saturday in a move expected to deliver more good positions for non-competing buskers. There will also be a great collection of headline acts on stage including the Victoria Police Showband, the south-west’s own Koori-roots group Andy Alberts And The Walkabouts, blues guitarist Luke Watt and country act Louise Clancey Band. But all eyes will be on the Australian Busking Championship, with about $10,000 in prizes and cash up for grabs. Categories include individual male, duo/trio, group junior, fully amplified group, individual female, individual junior, street theatre and acoustic group. More than 80 buskers are expected to compete, plus there will be stalls, an alfresco wine bar, street performers and children’s entertainers.

Bold festival move has Axis in a spin
Warrnambool Standard By GREG BEST April 3, 2006  - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2006. 

Axis

A LATE decision to enter paid handsome dividends for a young Warrnambool band at the Mortlake Buskers Festival on Saturday. The Axis, comprising four teenagers, claimed three prizes including the coveted Australian Busking Championship. The breakthrough guarantees the band an invitation to next year's Port Fairy Folk Festival. The success capped off a remarkable rise for the classic rock band of Leah Senior (lead singer), Chris Morse (bass), Oliver Brian (guitar) and Hayden Brodie (drummer), which formed only six months ago. Leah, 16, said they could not believe their results, having also won the junior and schools' awards. ``It is great. It is really exciting,'' she said. ``It was a last-minute thing. Until a few days before, we weren't sure if we would play there.'' She said the group had a couple of gigs lined up and intended to enter the Battle of the Bands competition, the winner of which will play at Hardwired. ``It is great winning the buskers festival. It has exposed us a lot more. It is great publicity-wise.'' The Battle of the Bands competition is part of Warrnambool's youth festival on April 22. The band, which plays classic rock such as The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, was formed six months ago when Chris and Oliver decided to start the outfit. They approached Leah, a fellow Brauer College student, and teed up Chris' cousin, Hayden. Oliver said the band's name came from Hendrix's second album, Axis: Bold As Love. One of the festival judges, Matt Neal, said The Axis deserved its win.

Axis

 

George Kamikawa

Winning cowpoke a long was from home
Warrnambool Standard By Madeline Healey 25th Feb. 2008  - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2008.  

He might not look like your typical country singer but George Kamikawa has proved that Japanese can be cowboys too. Performing as a duo, Mr. Kamikawa - known as the Oriental Cowboy - and Nonko Tadana were named Australian Busking Champions at the Mortlake Buskers' Festival on Saturday. Mr. Kamikawa, based in Melbourne, moved to Australia in 2001 to begin busking in the city's streets. The festival's director of management Neil Povey said that the the standard of performers at this year's event was fantastic. "The festival had a brilliant atmosphere and vibe, the people who came along had really positive comments. There was everything from jugglers to rock bands to individual musicians, the crowd had a fantastic entertainment for the whole day. The busking champions were brilliant up on the main stage, everyone was dancing". A crowd of about 3000 attended the event which Mr. Povey said was a great result considering the cold showery weather. "For the weather we anticipated that's what we'd get through and that's what we budgeted for", he said.

Clingan Brothers

 

Louise Clancey Band

 

Nonko Tadana

 

Red Tent singers

 

Tabasco Jazz

 

Unique Rabbits

 

 Trevor Keilar