Brushing up on Tasmania's feast of festivals

I was one of a number who attended a "Bubbles and Brushes" evening where, guided by a resident artist, we put brush to canvas and painted our best landscape.

The recent long weekend had real artists displaying their works at the Bay of Fires Winter Arts Festival, and the North East Arts & Crafts Festival.

These festivals were understandably both well attended and the art on display amplified the talent that abounds within our state.

It further emphasised the importance of these festivals to both rural towns and cities.

The festivals not only invigorate community tourism and businesses, but they also promote contemporary work, inspire people's imagination, engage and promote different cultures and weld and give identity to communities.

For the first time in the history of the Bay of Fires Festival the local indigenous community officially opened the festival with an Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country.

The Aboriginal people of our country, being the world's most enduring culture, are well known for celebrating their way of life through song, dance and storytelling.

This is evidenced at the Laura Quinkan Dance Festival in Queensland, the longest running Aboriginal cultural festival in Australia.

Here the Aboriginal people of Cape York showcase their culture through song and dance.

The festival attracts thousands of visitors.

Its value to the Aboriginal community and to the Queensland town of Laura is immeasurable.

We are lucky that in Tasmania we can enjoy festivals in all four corners of our state all year round.

Whether you're into music, film, food and wine, or sports, there are truckloads of great festivals hosted in Tasmania each year.

They start with The Taste of Tasmania showcasing the best in food and wine in historic Salamanca Place in Hobart and extend to others such as the Huon and Tamar Valley Folk Festivals highlighting music, concerts, poetry and dance; the West Coast's Rosebery Music Festival, the North's Party in the Paddock with its new and independent music, 10 Days on the Island, Deloraine's celebration of fine craftsmanship and music at Stringfest Tasmania, the Cradle Mountain Film Festival, Dark Mofo with its eclectic mix of music, theatre and winter feasting, Festival of Voices, Devonport Jazz Festival, Bridport Scallop Fiesta, the highly acclaimed Junction Arts Festival, Queenstown's Unconformity, the world renowned Tasmanian Craft Fair at Deloraine, the Food and Wine Festival at Bicheno, and the list goes on.

There is plenty to sate the appetite of any festival enthusiast in all of our four seasons.

If you google 'Tasmania events a collection of festivals happening across Tasmania' you will see there are up to 100 festival-type events happening between July 15 and the end of the year.

These festivals are a far cry from the original festival in Egypt in the 30th century or 3000 BC.

Midway between the time of harvest and the flooding of the Nile an aged king was carried into the temple hall at Saqqara as nobles, priests and the public looked on.

He then ran ten laps around the inside of the space, then supplied a bow and four arrows, fired one to the north, south, east and west.

This ritual was to confirm that he was still fit for service.

It occurred 30 years after the king took the throne, then every three years, or whenever a king showed signs of physical decline.

As with many festivals of the time, the events were thought to reveal the wishes of the Gods.

These types of festivals obviously have little or no resemblance to the celebrations we enjoy today.

We still applaud harvests by sharing food and wine, we still preserve culture with entertainment and community building and we still endeavour to pass our traditions to the next generation, but in most cases the food, drink, music, live entertainment and a display of arts and crafts have thankfully replaced the rituals of ancient times.

Festivals are now a demonstration of what places hold dear, and all the things that the organisers want future generations to cherish, and who knows where many of the performers and contributors to these Tasmanian festivals may end up.

Will they follow in the shoes of Hollywood star Errol Flynn, internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Graeme Murphy, fashion designer Alannah Hill, lead singer of the Seekers Judith Durham, writer Richard Flanagan and close to home well known artist John Gibb?

All Tasmanian born, or individuals who spent the majority of their formative years learning, honing and showcasing their skills in Tasmania.

Meanwhile I'll go back to a "Bubble and Brushes" evening in the hope that one day l might put down the 'bubbles' and concentrate more on the brush, in an endeavour to see one of my works, which I very much doubt, hanging in an exhibition around my electorate of McIntyre.