Squeezing in the tunes
Accordion festival in Maclagan
NOT many people know that the tiny rural township of Maclagan, 80 km north-west of Toowoomba, holds the only accordion festival in Australia.
The local committee is busy preparing and setting up for their 17th festival to be held on Saturday, October 12 at the Maclagan Memorial Hall.
A dozen members of the Sydney accordion ensemble Accordions Alfresco will be performing at the afternoon concert and again at the evening dance.
The group has toured Austria, Germany, New Zealand and China, and shared the fun of playing and listening to the accordion with people all across Australia.
The Maclagan Squeezebox Festival is a major event on the annual southern Queensland musical calendar.
Accordion players from all over come to perform and there are visitors in the audience from every state in Australia.
Returning this year will be Mark Schuster, who has been involved with the festival since the very beginning.
Mr Schuster has spent half a lifetime journeying the country discovering the once extensive cultural traditions of the accordion, zither and fiddle music brought to Australia by the early German immigrants.
He is currently a fire ranger working in the Carnarvon Ranges and beyond, so here’s hoping he brings his beloved button accordions to Maclagan instead of fighting fires on festival weekend.
Many new accordion players have confirmed their attendance.
The committee is trialling a new program for Saturday evening and hope it will be a winner for those who like to play the accordion and for those who like to dance. Experienced accordion players will take the stage to provide the dance music, and all other instruments will join in the massive jam session to provide variety, artistic colour and instrumental combination for the accordionists on stage. Players should ring Joan on 0427 170 857 to register their interest, and visitors and spectators with general enquiries should ring Sherryl on 4692 1265.
You can find out more about the festival on Facebook and on the web at www.maclagan squeezeboxfestival.org.