Radio Woodfordia

"You come home from Woodford with that feeling of, oh, okay, maybe the world's not so bad after all." — Matt Golinski Matt Golinski grew up on a tropical fruit farm in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast — pawpaws, avocados, mangoes, bananas, and enough tomatoes and zucchinis to know instinctively what a good one looks like. That early understanding of where food comes from and what it takes to grow i...

A note before you listen Radio Woodfordia reaches listeners around the world, and this episode includes discussion of bullying and suicide. Wherever you are, support is available. Australia Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7) | https://www.lifeline.org.au QLife (LGBTQI+ peer support): 1800 184 527 (3pm–9pm daily) | https://www.qlife.org.au United States 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (2...

"You just got to grab it and go for it in that moment." — Jackson Van Issum, Beddy Rays Beddy Rays are four best mates from Redland Bay, Queensland who have been inseparable since they met on a school oval at age six. Their debut album hit #1 on the ARIA Vinyl chart and #2 on the Australian Albums chart. They've appeared in the triple j Hottest 100 multiple times. They won the Rock Award at the 20...

"A song is sort of like a flower coming out of a compost heap." — Charlie Mgee, Formidable Vegetable Charlie Mgee once turned down $120,000 a year cutting carrots for a fossil fuel company. His finger wouldn't send the email. Instead, he took $2,000 and spent a year volunteering at festivals around the country — ending up at Woodford, where the seed of Formidable Vegetable was planted in a permacu...

"I started doing piano lessons and I started getting better at maths." — Grace Alexandra Grace Alexandra came to Woodford on a pay-it-forward ticket. The next year, she was performing at it. Grace is 16, Darug, and already the kind of artist who makes you lean forward. She first came to Woodfordia as a child, dancing with the Jinibara Dance Troupe in 2018. She came back in 2024 as a punter — watch...

"It's a concentrated fantasy, this whole place." — Large Mirage They'd never been to Woodford Folk Festival before. You wouldn't have known it. AJ, Bailey and Blake of Large Mirage arrived at their first Woodford — first time as a band, first time as human beings — and immediately looked like they belonged. Within five minutes of their first set, the Pineapple Lounge was heaving. The second night...

"For us being at Woodford from an early age, seeing so many shows — you walk into a tent and you just start dancing. That's the feeling we try to put into our shows, because we know how great that feels." — Tjaka Geoff, Jake and Felix of Tjaka know exactly what a Woodford crowd feels like. They've been standing in one since they were kids. In 2024, they found out what it looks like from the other...

"The wastewater doesn't lie." You've walked past it a hundred times without knowing it's there. Beneath the stages, the food stalls, and the dusty paths of Woodford Folk Festival runs more than 50 kilometres of sewers — and a treatment system so sophisticated it's now a cover story in American engineering magazines and a blueprint for festivals around the world. Harley Breen sits down with Ben Kel...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners please be aware this episode contains references to a deceased person. "The spirit of the old storytellers and the people who were protesters is not dead. It's alive and well in the next generation." Recorded ahead of his appearance at The Planting Festival in May, this conversation between Harley Breen and Troy Cassar-Daley is exactly the kind of ya...

"It's either your first Woodford or your hundredth Woodford. I think that’s how it works." This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of First Wine of the Day. It's New Year's Day, the final show, and the ironed-on Woodfordians are the only ones left standing. Harley missed the three minutes of silence after “overestimating his New Year’s Eve resilience.” Nikki spent he...

One of the best descriptions of Woodford Folk Festival you'll ever hear comes from a friend experiencing it for the very first time: “Oh my god, it’s utopia.” "I think it is a place that brings out the best in people."-- Kate Miller-Heidke This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of First Wine of the Day. It's New Year's Eve, day five, Harley's voice is nearly gone, a...

"We might not have achieved what we wanted to, but by Jesus we tried." This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of First Wine of the Day. Day four, and Harley Breen and Nikki Britton are running on fumes, festival feeling, and a very good chilled red. They'd already cried before the show started — two men had just got married on the hill, and their friends sang to the...

One of the best reviews of Woodford Folk Festival you'll ever hear comes second-hand, from a new friend named Neil. This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of First Wine of the Day. Day three, and Harley Breen has finally had a shower. With Nikki Britton stranded on the Bruce Highway (again), comedian Oliver Clark steps in as co-host — and promptly gets upstaged by a...

"Every time you visit Woodford you leave a different person." This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of First Wine of the Day . Harley Breen and co-host Nikki Britton open with one of the most quietly beautiful moments Radio Woodfordia has captured — the story of a she-oak walking stick, a stranger's generosity, and a carving made from a sapling found during a wilde...

This episode was recorded live from the Woodford Folk Festival as part of the 'First Wine of the Day' and might just be better to watch on youtube if you can (not while driving please) Harley Breen alongside his cohost Nikki Britton, who arrives fashionably late after spending 12 hours on the Bruce Highway, light up the Piano Bar delighting the crowd with lots of cracking guests. fruity wine and f...

"Why can't we just live at Woodfordia? And why isn't this just how we all live?" In this episode, Harley sits down with Katie Noonan. It's Katie's 30th year at Woodford, and she's just finished her 30th studio album - serendipitous!  Katie's Woodford journey started in 1995 when she won the Woodford band competition (prize: a ticket to next year's festival). That hook worked, and she's been b...

"You can still dream. And I think that's what keeps me coming back." In this episode, Harley sits down with Chelsea, the circus programmer who's been shaping what happens under the big top at Woodford for the past decade. She's someone who's seen the festival from every angle, first as a punter drawn in by friends working the pedal-powered juice bar, then as a performer touring her own contemporar...

"Never play for exposure is a big piece of advice that we've taken... It makes a big difference." In this episode, Harley sits down with three members of Dizzy Days (Aisling, EJ, and Bridget – with Mikaela absent in Melbourne), Brisbane's disco-dance-pop-band, who came together through unlikely connection: a mysterious Facebook post and an awkward audition. The band is a unique blend of each membe...

"There's something magical here. If you don't believe in magic or serendipity or whatever, you will by the time you leave." In this episode, Harley sits down with comedian and old friend Jen Wynter, who is a mother of six, a grandmother, and a Woodford veteran since 1998, back when she was throwing mud with hippies. Jen's story is about trust, timing, and the cosmic connections that so many Woodfo...

"I think the thing that has struck me the most is that if you just trust yourself and do the thing that feels the most honest to you, it always goes better." In this episode Harley connects with Georgia Mooney, who landed in Brisbane just hours before this conversation after a 60-hour journey from Prince Edward Island, Canada. She's a solo artist now, but you might know her from All Our Exes Live...

Just a heads up: There's going to be some chainsaw action, tree-dropping sounds and reversing of a crane thing during this chat. An arborist decided mid-interview was the perfect time for some timber work above our heads. An example of living and working on an ever-evolving site in the middle of a valley. "Everything we do in a modern society is to pull us away. So we forget how much we're just tr...

"I love being surrounded by people that know about all this stuff - soil scientists, regen' people, and learning myself. That's how this place sort of works, isn't it? You get involved. You get pulled in." Harley sits down with Chris "Shervo' Shervey, Woodford's Site Manager, who oversees 500 acres with a team of five full-time staff and conservation land management trainees. It's a conversation a...

Excuse the microphones at the start. Small Malfunctions, appreciate your patience. "My passion is the environment, and plants and the animals and everything. So each venue (at the children's festival) has a different feel to it, and I place artists in the space that match that feel." In this episode, Harley sits down with Becky Wandell, who's been running the Children's Festival (now Tin Lids) for...

"It's not their dream to be a touring musician because they're working hard on their farm, but there's so much soul and heart in their music and those stories are incredible." In this episode, Harley sits down with Izzy Bartlett, the producer of Festival of Small Halls, Woodfordia's regional touring project bringing world-class artists to some of Australia's most remote communities. Izzy's first W...

"I've been discovering music my whole life, but every year Woodford brings a stack of stuff I've never heard of, that I know is going to become my next favourite thing." In this episode, Harley sits down with ABC's Sarah Howells / Aussie radio royalty with 21 years in the biz, including stints at Triple J and Double J. And would you believe, this was her first podcast ever! From winning Woodford t...