Parish News
42 Years of celebrating faith and culture together
The “Folkie”, as everyone down our way calls it, has been drawing people together at Port Fairy over the Labour Day long weekend since 1977. A few years later in 1984, some members of the Festival Committee and a couple of knockabout young priests, including Denis Minogue, then parish priest at Airport West, had the idea that “a Folk Mass” at St Patrick’s Church would be a good thing to have as part of the Folk Festival program.
Fast forward 42 years, and at the St Patrick’s Church Mass on the Sunday morning of the Folk Festival, one of those “knock abouts”, the now octogenarian Jack Stuart, stands at the microphone ready to deliver a moving version of Kate Wolf’s “Give Yourself to Love”. For every Folk Mass he has been part of, Jack has shared this moment of reflection, singing the words of Kev Carmody, Eric Bogle, Shane Howard and a host of others that shine a light on our common humanity. Jack has been, and remains, an integral mover and shaker in the life of the annual Folk Festival liturgy. He has seen a lot of changes – this year the choir swelled by a group of young Timorese people from Warrnambool. Through that time Jack’s passion for justice, for faith in action and to help people through music, culture and art to find a deeper spiritual path to God, each other and our creation, has remained. The broader themes of folk music that have always been these things, are intensified and put at the centre during the Folk Mass.
The Festival has grown massively and is now a multimillion dollar event. There is some resistance to the Folk Mass continuing to be a part of the festival but for me, it’s one of the few things that reminds us, not just the church goers but everyone at the festival, that folk music has always been about more than simply profits and sales. At its very heart, it’s about people. That’s why it’s called “folk” music.
While we are able, we will continue this valuable tradition and legacy of the Folk Mass that has been given to us. If you would like to see the Folk Mass continue to be a part of the festival, please send a short email to admin@portfairyfolkfestival.com asking the festival to continue to support the Mass.
Fr Bill Lowry, Jack Stuart and the Multicultural Choir at the 2025 Port Fairy Folk Festival Mass.
Don Stewart