2010 Lake School review

Review of the Eleventh Lake School Koroit Victoria January 2010

If its possible to say the weather was perfect - one might be inclined to say it was for Lake School Number Eleven in Koroit earlier this month. Cool and cloudy days, with patches of bright blue in the sky as you looked over Tower Hill to the Southern Ocean, or across the dairy and spud farms to Killarney and Port Fairy. And when the sun did come out in the late afternoon, raising the temperature to a mild mid twenties, the a blessed breeze from the south west blew just gently enough to lift the froth off the pints of Guinness that were beginning to flow outside Micky Bourke's Hotel.

In the evening the stars came out, but perhaps they didn't quite shine as brightly as the dancers and the players and at the Illowa Hall which was the featured venue for the Tuesday night Ceildhe. Marie Brouder, the dance tutor at her first Lake School, had fifty or sixty strong dancing the Seige of Ennis and The Walls of Limerick, to a band of thirty or forty lead by the legendary Paddy Fitzgerald on the accordion (impromptu Illowa Ceildhe Band below). It was the Lake School's first foray out to Illowa, and the locals voted with their feet and came out in force.

The Koroit Tower Hill Caravan park was the place to be during the week. A myriad of sessions, rehearsals and impromptu performances, while musicians in between classes strummed and relaxed in the shade of the exotic trees of the Koroit Botanical Gardens. For the seventeen strong Belfrage family, dinner was a show in itself. A line of tent shades, a collection of camp chairs, children sitting in a circle humming the tunes of the day and an impressive buffet of pastas, curries and salads...A brief respite and coming together before joining the throng to rush off to the next session, ceildhe or concert.

Mary Bourke has likened Koroit during Lake School to Vienna. Music coming form every shop and residence and hordes of people hurrying around with violin cases, guitars and flutes. In place of the trucks of Koroit driving a load of bellowing milkers down a deserted streetscape in winter, the summer brings music and musicians and a colourful energy to "the Stroit." Gary Rose's song "The Trucks of Koroit" has renamed Commercial Rd "the Stroit" and they were the most requested lyrics of the week.

An open day at Crossley Hall attracted about thirty people keen to be introduced to the irish Language, by Lake School tutor, Chris Mooney. Chris, also a first timer to Lake School - stepping in for Mossie Scanlon, noticed the energy and the youthful interest in the old language. Perhaps enough interest to drive regular local classes in Irish language and a weekend workshop schedule for July 2-4. The Youth Concert, later in the day at Crossley Hall attracted over a hundred people, and Teresa O'Brien reported "that we raised enough from donations to make our first mortgage payment on the St Brigids Church and Hall." Further in to the evening fifteen poets competed in the Spud Poets Award. The Award was won by last year's winner Clare Milesi. Her poem "Bless Me Father" about a priest who dies while hearing a confession and the confusion his death causes, was judged unanimously a winner, and was clearly popular with the audience.

The new Lake School Art Exhibition featured the work of Brenda Grimshaw, who hung her very finely crafted copies of The Book of Kells at the Crater Gallery, and gave all a chance to mooch around, nibble on the cheese and drink the champagne on offer. New also this year were the harp, mandolin and banjo class that played at the Grand Ceildhe, along with the usual fiddles, whistles, pipes, guitars, flutes and bodhrans.

A somewhat warmer day on Friday, the last day, saw a Tutors Concert, the launching of yet another amazing Paddy O'Neill Award band - this year called Shanachie, and an epic Songwriters Concert to "finish us all off. " THose who weren't quite finished off lounged around in directors chairs for another day before refreshing themselves, and cleaning out the effects of innumerable pints of Guinness, in the waves of the Southern Ocean

Record numbers came to the Lake School this year and they gloried in the beautiful music, the soulful singing, the energetic dancing, the congenial atmosphere and the warm friendships. Hopefully the weather will hold out for next year.