Over the course of the last week and a bit, Coffs Harbour has held its annual eisteddfod. This event is an exciting opportunity for students and teachers to showcase the potential talent of Coffs Harbour and its neighbouring towns. However, it appears the media these days aren't as enthusiastic to report on such an event.
Today’s edition of the Coffs Coast Advocate (10/06/10) decided to give a massive two-page write up on the whole eisteddfod. It’s probably more than what would usually be reported, but it was nonetheless disappointing. What was reported on the whole eisteddfod (yes, a massive summary) was a tiny feature written about a high school drama group, with two photos of this drama group and photos of one drama student and two primary school vocal groups. This was all that the eisteddfod was about. All of the award winners were crammed together in one large incomprehensible sentence that would have been no larger than half a postcard. Did I forget to mention that this two-page feature displayed advertising that would have taken up one of those pages, completely unrelated to the eisteddfod?
I was, and still am, infuriated that such little attention and appreciation is given towards not only this event but the young talent that has developed and emerged within Coffs Harbour and its surrounding communities. This continues to further the points of Coffs Harbour being a “town of missed artistic opportunities”, and a “Franchisee Mecca”. If anything, it would have been better to not report on the eisteddfod at all and let word of mouth pass around about the excellence and achievement of these students.
The instrumental sections alone were outstanding and brought together a high-standard level of performance. Some of the best musicians in the state were being featured, yet the local newspaper neglects to report or investigate this. The amount of participants in the instrumental eisteddfod this year has been the largest since 1999/2000. Friday night saw, essentially, a packed house for the ensembles sections. The widest range of instruments was on display from the usual soprano range suspects all the way to the double bass played by a primary student. The range of repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary repertoire of Australian composers of the last 25 years left audiences stunned, emotionally moved, and in awe of the poise and maturity of performers from primary school through to HSC level. The standard of repertoire in the open championship, and other sections, was as high as LMus (Licentiate Musician) level in accordance with the AMEB (for those that don’t know, LMus is the highest level of accreditation in an instrumental syllabus section). Sections were so close that there would only be a single point in it at times, and the adjudicator remarked how difficult a position she would be in to determine a winner.
By the end of the instrumentals, high praise was held for the students that took part from the adjudicator, organising secretary, committee members, teachers, and audience members. This was only one of the several sections that make up the eisteddfod. If only the media were there to witness that...
