Gathering Of Oral Delights Festival •
Gathering Of Oral Delights Festival •
A festival where voices become atmosphere.
Three days of spoken word, slam poetry, live music and storytelling in the heart of the Maleny hinterland. GOODFEST brings together poets, performers and audiences from across the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and beyond — a convergence of expression, connection and raw human truth.
At the centre of the festival is the Joe Lynch Memorial Cup, a major spoken word competition honouring one of Maleny’s most beloved poets. Across the weekend, voices rise through the ranks — from the opening slam to the final showdown — culminating in a powerful celebration of story, courage and craft.
With a total prize pool of $7,000, the stage is set for something special.
Presented By
Liquid Lyrics Poetry Slam
Sunshine Coast
Spoken Word
Sponsors
Founding Partner
Major Partners
Community Partners
How Joe Lynch Inspired the Creation of GOODFEST
Joe Lynch
I was sitting at my desk in my real estate office in the heart of Nimbin on a sunny morning in the mid-nineties when a Rolls-Royce pulled into the bus stop opposite. Not your usual Nimbin sight. A tall, lanky figure unfolded from the driver’s door, wearing a Peaky Blinders-style flat cap with light brown ringlets of hair escaping its confines. He strolled to the back of the Rolls, popped the boot, took out a guitar case and laid it on the ground. He opened the case, produced a guitar, and started busking from the back of a Rolls-Royce. I could feel the twinkle from 30 metres away.
‘Glenys, hold the fort,” I said to my office manager. “I gotta meet this guy.”
Thus began my 30-year friendship with Irish Joe Lynch. We shared many moments since then, including stages grand and small around the country. I never saw an audience that didn’t love Joe. The minute he stood up, the energy in a space would become warmer, softer, lighter, like sun breaking from behind the clouds on a winter’s day. Like being bathed in kindness. He twinkled the shit out of everyone and everything. Joe was a human Blarney Stone. He had time for everyone and inspired everyone who saw him and interacted with him.
Joe went on to become a legend at the Woodford Folk Festival and the National Folk Festival, reducing audiences at the Woodford Amphitheatre and the Spiegel Tent at Canberra to gooey pools of emotional rubble. Joe’s repertoire encompassed Shakespeare, Whitman, Heaney, Behan, Keats and many other famous poets. His rendition of Poe’s The Raven left those of luminaries such as Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman, Basil Rathbone, Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones, Christopher Walken and Anthony Hopkins, among others, pale by comparison. His own compositions ranged from short, sweet love poems to epic reconstructions of famous Irish myths and legends. Every aspect of the human condition was examined, explored and delivered via the alchemy of Joe’s wit, wisdom, wonder and wordsmithery. He took audiences into every nook and cranny of their psyche and soul on a magic carpet of his own weaving.
The concept for GOODFEST emerged from the celebration of Joe’s life at the Maleny RSL Hall in January, where 350 friends and admirers gathered for a heart-moving merry meet of poets, actors, musicians, dancers and friends reciting, singing, musicking, dancing, loving, laughing and crying, all imbued with the spirit of this beautiful man.
This is the legacy that Nick and I want to maintain with GOODFEST in memory of our dear friend, Irish Joe Lynch. So, join us. Get inspired.
~ Robin Archbold