Well the Australian Camp Oven Festival is done and dusted for another 2 years. We had a fabulous festival and we must say a big thank you to YOU for your patience and understanding when the wet weather made all of our well laid plans go out the door and we had to come up with a whole new plan. You guys were so understanding and we are very grateful for that.

Aerial Photo of the 2010 Australian Camp Oven Festival showing the extra camping area
needed due to the wet weather

The Australian Camp Oven Festival started off on Saturday morning with a rousing performance of Bush poetry by 3 of Australia’s top performers, Gary Fogarty, Murray Hartin and Neil McArthur. The clouds hung around for the day and kept us all a little bit scared that the rain may come in but it stayed away and the temperature stayed down which was very much enjoyed by the cooks both in the cooking competition and the cooks who cater for the festival.

The cooking competition was fiercely contested this year with some “well seasoned” teams and some first timers. We had 8 teams in the Championship Competition and the final winners were “Dances with Coals”. The guys in the “Dances with Coals” team have competed in three festivals now (first as the “Silly Sombreros, then the S.I.T crew and this year as “Dances with Coals”) and they were very excited to come out final winners in what was a very close contest this year.

Crowds gather for the camp oven food.

The apron competition had a record number of 51 entries this year (see the results page for the winners) and it is great to see it keep growing with such quality work.

We had celebrity chefs Tommo and Peter Wolfe attend this year to share their cooking knowledge, there were also cooking workshops and lessons over the weekend hosted by “Flaps Flops”.

Let’s not forget the music that kept us entertained throughout the weekend hosted by Buddy Thompson, and the great sound of “Uncle Bobs Jug Band” on Saturday night.

There were art workshops, candle making, horse shoeing, sheep shearing, whip cracking, magicians, clowns and so much more happening over the entire weekend.

At the end of a great festival we must say thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers who keep this event happening. Without them the Australian Camp Oven Festival could not come to life every two years.

The Australian Camp Oven Festival will be back on October 6th and 7th 2012. So be sure to keep an eye out here for all the information about the 2012 festival as it comes to hand, and we hope to see you then!