What does it take to build a festival? Behind the making of Port Fairy Folk Festival

It takes around 7000 volunteer hours to transform the cricket grounds into the magic that is Folkie.

Folkie president John Young took The Standard behind the scenes to show us what it takes to build a festival.

"We have about 1000 volunteers who put in about 12-15000 hours in the fortnight leading up to and during the Folk Festival weekend," Mr Young said.

Six venues have been constructed to host nearly 100 acts across the four days, with the stages including the Shebeen, Pyipgil Gundidj, the Ocean Stage, Island Stage and River Stage.

One of the stages was at Sydney Harbour a day before being transported to Port Fairy.

The huge marquees are designed to withstand winds speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour, with some fitting up to 1200 people.

Cranes work to erect the columns used to hold up the behemoth main stage, which has 13 bays, is 65 metres by 40 metres and takes two days to construct.

"They're very large and they're very heavy," Mr Young said.

"The Shebeen stage is a two day job to set up, the tent goes up first then the power is connected and the light and sound people set up over the week.

"It's quite fascinating to watch them getting winched up."

Crunching the numbers:

To reduce congestion in the two licensed bar areas the committee set up a drink ticketing system last year. "We sold $77,000 worth of drink tickets by the Friday and sold about 300 barrels of beer," Mr Young said.

To power the 2000 stage lights and complex sound systems the team have set up extensive underground infrastructure with 10 kilometres of cabling, five generators and 23 electrical distribution points which Mr Young likes to call their Tardis's because they "look like something out of Dr Who".

Jack Smits has been on the committee for 28 years and been construction manager for 22 of those.

"It's been a bigger effort for the paperwork than it has been for the construction but the construction has gone extremely well," he said.

"We've been training the crew in set groups over the years and we've had a flying start, it's all about coordinating the hire, logistics, knowing when the trucks have to come, liaising with contractors, where the containers go, knowing what to build before other structures come in and so on," he said.

"You get the hang of it after a few years, it's crucial that it all falls into place.

"I've got a team of about 115 and the first week is where the bulk of the work happens. The pack down is always twice as quick, normally it's about two weeks to set up and one week to pack down.

"It's always really pleasing to see it up and running and to see the place full of people enjoying themselves, that's the most rewarding part of it all."

A group of dedicated local ladies work around the clock feeding all the volunteers for three weeks at the cricket club rooms.

Over that time they go through around 270 loaves of bread, 118 iced buns, pour around 1500 cups of coffee and tea and used 45 dozen eggs for the sandwiches.

"We're all locals and it's loads of fun," said catering volunteer Lyn Brown.

"We have about 20 ladies on the roster who feed around 130 people a day. They're all lovely country boys and very good eaters too!"

Mr Young said his favourite part of the festival was the camaraderie between volunteers.

"I enjoy the festival but I have to say the fortnight beforehand with the camaraderie that goes on out here is really inspirational," he said.

The 44^th annual Port Fairy Folk Festival will kick off on March 6.

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