Port Fairy Folk Festival leader John Young retires after long tenure

After six years as festival president, Mr Young has retired from the role.

He will be replaced by the man he took over from, Bruce Leishman.

Leishman will bring plenty of experience, having served as 19 years during his first installment as president.

Mr Young, who has moved to Adelaide, will stay in touch with the festival, with he and his wife Joan already booked in for the 2024 event.

But the couple will not just be sitting back enjoying the show, they will be doing their bit wherever needed as festival volunteers.

Mr Young's involvement in the festival goes way beyond his presidential tenure, having joined the construction crew back in 2007. He went on to serve as vice-president for six years, before stepping up to the top job.

"It's been such an amazing organisation to be part of," Mr Young said.

"From the person with the smallest role to the one with the biggest, for everyone it is all about the festival.

"I'm very proud about the community partnerships the festival has, and how much the event brings to the town."

Mr Young was on duty as president when the festival faced perhaps the biggest challenge in its history, the COVID-19 pandemic.

The festival went ahead in 2020, the last major event in Victoria to take place before the state shut down.

In 2021, the pandemic won the fight, forcing the festival to be cancelled.

But 2022, with some restrictions, went ahead, with normal transmission resuming in 2023.

"To begin with, nobody really knew what was happening with COVID," Mr Young said.

"It was certainly a real challenge and took a lot of work by a lot of people to work our way through it.

"We were able to do just that without any major COVID outbreaks at the festival.

"It was an uncertain time but we were very lucky our festival goers came back and helped the event stay strong."