In a daring move away from the festival format that has seen Barragga Bay near Bermagui filled with music at Easter for the last three decades, the Four Winds organisation has departed from the three-day festival model.

In February, Four Winds’ executive director Lee Small launched a year-long schedule of events.

While the larger-scale festival accoutrements won’t be there at Easter, the food truck and bar will, and concerts on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday are expected to attract punters. 

First up on Good Friday in the Windsong Pavilion will be Yirinda – storyteller Fred Leone and contrabassist Samuel Pankhurst – exploring ancient stories and soundscapes. 

The performance will mark the release of the third single, Nyun (Brother), from their self-titled debut album recorded in Brisbane by Pankhurst, mixed in London by Jake Miller and mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton.

Combining ancient Aboriginal language with modern production, Leone’s vocals are set against Pankhurst’s experimental soundscapes of strings, horns, double bass, synthesiser and piano.

Leone is one of three song and language custodians for the Butchulla people from the Fraser Coast region of Queensland and the songs on this album are sung in the endangered Butchulla language, now spoken by only a handful of people. 

The founder in 2009 of Queensland’s first Aboriginal hip hop label Impossible Odds, he collaborates regularly with his cousin, Birdz.

Pankhurst, by contrast, is a contrabassist/producer who has performed with the Brodsky String Quartet and is a member of the Australian Art Orchestra. His studio work covers everything from the Bluey TV show to Hiatus Kaiyote.

Then on Easter Saturday, March 30, in the outdoor Sound Shell and on Easter morning in the Windsong Pavilion, the Goldner String Quartet, on its final concert tour after 30 years, will play for its dedicated classical audience.

The quartet, Dene Olding, Irina Morozova, Dimity Hall and Julian Smiles, will perform works by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and the NSW premiere of a composition by Pēteris Vaskas, as well as the compositions of Paul Stanhope and The Goldner Variations on Beethoven’s theme Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony by 30 Australian composers.