“We’ve been at the festival every year for the 10 years — we started with our babies in prams and this weekend we saw our big kids out on the dance floor,” Ms Canham said.
“Each year we interview three of the artists — not necessarily the biggest one, we have some of the obscure ones as well.
“We usually include one of the big ones, and then some of lesser known artists — we interview them and write up the article to be included in the program.”
Ms Canham and Ms O’Brien started The Splendid Word in 2011, both former journalists who went out on their own.
Nowadays, the team is run by Ms Canham, with nine other freelance copywriters, but Ms O’Brien is still a part of the festival program team.
“Christy and I have been writing the program since 2016; one of our writers, Katie Eldridge, has come on board and written a story for us this year as well,” Ms Canham said.
“(Festival director) David Frazer, who is a really good friend now and who we’ve been working with for a long time, touched base with us — someone dropped our name to him, and he touched base for the 2016 festival.
“It’s absolutely one of our favourite projects to work on: once it gets to about September-October and the line-up gets announced, we’re always waiting for the phone call, hoping we get the call up again.
“It’s one of the gigs that lights us up the most, not just interviewing the artists and writing the program, but just getting to work alongside David.”
Mr Frazer has been running the festival since it began in 2012, and Ms Canham says he has been adopted as a local due to his festival work over the years.
“He’s got a great team of volunteers who work alongside him, and he loves our community and this festival,” she said.
“He’s really gotten involved in Echuca-Moama over the years as well, he knows so many people and he’s really highly regarded.
“He walks around the festival and it’s like he is a local, people know him.”
As a part of the program, Ms Canham and Ms O’Brien have had the opportunity to interview some of their musical heroes.
“My favourite has been Bernard Fanning, I got to interview him for the 2020 festival,” Ms Canham said.
“I’m a massive Powderfinger fan, Bernard has been the soundtrack to my life, late high school to university and all the rest, so that was pretty special to get to interview him.”
“I’ve always been a massive fan of music, so interviewing some of my musical heroes has been fantastic,” Ms O’Brien said.
“Particularly the old-school musicians like Dave Faulkner from Hoodoo Gurus, Mick Thomas from Weddings Parties Anything, but then also the newer artists that you get to discover and you never would have known — that’s been really special for me.
“Having moments where you interview your absolute favourite artists, and as a journalist you have to ask questions but you’re just dying.
“I was actually glad I didn’t get to interview Paul Kelly, because I don’t know whether I could have: I was so awestruck, and I had met him a couple of times before, but seeing him here was actually overwhelming, it’s still one of my favourite moments.”
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