Singer Dani Karis with daughters Lucy, left, 10, and Holly, 12, at Bulli train station. Picture: ADAM McLEAN
People who catch the train from Sydney to the Illawarra Folk Festival won't have to wait until they arrive to hear the music.
They just have to catch a Green Music Train and be entertained by festival performers on the way.
Festival organiser David DeSanti said the trains, run in partnership with CityRail, had been running for the past six years and were the brainchild of Illawarra Folk Club president Russell Hannah and member Brian Dunnett, who are both train buffs.
"Russell's written books about trains and Brian is actually an ex-state rail employee and has done [a] lot of history work with trains," Mr DeSanti said.
"So the idea was to get lots of people on a train with music. And it's a green thing to do as well.
"That's one of the aims, to try and encourage people to get there without a car."
The folk festival will be held at Bulli Showground from Thursday to Sunday.
The music train takes up eight carriages over three services - two on Saturday and one on Sunday. All the trains will leave from Bondi Junction and pass through Central.
The first Saturday train features a Celtic carriage and a rhythms carriage and the second bluegrass, folk and roots, and accordion and gypsy carriages.
On Sunday, there is a carriage for kids as well as singing and ukulele carriages.
Mr DeSanti said the size of the groups would determine where they set up in the carriage.
"I did it myself last year with the Con Artists; there were 15 of us so we did it in the vestibule," he said.
"Generally if there's three or four members in a group, they go on one of the levels [of the train]. We allocate one group to each level.
"They'll just get into a seat at the end and they'll play. So there will be somebody upstairs and somebody downstairs."
The music train idea has become popular with festivalgoers - and with the performers too.
"There's some pretty good talent - I think we were oversubscribed with the number of bands who wanted to do it," Mr DeSanti said.
"One of the bands, Ruby Boots, they're a Triple J artist coming over from Western Australia. Their promo photos are actually with trains, so as soon as they saw the opportunity to do it they put their hand up."
For more information on the train times visit the festival website www.illawarrafolkfestival.com.au.
