Fire and song amid the orchards

The Huon Valley’s midwinter fest is an ode to the apple, and the wild traditions of a pagan past.

2016 Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival. archer Dan Hennesy of Port Huon fires a flaming arrow into the Burning Man. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

For most of the year, the Huon is a jewel among Tasmania’s many river valleys: spectacularly beautiful, serene and calming, dotted with fascinating sights, creative entrepreneurs and talented artisans, its gentle charms just half an hour from the island’s increasingly cutting-edge capital, Hobart.

In the depths of winter, however, modernity is left behind as a different, ancient and slightly mysterious sound can be heard among the orchards that give Tasmania its “Apple Isle” nickname. There are people old and young, singing by flickering firelight — and they’re singing to the trees.

The concept of wassailing may not be familiar to most modern Australians, but travel to the old cider districts of England’s West Country and the centuries-old tradition is still upheld. And here it is in our own cider country: the folk music, the time-honoured rhymes and hymns, the clatter of pots and pans that have long been thought in dark superstition to drive demons out of the apple trees and guarantee a rich harvest for the following year.

Over the weekend of July 14-16 this year, Willie Smith’s Apple Shed will once again be the focus of this strange, exhilarating Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival, working with other local producers to devise a three-day event that merges past and present and gathers the best the region has to offer for feasting and fun.

Willie Smith’s is a working organic cider house on the Huon Highway near Grove, sharing an original apple-packing shed that dates from the middle of the last century with a museum dedicated to the history of the industry in Tasmania. Interesting enough to visit at any time, it becomes a signal attraction during the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival.

The festival begins with the Burning Man, a giant bonfire echoing the Wicker Man of the ancient British Druids and similar pagan ceremonies all over the world. But the Druids didn’t have Zydeco bands to liven up their evening, nor the acclaimed Melbourne folk group The Scrims to dance along to. And more ancient than even the Druids, Frank Yamma’s Pitjantjatjara heritage sings the warmth of Australia’s Central Desert to the chill of a Tasmanian winter. These and many other performers keep the crowds entertained throughout the weekend.

But the most haunting music doesn’t come from the professionals. As the Wassail King and Queen lead the wassailers among the trees with their blazing torches, they accompany the procession with their song:

Oh apple tree we’ll wassail thee,

And hoping thou wilt bear.

The Lord does know where we shall be

To be merry another year.

Then the Queen is hoisted into the trees, where she places a piece of toast soaked in cider, both in gratitude and as a reminder to the orchard of what is expected and hoped of it at harvest time.

The trees aren’t the only ones being fed: the festival has attracted the finest craft brewers and winemakers, artisanal cheesemakers, bakers and chefs. There are pizzas and burgers, food trucks, Asian street food, coffee and cake. Even Huon Valley local and TV chef Matthew Evans will be there with the celebrated pork from his Fat Pig Farm.

The dancing, the fires and the feasting should keep you warm in the middle of the Tasmanian winter. But if you want to wrap up well against the cold the festival provides a financial incentive to do so, with $2000 in prize money awarded to the best costumes for men, women and families (with a small prize for every kid who dresses up). The festival’s Instagram and Facebook pages provide many wild examples of visitors’ costume inventiveness. From Morris Dancers through Robin Hood to crazy hippies and fur-clad cave men, there is no limit to their imagination.

It’s no secret that Tasmania’s apple industry has hit a few bumps over recent decades, but now, ¬ thanks to either shrewd business practice or the magical power of wassailing, the fun is returning. The Huon Valley’s fruit fortunes are looking up as growers look to revisit the glory days of the 1960s, when the island’s apples tumbled onto greengrocers’ shelves all over the world.

The knowledge producers have acquired over generations now allows them to design apples to appeal to specific markets and their work is bearing fruit, in every sense of the phrase. But as the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival confirms, alongside their efforts there’s still a respect for — and a connection to — nature that predates our science.

So come along and lend a hand: bang the pans, eat the finest produce Australia has to offer, and wash it down with cider and any other delicious local tipple. It’s sure to get you singing!

This content was produced in association with Tasmania- Go Behind The Scenery. Read our policy on commercial content here.

Tickets to the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival are on sale now and are available here.

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