You book into a pub and you're on first name basis with the owners straight away. There's eye contact and 'gooday mate' from everyone as you stroll the streets; Queensland hospitality is no myth. This makes me a very happy camper because I'm on the road through Queensland for a month, and the first stop is Barcaldine. This little town known as the Garden City of the West sits on central western railway line about 500 km west of Rockhampton. You can see how it got its name as you drive in: the town sunk its first bores in the late 19th century and has had an endless flow of water ever since. There's a BIG windmill sitting in the middle of town.

Barci, as the locals call it, is a classic small remote country town with a population of around 1900 (and five huge pubs). I drove down from Mt Isa, 700km through an ever changing landscape, from wide flat dry plains to scrubby desert bush. After a stop in Cloncurry to catch up with my Big Screen partners there, down through Winton (where The Proposition was shot last year), and on through Longreach (the home of Qantas, and where a jumbo jet sits in a field on the edge of town) and the Outback Hall of Fame.

This is grazing country, cattle and sheep, so the town moves at that pace. The average property is 8,000 hectares so if you're not in service, education or council then you're working the land. On Saturday morning the town is completely abuzz until midday, and then like magic everyone disappears.

This is our second year in Barci and the whole town, from the mayor down, has done everything it possibly can to make this year bigger and better. Sam Worthington and Nat Dean are in town to present Somersault, Gettin' Square and A Rage In Placid Lake, and everyone's excited about having these two great young actors at the festival. Almost every schoolkid from Barci and Blackhall (120km south) come into the beautiful old Radio Theatre to see No Worries and Dot and the Kangaroo. Our opening night of Peaches and Birthday Boy is a great success because we also screen a locally made 40-minute history of Barcaldine so everyone turns out, dressed to nines, to see themselves up on screen. It's a 'Hollywood comes to Barci' night, with the full red carpet, food and drink and a wonderful sense of celebration.

When we're not at the Radio Theatre, we're at the Shakespeare pub just across the road chatting with locals and simply taking in the pace of it all. Nat has just returned from a work trip to the US and Sam has just finished shooting a feature in Melbourne, so they are both tired when they arrive; by the time they leave two days later they seem rejuvenated. It's one of the great pleasures to be around actors when they have a chance to 'stop and smell the roses'. Apart from the slow down, they get to hear down-to-earth, honest, comments on the films they have made and they both seem to appreciate it, particularly after the media frenzy of a film like Somersault.

As for me, I want every festival to be perfect and, when you put so many on, not everything runs to a perfect beat. The Radio Theatre, a stunning old pressed metal hall built in the late 1920s (and once used for indoor cricket), is community-run and all the staff are volunteers. They rely heavily on the good graces of hard-working people to keep the show on the road, so over the weekend I meet several projectionists who deal with various minor mishaps while I sweat in the wings. But the show always stays up, and I learn that country 'she'll be right' shrug again.

Next stop Hervey Bay (via Emerald and the Gold Coast for the Exhibitors and Producers' conferences).

See you there.

Peter Castaldi, Festival Director