Sugar Mountain Announces New Immersive 'Sensory' Restaurant

Until recent years, festival food has been relegated to the realms of deep fried things on sticks and regrettable kebabs. But with Bluesfest attracting some punters just for the nosh, Secret Garden Festival including sit-down lunches and plenty of Australian events giving their food trucks almost as much importance as the music lineup, there's an exciting new focus on festival food. But nothing's piqued our interest as quickly as Sugar Mountain's just-announced onsite dining concept: Sensory.

Described by the team as “an immersive restaurant experiment”, Sensory is a collaboration between Sugar Mountain and three Melbourne icons: Bomba, Tin & Ed and Cut Copy. Covering taste, smell, sight and sound, these three artists will create a sensory overload at the 2016 festival, strictly limited to four sittings of just 90 people each.

Sensory will be staged on Saturday, January 23 at the Victorian College of the Arts, housed within a shiny new indoor space at the festival. Guests will enjoy a four-course visceral dining experience paired with a 50-minute narrative and matching sensory cues. Melbourne's beloved tapas restaurant Bomba will be going experimental, pairing their plates with unique drinks.

“A restaurant like this, it’s not just about coming in to eat – we’re collectively creating a show,” says Jesse Gerner, Bomba head chef and co-owner. “The performance is part of the meal. It’s been great to work collaboratively with Cut Copy and Tin & Ed to develop a full package, we’re looking not only at the ingredients on the plate but at how sight, sound, taste and smell work together.”

Melbourne electronic legends Cut Copy will be soundtracking the whole experience, composing a special soundscape for each course. Melbourne design duo Tin & Ed (Chet Faker's Built on Glass cover, Qantas, IKEA) will be creating the immersive environment guest will dine in, both in three and two dimensional form.

There are limited tickets to Sensory (again, four sittings of only 90 each), and they're $55 per person. You can bundle the Sensory ticket with a Sugar Mountain 2016 ticket — they go on sale Monday, October 19 at Sugar Mountain's website. You'll be able to lock in a seating time when the festival timetable is released in January. Sugar Mountain's full 2016 lineup will be revealed next week.

Image: Tin & Ed.