It's a good time to be a fan of Sir David Attenborough, particularly if you live in Brisbane. Firstly, a live concert of Planet Earth II is coming to town, complete with a live score and Eric Bana offering narration. And, if you can't wait for that kind of fun, The Brightside is hosting a Sir Dave-themed party. It's certainly one of their most intriguing ideas for a party to date, and one that'll have you staring at the venue's big screens, which'll be playing Planet Earth all evening. And really, isn't that a great idea for a night out? Watching cute critters while having a few drinks — what more could you want? If you do want more, there'll be tunes spun by local DJs, and expect animal-themed titles to get a whirl. It all happens from 10pm on April 13, with tickets costing $12.75 — and a portion of the proceeds going to the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
Last Christmas, Woolloongabba's South City Square did what plenty of other patches of Brisbane tend to when things get festive. Yes, it played host to a sprawling market setup. It isn't that time of year again yet, but the site is still welcoming in a collection of stalls selling plenty of items — this time from 10am–2pm on Saturday, June 27. That's when The Market Folk will once again take over the place, putting on a winter pop-up. We hope you like clothes, jewellery, ceramics, plants, pots, homewares and art, because you'll find it all here. Expect a big focus on design — so you won't be browsing and buying just any old wares. It all tales place in a brick-lined, industrial-style space, which'll make you feel like you're wandering around a European-style market. As well as the shopping, there'll be live music and creative workshops. There'll be bites to eat as well, thanks to a range of food trucks.
Whether you're a political junkie or simply appreciate the 44th American President's annual end-of-year culture lists, block out your diary for March: you've got a date with Barack Obama. The former US leader is heading Down Under in autumn 2023 for a two-date, two-city speaking tour about leadership — marking his first Australian visit since 2018. President Obama is making the trip for an event dubbed An Evening with President Barack Obama, as presented by business leadership and events provider Growth Faculty. He'll be the organisation's first headline speaker as part of its return to in-person events, in fact — and restarting with the ex-US leader is quite the statement. Obama will take to the stage on Tuesday, March 28 at Aware Theatre in Sydney and on Wednesday, March 29 at Melbourne's John Cain Arena. For folks who can't make it, won't be in either city or miss out on tickets, the Sydney session will also be livestreamed. As for exactly what Obama will be focusing on — leadership is a broad topic — Growth Faculty quoted the man himself, from back in November 2019, as a guide. "Being a leader is not a matter of having your name up in lights, making speeches or corralling power at the top. It's identifying the power in other people and unleashing it," Obama said. The former US President will also cover unpredictable futures and how to navigate them, something that comes with his past job. In-person tickets start at $195, or there's a VIP option in Sydney with a pre-speech cocktail party — although Obama won't be there sipping drinks before taking the stage. AN EVENING WITH PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA 2023: Tuesday, March 28 — Aware Theatre, Sydney Wednesday, March 29 — John Cain Arena, Melbourne An Evening with President Barack Obama heads to Sydney and Melbourne in March 2023, with tickets on sale from 9am on Thursday, November 24. Head to the Growth Faculty website for further details. Top image: Carol M Highsmith via Wikimedia Commons.
Wet, wild, soggy, sodden, stormy, soaking: think of a term for drenching weather — any term you like — and, yes, it it'll apply to Brisbane over the last few days. Over the past weekend, the city received a relentless deluge, including falls of over 200 millimetres per day in Brisbane City alone. And, as a result, much of Brissie has been flooded. Eleven years after the 2011 floods, Brisbane has been battling waterlogged conditions all across the city again — spanning everywhere from Moggill to Jindalee, Rosalie to South Bank, and the CBD to Bulimba, just to name a few suburbs. The list still goes on, and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services' last emergency alert issued today, Tuesday, March 1, spans a lengthy number of suburbs. Thankfully, the rain has eased for the moment, allowing the focus to move onto cleanup efforts — including asking Brisbanites to help. So, Brisbane City Council has put a call out for volunteers to sign up to the Mud Army 2.0, after the first iteration made such an important impact back in 2011. The council is partnering with Volunteering Queensland — and, if you're eager and able to assist, you'll be helping to clean up homes and businesses affected by the current flood conditions. Need assistance yourself? Given how widespread the flooding has been again, plenty of Brisbanites are in that situation. You can also register with the council to receive help once the community cleanup effort starts. We're preparing the Mud Army 2.0 to help clean up our city. Been impacted by flooding or can lend a helping hand? Find out more: https://t.co/uFiUvdZ6bu #bnefloods #mudarmy pic.twitter.com/IZtL6X0HaH — Brisbane City (@brisbanecityqld) March 1, 2022 Floodwaters remain around the city, with flood warnings still in place and peaks expected to keep hitting at high tide into Wednesday. That means that the cleanup can't even start yet in some areas, but help will definitely be needed once the water level subsides. As well as registering to help, or for assistance, here's where you can keep an eye on all of the latest Brisbane weather conditions, warnings and alerts, and traffic and public transport status: The Bureau of Meteorology's Queensland warnings page, and its Queensland Twitter and Facebook Brisbane City Council's February 2022 severe weather event updates, which also features a Brisbane River flood forecast Brisbane City Council's Twitter and Facebook Queensland Fire and Emergency Services' website, Twitter and Facebook Qld Traffic Translink's website, Twitter and Facebook To register for the Mud Army 2.0, or for help to clean up your house or business, head to the Brisbane City Council website. Top image: Matthew Toomey.
We all know that solid dose of 'the good feels' you get after you've done something nice for yourself/your body (like exercise). And from the end of January through until late March, you can expect those feelings to increase two-fold. Thanks to the return of Brisbane's Feel Good Program for 2021, the city will welcome a series of outdoor fitness classes — and, unlike that fancy new yoga studio in your neighbourhood that smells like acai berries and only serves charcoal tea, these classes are all entirely free. Ranging from sessions to get your blood pumping (Zumba) to classes to get your zen flowing freely (yoga, tai chi), plus aqua classes held at the Boat Pool, the Feel Good Program is an initiative designed to suit any and all fitness levels. Classes are held at both South Bank Parklands and in the city at Queens Park. BYO water bottle, towel and, where required, a yoga mat — the ones provided are subject to availability. Adapting to the times, you'll also need to register for each session in advance. Classes happen every day except Fridays and Sundays, and they all run for between 30–45 minutes. Get started early and face the day with a 7am bootcamp session, or finish it with pilates from 5.30pm — or ballroom or Bollywood dancing from 6.30pm. Whichever you choose, it'll have you embracing the warm outdoors and feeling good — check out the timetable online.
Joy is one of Brisbane's most quietly extraordinary dining rooms. Tucked into Fortitude Valley, the tiny restaurant seats just a handful of guests per service, creating an atmosphere that feels personal, immersive and carefully paced. Led by chef-owner Sarah Baldwin, Joy offers a set tasting menu that changes frequently and is shaped by seasonality, technique and a clear point of view. The format is precise but never rigid, moving through a sequence of refined dishes that balance delicacy with depth. There's no à la carte here – every guest experiences the same progression, designed to tell a story from first bite to final course. [caption id="attachment_1079121" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Lauren Hoopee[/caption] The room itself is warm and minimal, allowing the focus to remain firmly on the food and the interaction between kitchen and diner. Wine pairings are thoughtful and tightly aligned with the menu, complementing rather than overshadowing the dishes. Joy isn't a place for a quick dinner. It's a restaurant built around intention, attention and the pleasure of slowing down. Bookings are essential – and highly coveted. [caption id="attachment_1079120" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Lauren Hoopee[/caption] Images: supplied.
Truffle hunts, hot spas, roaring fires, incredible sunsets and pinot noir — there are so many reasons to take a winter weekender that aren't skiing. And, although Australia is synonymous with sun and surf, we're not short on mountain villages, cool climate wine regions and indulgent retreats. If you're ready to embrace the cold (but not so ready to throw your body into the snow) here are ten getaways to try — from hiking around the Blue Mountains to visiting the mineral springs capital of Australia and visiting the Adelaide Hills, where you can count on days filled with excellent wine, long lunches and vineyard strolls. [caption id="attachment_685963" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lowe Wines, Destination NSW[/caption] WINE TASTE YOUR WAY AROUND MUDGEE, NEW SOUTH WALES This pretty country town, which lies a three-and-a-half-hour drive northwest of Sydney, is home to experimental wines, friendly cafes and cosy stays. Head to Huntington Estate for big reds, Lowe Wines for spectacular views and Heslop Wines for small-batch drops in a 100-year-old cottage. The best spot for a long lunch is Pipeclay Pumphouse at the Robert Stein Vineyard & Winery. But, if you're looking for casual cafe fare, there's Alby & Esthers or Artisan on Lewis, where you'll eat surrounded by local artworks. When the time comes to rest your weary head, check into Perry Street Hotel, which is built within the converted 19th-century Mechanics Institute building that takes its design cues from Berlin, or sink into luxury at Sierra Escape, a luxe glamping retreat just outside of town, with phenomenal rural views, fire pits and outdoor baths. [caption id="attachment_726006" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Evans Lookout Blackheath, Destination NSW[/caption] HIKE AND CAFE HOP IN BLACKHEATH, NEW SOUTH WALES Get stuck into some invigorating mountain air, epic views and decadent dishes in Blackheath. This 5000-person village is in the Blue Mountains, one hour-and-forty-five minutes' drive west of Sydney. At 1000 metres above sea level, it occasionally gets snow, so pack your parka. Start by heading to Evans Lookout, where you'll find spectacular vistas and the starting point for a three-kilometre clifftop walk to Govetts Leap. Then it's time to eat. You'll find Campos coffee, an extensive tea menu and tasty brekkies at Anonymous Cafe, plus Asian-inspired hatted fare at Fumo Restaurant. If you're looking for a luxe sleepover, check into Parklands, where you'll wake up to 28 acres of landscaped gardens. For more local tips, see our weekender's guide to the Upper Blue Mountains. [caption id="attachment_669808" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hepburn Bathhouse, Visit Victoria[/caption] SOAK IN MINERAL HOT SPRINGS IN DAYLESFORD, VICTORIA Swap skis for springs in Daylesford. Found a 90 minutes' drive northwest of Melbourne, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, this 2500-person town is home to the biggest concentration of mineral springs in Australia. That means there are plenty of places to kick back in a piping hot, nutrient rich bath and soak your winter worries away. Get started at the Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa, where Victorians have been blissing out since 1895, or the Japanese-inspired Shizuka Ryokan. Other adventures to add to your itinerary include hot chocolate at The Chocolate Mill, mulled cider beside the fire at Daylesford Cider Company, a multi-course feast at Lake House and a stay at Clifftop at Hepburn. [caption id="attachment_692634" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Keppel Lookout, Visit Victoria[/caption] WANDER THROUGH ELEVATED VILLAGES IN MOUNT DANDENONG, VICTORIA Dead keen to getaway, but not so keen on a long drive? Make Mount Dandenong — just one hour's drive east of Melbourne — your destination. You'll be out of the big smoke before you know it — and wandering through mountaintop villages, magical forests and frost-kissed gardens. To reset as quickly as possible, head to the Japanese Mountain Retreat in Montrose, for hot springs and spa treatments. When you're brave enough to face the great outdoors, make tracks to Olinda's RJ Hamer Arboretum, where there are more than 150 types of trees, or the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. Meanwhile, there's a cracking Devonshire tea — beside a crackling fire — to be enjoyed on at Ripe Cafe, Sassafras, and craft brews galore at Oscar's Alehouse, Belgrave. Still more time to kill? Get more ideas over here. [caption id="attachment_619823" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fortitude Brewing Co.[/caption] SAMPLE LOTS OF CRAFT BREWS IN MOUNT TAMBORINE, QUEENSLAND Queensland is best known as a destination to escape winter, but the state isn't all tropical climes. And, among its most scenic cool spots is Mount Tamborine, in the Gold Coast hinterland, around an hour's drive south of Brisbane. Launch into your weekend with a wine tasting at Cedar Creek Estate Vineyard & Winery or a beer sampling at Fortitude Brewing Co, before tucking into a comfort food feast at Three Little Pigs Bar and Bistro. In between eating and drinking, you'll be journeying through ancient rainforest, getting to know glow worms and snuggling up in a cottage or chalet. [caption id="attachment_726033" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ridgemill Estate[/caption] STROLL THROUGH IDYLLIC COUNTRYSIDE, WINE IN-HAND, IN STANTHORPE, QUEENSLAND If your favourite winter warm-up is a good glass of red, then you ought to head to Stanthorpe. This riverside town — located three hours' drive southwest of Brisbane — is in the heart of Queensland's Granite Belt, an area of the Great Dividing Range known for its idyllic countryside, striking granite formations and wines. Visit Ridgemill Estate for shiraz, Whiskey Gully for malbec and Colombard, and Savina Lane for single vineyard drops, plus the occasional snowfall. Cheery cabins and cottages abound. [caption id="attachment_619495" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, shot by Rémi Chauvin.[/caption] IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE DARK ARTS IN HOBART, TASMANIA Ever since Dark Mofo — MONA's annual festival of darkness, death and change — launched in 2013, Hobart has been a firm favourite for winter weekenders. If you're in town in June, you should definitely immerse yourself in some dark arts. If not — or in addition — there are stacks more adventures to be had, from whisky tasting at Lark Distillery to lunch by the water at Aloft Restaurant to local art, objects and food at the Salamanca Market. Hobart's watery surrounds are magical in winter, so try to sleep with views — both The Henry Jones Art Hotel and MONA Pavilions have them. [caption id="attachment_717921" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Grindelwald Swiss Village.[/caption] TAKE A PRETEND TRIP TO SWITZERLAND IN TAMAR VALLEY, TASMANIA Take a mini-trip to Switzerland in Tasmania's Tamar Valley. Just 15 minutes' north of Launceston, you'll find Grindelwald, a village modelled on a Swiss one, complete with gable roofs, paddle boats and an 18-hole mini-golf course. Beyond that, Tamar Valley is a world of winding rivers, green valleys and rolling farmlands that produce a cornucopia of cheese, truffles, walnuts, cherries, ciders and beers. There are also plenty of wineries to hit up here, too. Don't miss brekkie surrounded by wetlands at Stonesthrow, dinner at Stillwater Restaurant or an evening in front of your own sandstone fireplace at the Red Feather Inn. [caption id="attachment_726040" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Karrawatta Wines[/caption] MEANDER THROUGH THE VINEYARDS IN ADELAIDE HILLS, SOUTH AUSTRALIA Every year, the Adelaide Hills welcomes winter with lazy lunches, wine-inspired events and festivals, including Winter Reds: a celebration of red wine, open fires and rustic fare, happening from July 26–28, 2019. Meanwhile, in Hahndorf, Australia's oldest surviving German settlement, you can do winter as the Deutsche do: with baked goodies, chocolates and craft beer. Other spots to visit include the quirky Uraidla Hotel, built in the 19th century; Karrawatta Wines, where wine tasting takes place beside an outdoor (or indoor) fire; and Hardy's Verandah Restaurant, for hearty fare with panoramic views. [caption id="attachment_726046" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Truffle Kerfuffle, Jessica Wyld Photography[/caption] GO TRUFFLE HUNTING (WITH ADORABLE DOGS) IN MARGARET RIVER, WESTERN AUSTRALIA Like Queensland, Western Australia is famous for its warm retreats. But, stick to the southern part of the state, and you'll discover charming wintry destinations a-plenty. For lovers of wine and good food, the Margaret River is the place to go. You'll avoid summer crowds, while making the most of winter festivals, like Truffle Kerfuffle, from June 21–23; Cabin Fever Festival, going down from July 19–28; and CinefestOZ, from August 28–September 1. Plus, even when there are no special events happening, there are bucketloads of drops to drink and, on the coast, whales to watch. Top images: Hepburn Bathhouse; Truffle Kerfuffle by Jessica Wyld Photography; Sierra Escape.
At Concrete Playground we know that Mexican food can be really hit and miss. When it’s good, it is a flavour-packed and thrilling experience. When it’s bad, it’s a bit like eating plane food circa 1992 – mushy, saucy and you can’t really tell what’s in there. So to make sure that all of your Mexican food experiences are positive ones, we have handpicked Brisbane’s top Mexican joints, all offering their own unique gifts. Tuckeria Tuckeria is your healthy Mexican option. With influences from the Cali coast, meals here are served fresh and vegetarian. With mostly outdoor seating, this is the perfect place for enjoying the sun. The Mexican Taco Salad is packed full of flavour and hearty enough to fill you up, leaving you comfortably satisfied. 421 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley; 07 3162 4823; www.tuckeria.com.au Vinyl Vinyl, the restaurant section of the Hi-Fi Bar in West End, offers some seriously satisfying Mexican food, namely tacos. With reasonable prices and flavour-explosions guaranteed, Vinyl is the perfect place for a casual bite to eat mid-week or before a concert. Their tacos are special. Using contemporary combinations, but throwing back to the original Mexican flavours, we recommend the crispy pork belly with charred corn salsa and hot sauce in particular. 125 Boundary Street, West End; 07 3010 6301; www.thehifi.com.au Dos Amigos If you’d like a more Tex-Mex experience, then Dos Amigos is the place to go. Located in Taringa, Dos Amigos has been around since 1987. The ‘Tex’ contribution to Mex equals a hell of a lot of melted cheese and the delightful spice, cumin. This means that meals such as chilli con queso and fajitas are Tex-Mex and Dos Amigos specialties. Chili con queso is a spicy cheese dip that you eat with homemade chips, and is sinfully delicious. The fajitas come out with a sizzling plate with the meat of your choice, fresh ingredients and warm tortillas. These meals, served with a Dos Equis lager, are for those nights when you plan on rolling home. 185 Moggill Road, Taringa; 07 3870 8092; www.dosamigos.com.au Guzman Y Gomez Located in Fortitude Valley and on Albert Street in the City, the people of Guzman Y Gomez (GYG) know how to do quick and satisfying Mexican. This might be because most of the people who work there are Mexican. Greeted with an 'hola' as you walk in the door, if you dare you can test out your Spanish here. Serving the Mexican basics – quesadillas, burritos, nachos, tequila – GYG is your best option for a quick-fix. The meals are so tasty they can be addictive. And with the option to take away you can also enjoy in your own home. If you are after some drinks with your food then sip on a frozen margarita and enjoy the fiesta vibe of GYG. 1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley; 07 3188 1701; www.guzmanygomez.com La Quinta For a night out with a group, head to La Quinta. Known for its party atmosphere, it is the perfect place for a boozy dinner with friends, and some good honest Mexican. Aiming to achieve genuine Mexican food rather than the hybrids of Tex Mex or Cal Mex, La Quinta serves up authentic, fresh and delicious meals. With a focus on crowd-pleasing, they have banquets on offer for those in a big group, as well as Mexican feast options. Try La Quintas' Ensalada for a fresh but filling option, with edible bowl and all. 1/189 Oxford Street, Bulimba; 07 3399 2800; www.laquinta.com.au
Aussie brick enthusiasts, get excited. Sydney will join the likes of New York, London, Hong Kong and Copenhagen on the list of cities boasting a flagship Lego store later this year. The Harbour City is set to welcome the world's largest official Lego store to Sydney Arcade, overlooking Pitt Street Mall. The massive 900-square-meter site will be your one-stop shop for all things colourful plastic bricks. Lego fans can expect an interactive storytelling table that will give them behind-the-scenes looks at their favourite sets and designs, Australia's first Minifigure Factory where visitors can create Lego versions of themselves or their loved ones, and a pick-and-build wall boasting an enormous catalogue of different pieces. Official Brick Specialists will be on hand to help guide you through everything the superstore has to offer — and if you're after a challenge to get your creativity flowing, there will be in-store builds and monthly events. Basically, you'll have everything you could need to bring your wildest imagination to life via the wonders of Lego. There will also be Australia-specific elements of the store with large-format Lego sculptures of Australian and Sydney cultural touchstones decorating the space. "Supporting the Lego Group's mission to inspire and develop builders of tomorrow, the immersive new store will feature creative play experiences, with playful nods to Australian culture, that are sure to create lasting memories for every Aussie or visitor from around the world," Vice President and General Manager of LEGO Australia and New Zealand Troy Taylor says. Lego fans of all ages will be able to visit the expansive shop before the end of this year. The exact open date is set to be announced within the next few weeks, so watch this space. The flagship Sydney Lego store will open at Sydney Arcade, Pitt Street, Sydney later in 2023.
Don't mess with Vin Diesel's on-screen family. Since 2001, that's been a basic cinema rule, holding hard and fast — and furiously, of course — in the Fast & Furious franchise. Back then, it didn't seem like a high-octane take on Point Break with a heap of extra Coronas and 100-percent more street racing would span ten sequels and a spinoff, and also become one of the biggest movie series there is. But here we now are awaiting the arrival of Fast X, and knowing that there's another flick to come after that. The saga's penultimate ride (well, supposedly) races into cinemas on May 18 and, after dropping a first trailer a few months back, it has just given audiences another sneak peek. All the essentials are covered, which really means Diesel (The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special) glaring at everyone who threatens that brood, an ever-growing list of other famous faces, speedy-driving vehicles everywhere, ridiculous dialogue, OTT action setpieces and more than a few explosions. In Fast X, Dom's grandmother (Rita Moreno, West Side Story) joins the series — and so does his new nemesis Dante (Jason Momoa, Dune). The latter is going after the usual F&F crew to avenge his own blood, another franchise staple. He's on that quest because he's the son of Fast Five's drug kingpin Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida, Warrior Nun), which is a handy way go get him threatening Dom and company for slights against his own family. Seasoned viewers will remember that that's how Jason Statham's (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre) Deckard Shaw originally came into these films. Accordingly, this new stint of ride-or-die, quarter-mile-at-a-time chaos can only be resolved by high-action stunts and ties back to past movies, as Dom faces off against Dante. Statham does indeed make an appearance, as he's done since Fast & Furious 6 and in spinoff Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Also featured are a whole heap of franchise regulars, such as Michelle Rodriguez (Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves), Jordana Brewster (Who Invited Charlie?), Ludacris (End of the Road), Tyrese Gibson (Morbius) and Sung Kang (Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Dom's wife Lottie, sister Mia, and pals Tej, Roman and Han. And, Nathalie Emmanuel (The Invitation) returns as Ramsey, Scott Eastwood (I Want You Back) as government operative Little Nobody, John Cena (Peacemaker) as Dom's brother Jakob (see: Fast and Furious 9), Helen Mirren (Shazam! Fury of the Gods) as Deckard's mother Queenie and Charlize Theron (The School for Good and Evil) as criminal mastermind Cypher. Every F&F flick also throws new famous folks onto its road — and while sadly Keanu Reeves has yet to grace its frames to cement the Point Break ties, or Channing Tatum in a Magic Mike/F&F mashup that'd be a ridiculous dream, Fast X adds Momoa, Moreno and Brie Larson (Just Mercy). Also, while not a household name by any means, Leo Abelo Perry (Cheaper by the Dozen) joins the series as Brian Marcos, Dom's young son. As for how it'll all turn out when Fast X unfurls its wonders — in what's meant to be the first film in a two-part finale for the franchise, and what feels like it'll have to be a five-hour movie itself just to fit the entire cast in — the two previews so far are filled with chases and aerial feats, ample mentions of family, twist reveals and glorious F&F vehicular mayhem in general. Now You See Me and Grimsby filmmaker Louis Leterrier directs, fresh from helping make TV series Lupin such a hit, and also reteaming with Statham after The Transporter and The Transporter 2 back in the 00s. Yes, we'll count that as another F&F instance of family ties. Check out the latest Fast X trailer below: Fast X releases in cinemas Down Under on May 18, 2023.
When the end of January rolls around in Australia, folks get a-counting. The nation loves working through the top 100 tunes of the past year thanks to Triple J's huge annual music poll, and has for decades. And, it loves celebrating the brews everyone is likely sipping while listening to that countdown, too — aka the yearly GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers list. This yeasty ranking does for beer what the other Hottest 100 does for bangers, and it has just anointed its best tipple from 2022's brews. Coming out on top is Mountain Culture's Status Quo pale ale, with the New South Wales brewery from the Blue Mountains giving the GABS countdown a new winner for the first time in a few years. In both 2020 and 2021, Canberra's Bentspoke Brewing Co did the honours with its Crankshaft American IPA. In 2022, that brew came in third instead Mountain Culture also bested 2017 and 2018 winner Balter Brewing Company, which notched up second position with its Balter XPA. And, it beat out Stone & Wood's Pacific Ale, the winner of the 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2019 polls, and 2020's second-place getter, which nabbed fourth position this year — as it did in 2021. Your Mates Brewing Co came in fifth with its Larry pale ale, while Better Beer's zero carb variety sits in sixth. Rounding out the top ten are Young Henrys' Newtowner pale ale in seventh, Coopers' original pale ale in eighth, Bridge Road Brewers' Beechworth pale ale in ninth and Black Hops Brewery's GOAT hazy IPA in tenth. Mountain Culture, which is run by husband-and-wife team DJ & Harriet McCready, also placed 15th and 31st with other tipples — and clearly had ample company. 2022's hottest 100 was whittled down from 311 vote-receiving breweries and 2140 of their beers, with more than 60,000 folks having their say about Australia's best craft beers. As a result, the top ten was the most closely contested in GABS history, and a record-equalling 58 breweries made the full list of 100 brews. That includes 28 beers from NSW, 26 from Queensland and 18 from Victoria, plus 11 from Western Australia, nine from the ACT and eight from South Australia. Run by GABS — or the annual festival also known as the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular, which returns for 2023 this May and June — the countdown is a people's-choice poll decided by booze lovers around the country. If you're thinking "less background, more beer", here's what you've been waiting for: the rundown of the best beverages from the past year that just keep tempting tastebuds. Working your way through the whole 100 isn't just a great way to show your appreciation for locally made brews, either — consider it research for the 2023 countdown. GABS HOTTEST 100 AUSSIE CRAFT BEERS OF 2022: 1. Mountain Culture — Status Quo Hazy Pale Ale 2. Balter Brewing Balter — XPA Pale Ale 3. BentSpoke Brewing Co — Crankshaft American IPA 4. Stone & Wood Brewing Co — Pacific Ale Australian Pale Ale 5. Your Mates Brewing Co — Larry Australian Pale Ale 6. Better Beer — Better Beer Zero Carb Australian Pilsner 7. Young Henrys — Newtowner Australian Pale Ale 8. Coopers Brewery — Original Pale Ale Australian Pale Ale 9. Bridge Road Brewers — Beechworth Pale Ale American Pale Ale 10. Black Hops Brewery — G.O.A.T. New England IPA 11. Gage Roads Brewing Co — Single Fin Australian Pale Ale 12. Capital Brewing Co — Capital XPA Pale Ale 13. Pirate Life Brewing — South Coast Pale Ale American Pale Ale 14. Revel Brewing Co — Strawberries & Cream Sour Ale Kettle Sour 15. Mountain Culture — Cult IPA New England IPA 16. Brookvale Union — Ginger Beer 17. Philter Brewing — Philter XPA Australian Pale Ale 18. Beerfarm Royal — Haze Hazy IPA 19. Balter Brewing — Hazy IPA 20. Black Hops Brewery — East Coast Haze Hazy Pale Ale 21. Balter Brewing — Eazy Hazy Hazy Pale Ale 22. Little Creatures — Little Creatures Pale Ale American Pale Ale 23. Heads Of Noosa Brewing Co — Japanese Style Lager 24. BentSpoke Brewing Co — Barley Griffin Australian Pale Ale 25. 4 Pines Brewing Co — 4 Pines Pacific Ale Australian Pale Ale 26. Coopers Brewery — Sparkling Ale Australian Pale Ale 27. Hawke's Brewing — Hawke's Patio Pale American Pale Ale 28. Brick Lane Brewing Co — One Love Pale Ale American Pale Ale 29. Grifter Brewing Co — Pale Australian Pale Ale 30. Modus Brewing — Modus Cerveza Lager 31. Mountain Goat Beer — GOAT Very Enjoyable Beer Lager 32. Better Beer — Better Beer Ginger Beer 33. Heaps Normal — Quiet XPA Pale Ale 34. Capital Brewing Co — Coast Ale California Common 35. Blackflag Brewing — Rage Juicy Pale Pale Ale 36. Mountain Culture — Be Kind Rewind New England IPA 37. Matso's Broome Brewery — Matso's Ginger Beer 38. Your Mates Brewing Co — Tilly Ginger Beer 39. Coopers Brewery — Coopers XPA American Pale Ale 40. Balter Brewing — Bucket Full Of Nothin' Hazy IIPA 41. CBCo Brewing — Pale Ale American Pale Ale 42. Capital Brewing Co — Hang Loose Juice Blood Orange NEIPA New England IPA 43. 10 Toes Brewery — Pipeline Pale Australian Pale Ale 44. Balter Brewing — Captain Sensible American Pale Ale 45. Ballistic Beer Co — Hawaiian Haze Hazy Pale Ale 46. Bright Brewery — Alpine Lager Lager 47. KAIJU! Beer — KAIJU! KRUSH Australian Pale Ale 48. Grifter Brewing Co — Serpents Kiss Fruit Beer 49. Feral Brewing Co — Biggie Juice New England IPA 50. White Rabbit — White Rabbit Dark Ale 51. Big Shed Brewing Concern — Boozy Fruit New England IPA 52. Green Beacon Brewing Co — Wayfarer Tropical Pale Ale Australian Pale Ale 53. Range Brewing Co — Disco Hazy Pale Ale 54. Stomping Ground Brewing Co — Gipps St Pale Ale American Pale Ale 55. Young Henrys — Hazy Pale Ale 56. Willie The Boatman — Albo Australian Pale Ale 57. Burleigh Brewing Co — Twisted Palm Australian Pale Ale 58. Hawke's Brewing — Hawke's Lager Australian Pilsner 59. Akasha Brewing Co — Super Chill Australian Pale Ale 60. Dainton Beer — Equalizer Hazy Pale Ale 61. 4 Pines Brewing Co — 4 Pines Pale Ale American Pale Ale 62. Kosciuszko Brewing Co — Kosciuszko Pale Ale American Pale Ale 63. Black Hops Brewery — Black Hops Pale Ale Australian Pale Ale 64. Brouhaha Brewery — Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Kettle Sour 65. Moon Dog Craft Brewery ‚ Old Mate American Pale Ale 66. Blackman's Brewery — Juicy Banger Lager 67. Capital Brewing Co — Trail Pale Ale American Pale Ale 68. Hop Nation Brewing Co — J-Juice New England IPA 69. Blackflag Brewing — Astro Punk XPA Pale Ale 70. Gage Roads Brewing Co — Side Track All Day XPA Pale Ale 71. Your Mates Brewing Co — Sally American IPA 72. Bodriggy Brewing Co — Speccy Juice Session IPA 73. Burleigh Brewing Co — Bighead No-carb Lager Lager 74. Coopers Brewery — Coopers Pacific Pale Ale Australian Pale Ale 75. Eumundi Brewery — Eumundi Alcoholic Ginger Beer 76. Rocky Ridge Brewing Co — Jindong Juicy Hazy Pale Ale 77. Young Henrys — Natural Lager Lager 78. Dainton Beer — Blood Orange NEIPA New England IPA 79. Hop Nation Brewing Co — Rattenhund Pilsner 80. Capital Brewing Co — Rock Hopper IPA American IPA 81. Little Creatures — Pacific Ale Australian Pale Ale 82. Diablo Co — Diablo Ginger Beer 83. Stone & Wood Brewing Co — Cloud Catcher Australian Pale Ale 84. BentSpoke Brewing Co — Sprocket American IPA 85. Gage Roads Brewing Co — Hazy As Hazy Pale Ale 86. Wayward Brewing Co — Raspberry Berliner Weisse Berliner Weisse 87. Young Henrys — Motorcycle Oil Porter 88. Mismatch Brewing Co — Session Ale Session IPA 89. Little Creatures — Rogers Amber Ale 90. One Drop Brewing Co — Double Vanilla Custard Pancake Imperial Nitro Thickshake IPA Milkshake IPA 91. 4 Pines Brewing Co — Hazy Pale Ale 92. Balter Brewing — Balter IPA American IPA 93. Coopers Brewery — Best Extra Stout 94. Hawkers Beer — West Coast IPA American IPA 95. Gage Roads Brewing Co — Pipe Dreams Coastal Lager Australian Pilsner 96. Range Brewing Co — Lights + Music TIPA 97. Dainton Beer — Jungle Juice Hazy IPA 98. Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel — Three Sheets Australian Pale Ale 99. Bad Shepherd Brewing Co — Peanut Butter Porter Porter 100. One Drop Brewing Co — We Jammin' Sour For more information about the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2022, head to the GABS website.
Forget been-there-done-that road trips — this is the year you start taking the road less travelled. You need something new. Something special. Something delicious worth making the turnoff and tracking down. With a little inspiration from Empty Esky and Canadian Club, we've got your next off-the-beaten-track road trip all planned — right down to the coffee stops, long lunches and one-of-a-kind gourmet country pies. Starting in Canberra, your foodie stops will take you to Braidwood, Batemans Bay and Ulladulla before finishing up in Milton. Along the way, you'll eat local, drink well and get cosy in some hidden country gems. Best of all, you'll help independent venues in communities still recovering from the bushfires — and, you know, everything else that happened in 2020. These pretty little places haven't had the easiest time lately, but still have so much good country hospitality to offer. [caption id="attachment_750222" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Canberra[/caption] BARRIO COLLECTIVE COFFEE, BRADDON We're kicking things off in Canberra, and you can't leave the capital without visiting Barrio Collective Coffee in Braddon. Industrial chic meets Japanese modernism in this friendly neighbourhood coffee shop, with an eclectic and ever-changing brunch menu. Regular additions include fancy tacos and tostadas, chazuke, gooey Spanish tortilla, big toasties and baguettes stuffed with the best seasonal produce. And there are always freshly baked sweet treats, like cardamom buns and jammy donuts, which make for excellent car snacks. There's in-house roasted coffee all day, plus fine wines in the afternoon (for your passengers). Love Barrio's brew? Grab an Aeropress and a bag of freshly roasted beans to keep you going all journey long. [caption id="attachment_802004" align="alignnone" width="1920"] crissouli, Flickr[/caption] THE ALBION CAFE, BRAIDWOOD Forget the drive-thru, go locavore. In the charming country town of Braidwood, The Albion Cafe offers healthy, seasonal specials based on the best local produce. A stylish but cosy set-up in the historic Albion Hotel building, this family business welcomes everyone with good old-fashioned country hospitality. It's wholesome through and through, and it caters for all dietary needs. That means you can expect nourishing soups and slow-cooked stews in cold weather, an abundance of salads in summer and toasties all year round. Grab some gourmet tidbits or fresh meals to-go from the little shop for a picnic later — artisanal sourdough and homemade hummus will hit the spot better than a packet of chips. CLUB CATALINA, BATEMANS BAY Congrats, you've made it to the Bay. Now, it's time to think outside the seagull-swooping chip shop. Catalina Country Club has a hundred-year history serving the folks of Batemans Bay. Don't worry, you can still hit that craving for a pub-style feed, but with a bit more refinement. Enjoy panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel and parmas, juicy wagyu burgers and artisanal pizza, served fresh from a woodfired oven, with a refreshing Canadian Club and Dry. Or, live the seaside high life and opt for the signature seafood platter and fresh oysters. [caption id="attachment_802671" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Emma Joyce[/caption] HAYDEN'S PIES, ULLADULLA What's better than a fast food cheeseburger? A gourmet cheeseburger pie. Turn off the Princes Highway for a pastry pit-stop at Hayden's Pies, which has been perfecting the pie since 2003. Choose from solid classics like chunky steak or hefty vego options like mushroom, spinach and goat's cheese — or take a chance on one of its intriguing specials. Give alpaca chilli con carne a go. Or, what about camel, chickpea and coriander? Even kangaroo, wallaby and the occasional croc make it into the oven. Stop by on Sunday for the roast-inspired pie, featuring pork or lamb with peas, potatoes and gravy. It even has dessert covered, with specials like vanilla slices and portuguese tarts. You owe it to yourself to make this epic pie pilgrimage. [caption id="attachment_801304" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Something's Wild Photography[/caption] SMALL TOWN, MILTON Celebrate the journey's end with a bit of Small Town charm. From the owners of former Milton fine diner St Isidore, this sleek bistro offers a prix fixe and a la carte menu, both designed to pair elegant snacks and share-style plates with (mainly) small-batch Aussie wines. Small Town spins clever twists on comforting classics, like yorkshire pudding with sea urchin and egg yolk sauce; delicate prawn, scallop and chicken skin dumplings; and sourdough pici pasta with corn, kale, manchego and sorrel. And, as always, it's hard to pass up a fresh lobster roll. After your meal, pop next door to Small Town Provisions, the restaurant's new deli and shop, which sells cheese, cured meat and fresh bread — basically, all the trappings for a next-level picnic. For more road trip inspiration, check out these guides from Canadian Club and Empty Esky. Top image: Barrio Collective Coffee, Visit Canberra
With its frames filled with teenagers and 20-somethings driving across America in search of a different life, watching American Honey feels like tagging along on a road trip. Many movies have charted characters coming of age as they traverse streets and highways and varying landscapes, but, with this film, Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights writer-director Andrea Arnold wants audiences to feel — rather than simply observe — the journey that results. "It's like an experience, rather than like a film," offers actor Riley Keough. After rocking out in The Runaways, racing through the desert in Mad Max: Fury Road, and starring in the television remake of The Girlfriend Experience, Keough plays the tough-talking, no-nonsense, money-focused Krystal, the leader of a crew that ventures from town to town and door to door selling magazine subscriptions. Jake (Shia LaBeouf) is the closest she has to a second-in-charge — and he's the reason that 18-year-old Star (Sasha Lane) decides to join the group, lured in by his charm, epic rat-tail and Rihanna-inspired dance moves. Theirs is a careening trek, with Star's entry into this brave new world the focal point. Mile by mile, they encounter privilege and poverty, kind and cruel passers-by, and new revelations about themselves and others, all set to an eclectic rock, pop and hip hop soundtrack. Populated by a mostly non-professional cast (who largely improvise dialogue), Arnold's film was shot on the road and in sequence — meaning that it replicates reality as much as possible. With American Honey now screening in Australian cinemas, we spoke with Keough about living rather than acting her part, seeking out complicated roles and making a movie that touches people. ON WANTING TO BE A PART OF AMERICAN HONEY "Well, I heard that Andrea [Arnold] was making a film, and I was a really huge fan of her. And I went and met the casting person, and it was a bit of a different casting experience. I was just kind of, I was very persistent on wanting to do everything I could to be able to be in this film, I guess. I knew that she liked to work with non-actors. I knew it was going to be wild. I knew it was going to be like, you know, a once in a lifetime kind of experience. So I was just kind of like, 'I'll do anything I can to come with you.'" ON MAKING A MOVIE IN SEQUENCE ON THE ROAD "She [Arnold] gave us a situation where we were allowed to just exist as these people, and it wasn't like something that a movie normally is. You kind of just had to take it day by day, and see what happens. It was like she was writing our lives for us, sort of, day by day. It was in sequence, and we wouldn't know what was happening until the day of. I don't think any day was the same. You get picked up, you go do your thing, you go back to your motel. There was no line or boundary between anything really. It was all just kind of what you see in the film. Everything she captured was real. I don't think people really knew either when she was rolling and when she wasn't." ON ACTING WITHOUT FEELING LIKE ACTING "There weren't really any acting choices. The thing is, when you're acting with non-actors or children, you can't really have an acting choice. You can't really act. You're forced to really open up to the scenario, which is what I think everyone's looking for, which is non-acting. You know what I mean? If I could do it on every film, I would, because it's what you're looking for when you're working with actors on every film. Because for us to be fully present and spontaneous and not have to have any attention on anything going on around us — it's a really magical thing to me. I prefer it that way, because there's not a lot of thought, there's not a lot of heavy intellectualising about every single thing that's happening. It just kind of really allowed us to exist in the moment and not feel like you're making a movie, which is kind of what you're always trying to not feel like, you know." ON SEEKING OUT STRONG, INTERESTING DEPICTIONS OF WOMEN "I definitely try to avoid a cookie cutter woman at all costs, just because I don't find that interesting. The normal characters that are written for women that are a bit two-dimensional — I definitely want to avoid that because I don't like doing that. I don't think any woman likes that. It's just like, a lot of the types of roles that are written for women are supporting the narrative in some way, and writers don't really want to go in deep on who these people are. And Andrea's amazing at that, in all of her films. Every little person, you know, they're so complicated. I think that's what makes her films so full of life. I look for something that I've never done before, whether it's the tone of the film, or the style or the character, or all of it. Just things I haven't done before, you know. But also, I like strong women." ON REACTIONS TO THE FILM "I have a lot of people walk up to me on the street or in the store and be like 'American Honey!'. I can see it in their eyes, how much they enjoyed watching the film. And I've never had that as an actress before. I have a couple of times, with Fury Road and GFE [The Girlfriend Experience], but with American Honey it was in a different way. I could tell it really touched people in the way that films touched me when I was teenager. I think it really touches people's sort of core. And that, to me, we've done something to the audience, which is kind of what you're always trying to achieve. So, I don't know how to really describe it, but it's kind of like what we always want to be doing with art. I think it happens a lot with singers, where they see sort of a more clear version of it. They listen to your song, and people are like 'oh this song got me through this thing.' It's very like clear version of art touching someone in a way, and I think American Honey is really getting to that sort of place in people's souls. It's just been a really cool thing to watch." American Honey is now screening in Australian cinemas. You can read our review here.
Wondering what to say when you step inside Brisbane's new mini-golf bar? At Holey Moley Gold Club, it really is all there in the name. And, as awesome as the concept of having some drinks, donning a visor, hitting the indoor greens and taking a few swings on pop culture-themed holes sounds, the reality is even better (and weirder). Entering Holey Moley is like entering an alcohol-fuelled indoor amusement park for adults, even if the building it's in — a former church — makes that quite the surreal experience. So does the angel statue decked out with golf clubs, the pink-lit neon sign declaring "I like big putts and I cannot lie", and the twirling giant disco ball hanging in the centre of the venue, which visitors familiar to the site's many previous watering holes and live music spaces will recognise. Of course, with the right wall taken up by a stocked bar, it's obvious that this is a drink-focused spot with two nine-hole mini-golf courses inside, rather than a putting facility that happens to serve booze. Each hole has a six stroke maximum, however whether you decide to keep score is completely up to you — it's fun, rather than sports, that the venue wants to promote. Even taking a quick glance at the eighteen different holes on offer demonstrates that having a good time is the main aim here, unless you're scared of clowns and puppets, that is. Suspended from a frame and lurking on the ground, these vaudevillian creeps adorn the seventh stop on the ground level, which means anyone suffering from coulrophobia has plenty of time to work up the courage to play there. Beforehand, you'll hit your way through a beachy (fri)endless summer, enter a glow-in-the-dark space for three holes of luminous action, and play pinball and pool with a golf ball and club. Yes, really. Keeping with the arcade theme, a putting version of skeeball marks the end of the lower course — but don't worry, more holes await upstairs. That's where you'll show off your short game on a turntable, in a bathroom and a gym, and on a Twister board, to highlight just a selection of the standouts on the upper level. You'll also tap, tap, tap the ball into a Nintendo-focused hole that pays tribute to Super Mario and Donkey Kong, brave the Mad Putter's Tee Party, prove that you're obviously not a golfer at a bowling alley, and marvel at the glory of the nine-iron throne. You just know the latter is going to be mighty popular, particularly for selfies that'll clog up your Instagram feed. For something different between rounds, ping pong tables provide a break from the main action, as do a selection of old-school video games. Or, chew a couple of gum balls, grab a drink, and sit down and watch everyone else. In fact, the cocktail list is worth the trip alone, thanks to beverages like the Tee-quila Mocking Birdie (with Don Julio Blanco Tequila, Blue Curacao, sour mix and sugar syrup), Teeyonce Knowles (Pampero white rum, soda, fresh mint, limes and syrup) and Happy Gilmoreo (Chambord raspberry liqueur, Smirnoff Red vodka, Baileys, milk, chocolate sauce, crushed Oreos and whipped cream). Yep, we're calling it: Holey Moley is about to become everyone's favourite new hangout.
Get ready to toss a coin to your witcher, again. Then, get ready to toss more coins in the future. Actually, get ready to throw a whole heap of round-shaped currency — because Netflix isn't just bringing back The Witcher for a second season, but is also expanding the whole Witcher universe in multiple ways. Fans already knew that the show itself will finally return on Friday, December 17, two years after the streaming platform aired the first season. But Netflix has also just renewed it for a third season before that second season even airs. It's also planning to release a second animated film and a new Witcher series for kids and families, adding to already-in-the-works prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin and the recently released animated flick The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Basically, the service is committing to the Henry Cavill (Zack Snyder's Justice League)-starring fantasy show — and to his icy locks — in a big way, and for all audiences. Toss a coin to our growing Witcher universe! We can officially announce The Witcher Season 3, along with a second anime feature film, and a new Kids and Family series set in the world of The Witcher. pic.twitter.com/E032fDAXYx — The Witcher (@witchernetflix) September 25, 2021 Need a refresher on the story so far? Haven't watched the first season yet? If the series' name sounds familiar, that's because The Witcher is based on the short stories and novels of writer Andrzej Sapkowski — and, as well as being turned into comics, it was adapted the video game series of the same name. A Polish film and TV show also reached screens in the early 2000s, although they were poorly received. In the Netflix show, Cavill plays the witcher of the title: Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who prefers to work — aka slay beasts — alone in a realm called The Continent. But life has other plans for the lone wolf, forcing him to cross paths with powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra, Netflix's Wanderlust) and young princess Ciri (newcomer Freya Allan). In the first season, the latter harbours a secret, because of course she does, with the series blending plenty of fantasy staples such as magic, royalty, fighting factions, battling hordes, fearsome creatures, a heap of sword-swinging and many a scenic location. After stepping into Superman's shoes and facing off against Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, The Witcher marked Cavill's return to TV a decade after starring in regal period drama The Tudors. As well as Chalotra and Allan, the first season also featured Jodhi May (Game of Thrones), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards) and Australian actor Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks). Netflix initially dropped the first trailer for season two back in July, which'll cover a homecoming, include more all-round eeriness, and also serve up more time with both Geralt and Ciri. He's bringing her to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen, where he'll need to keep protecting her — from her powers, and from The Continent's kings, elves, humans and demons, who are battling for supremacy. If you're keen for a bigger glimpse, the platform has also released a couple of other clips and trailers to tide you over until December: The Witcher's second season will hit Netflix on Friday, December 17. The show's first season is currently available to stream.
You can never have too many occasions to eat cheese, but this returning Australian cheese festival isn't just keen to shower cheese fiends with creamy goodness. A collaboration between Bruny Island Cheese Co cheesemaker Nick Haddow and the organisers of Pinot Palooza, Mould wants dairy lovers to explore and devour the mild, hard and soft bites that Australia's best cheese wizards have to offer. Returning for a fourth time in 2022 — after a chaotic couple of years, as all fests have endured — the cheesy event will paint Brisbane Showgrounds yellow from Friday, July 1–Sunday, July 3. And there won't just be a few cheeses on the menu. More than 75 artisan cheeses from around the country will be ready and waiting for you to devour, spanning dairy from 27-plus producers. That lineup includes Bruny Island Cheese Co, naturally, plus Grandvewe, Milawa Cheese, Yarra Valley Dairy and Stone & Crow. There'll also be wares from Section 28, Red Cow Organics, Nimbin Valley Cheese, and newcomers such as Dreaming Goat, Long Paddock Cheese and Second Mouse Cheese. Alongside unlimited tastings of Australia's best cheeses, Mould will also feature flavoursome fare from cheese specialists that've been created just for the fest, too. Think of it as a cheese tasting trip around Australia without leaving the city. Of course, snacking on samples and purchasing slices and slabs to take home with you are just two ways to enjoy cheese. The fest will have cooking demonstrations, masterclasses and talks so you can stretch your cheese knowledge as well as your cheese stomach. And it wouldn't be a cheese festival without beverages to wash it all down with, so expect a bar serving Aussie wines, whisky, vodka, gin, beer, cider, cocktails and sake — all of which match nicely to a bit of cheese. Unsurprisingly, Mould is rather popular. Last year, attendees tucked into a one million samples across the fest's three cities, and also took home over 3.5 tonnes of Aussie dairy products. So, if this the kind of event that your cheese dreams are made of, you'll want to nab a $45 ticket ASAP. Sessions run from 4.30pm–8.30pm on the Friday, 11am–3pm and 4–8pm on the Saturday, and 11am–3pm on the Sunday.
Hotel LA is pretty much your standard Queensland bar, and funnily enough that’s the one thing that sets it apart. It doesn’t try and be something it's not. There’s enough Pokie machines to entertain all the residents of a small resthome, plenty of TV’s playing strictly Sports, and with the brewery in plain sight, XXXX flows out of its taps all week long. Hotel LA really is a huge bar and has little corners and couches for you and your mates to spin yarn. Sitting at the top of Caxton Street, Hotel LA makes for the perfect pre or post match beer. Perhaps even more so though, with the $5 Sunday pizza special, it is the ideal place to round out the week, which is exactly what we were doing on this occasion. Choose from a decent range of [izza options (I went with Hot Sausage) grab a $5 Pint (another Sunday special), and watch Shane Warne bowl one more 20/20 match out of his suspiciously tanned right arm; because nothing’s more Sunday than beer and cricket. For $5 the Pizza is quite amazing. Oh and if you stay after six there’s usually a very cool acoustic act on stage. Other weekly regulars include Mon-Sat happy hour 4-6, Table Tennis Mondays, $6 roast lunch Wednesdays, and Karaoke Thursdays. Mate.
Aunty Donna's approach to their career and to comedy boast more than a little in common. Think about either, and it also brings a recent movie title to mind. Beloved for their absurdist mile-a-minute humour, the Australian group recent loaned their voices to Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, but it's the name of 2023's big Oscar-winner that seems to sum up their whole ethos: Everything Everywhere All At Once. Zachary Ruane, Mark Samual Bonanno and Broden Kelly aren't in that film; however, they have been touring, making a Netflix series, and releasing Aunty Donna's $30 bottle of wine and an Always Room for Christmas Pud picture book all in just the past few years. And, they've now returned to the ABC nine years after a Fresh Blood iView stint in 2014, this time with six-part sitcom Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe. For fans watching on, Aunty Donna's jam-packed recent slate has felt like a whirlwind. Chatting to Concrete Playground about the release of Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe — which is now streaming in full on ABC iView, and also airs weekly on ABC TV — Ruane goes one better, while also noting how much hustle it took to get the now world-famous comedy troupe to this point. "I think the last ten years for us at least have felt like a whirlwind. In a way, it feels like we've slowed down in the last couple of years, even though everything's a bit more in the public. We used to tour a lot more than we do now. We used to make a lot of content for online, possibly more than we do now," Ruane advises. "So even though there's heaps happening and it's nice to be reminded, it actually in some ways feels like we've slowed it down a bit, which gives you an indication of what the last ten years have been like for us." Aunty Donna formed in 2011, then took their first live show to the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They haven't stopped inciting laughs since. Anywhere they can possibly spread their wild, weird and wonderful brand of comedy, they have — a lengthy list of stage shows all around the world, their YouTube channel, a podcast, two albums, multiple webseries, pilots, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, that book, the vino and now Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe included. The latter sprang after their Netflix success, and from Ruane, Bonanno and Kelly's eagerness to try the sitcom format. The end result: a workplace comedy skewering cafe culture, specifically Melbourne's caffeine-sipping scene, with an Aunty Donna spin. When it comes to satirising its setting and anything even tangentially connected — kidulting bars, cereal cafes, awful bosses and terrible landlords, for instance — the gags and bits keep coming. So too does Aunty Donna's beloved grab-bag approach, giving a show about working in a cafe an entire episode about a court case with Richard Roxburgh (Elvis) reprising his role from Rake, then a real-estate agent parody featuring Looking for Alibrandi's Pia Miranda, plus yet another instalment making fun of the very platform that Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe streams on. "We just went for it. We definitely caused a few headaches for our director Max [Miller, a fellow Aunty Donna member] with some of our setups," Ruane explains. Scoring a second show, being self-described "Melbourne wankers", getting nervous performing with Miranda, what comes next: Ruane told us about all of that, too — plus the dream of making an Aunty Donna movie. ON HOW AUNTY DONNA'S COFFEE CAFE COME ABOUT "It's our second longer-form thing, and I think we always knew that we wanted to keep pushing ourselves. Every time we come to a new platform or do a new thing, we want to it a little bit differently. We were really keen to do something a bit more narrative-focused, a bit more in that traditional sitcom structure. So that was the goal for us. I don't know how much that will read to an audience. Maybe it will all read as our crazy stuff, and in the same lineage of everything we do. But we wanted to challenge ourselves to make it a little more like a traditional sitcom, at least structurally, but still be as crazy and wild as what we've always done." ON COMING UP WITH THE CONCEPT — AND NOT JUST THANKS TO 'MORNING BROWN' "'Morning Brown', it's more of a nod to that song. We play around with different things, but we've always found that the things that we do that resonate the most are when there's a sort of a — I call it a sandbox, but there's a setting that resonates with people that I think people have an emotional connection to and understanding of. When we have that kind of setting that resonates, it allows us to go more crazy, more absurd. So, we've done it with the YouTube and our live shows. There's 1999, which was a webseries which is set in an office in 1999. We also did Glennridge Secondary College, which is a live show and a webseries set in a high school. I think we find whenever it's set somewhere recognisable and accessible, it actually allows us to go weirder and crazier and more absurd because people have a hook in. So we were looking for something like that — something that people would recognise, feel comfortable in, but then would also allow us to go in any direction we wanted." ON SKEWERING CAFE CULTURE "One thing we wanted to avoid going into — there's a territory of cliches in that space. We had to keep reminding ourselves to not just do the cafe stuff and the coffee culture stuff. But we've worked in hospitality, we're all Melbourne wankers, we've been customers at these cafes. It just feels so ripe, and it feels like the kind of thing you can pull from multiple different experiences. You can go into the kitchen and do a whole episode there. You can just focus on the staff, do a whole episode there. That's what we loved about the idea." ON MAKING A WORKPLACE COMEDY "It's really interesting. We've done other things set in workplaces, but also found it in the school one as well — there's something about a workplace where very different personality types and very different things can happen. I think also what we really loved about the cafe compared to our last series, which was set in a house: it's really hard to get people from the outside world into the house. We love to play lots of different characters, and it's really hard to get weird characters to come through the door. With a cafe, that's exactly what it is. Structurally, it's all a cavalcade of people coming through the door. Anyone you can envision, you just imagine them wanting to get a coffee and they're there in your world. That was the best part about it." ON GETTING GUEST STARS LIKE RICHARD ROXBURGH AND PIA MIRANDA "We were expecting Roxburgh to be a firm no. And not only that, we had to get so many layers of approval to get that joke in. I remember when it was floated, it was like 'oh, that's fun but it will never happen'. Because we had to get the creator of Rake onboard. We had to get ABC to sign off on it. We had to get Roxburgh to sign off on the character and then to want to do it — and then to be available to do it. Which is like, there are so many barriers here, it's not going to happen. We'd already started thinking of alternative jokes to him. Then I remember we were in the writers room and each day we'd get another person who'd said yes to it, we just kept getting this run of emails, and then when he was available to do it. We did not expect it to happen. Which I think made it more fun, because I don't think we put too much thought into it — we just wrote this stupid joke and were like 'surely he'll say no and then we'll figure something else out'. So it was very amazing that he said yes. I mean, same with Pia Miranda. I think I was more nervous performing with Pia Miranda than I was with Roxburgh. I had to act opposite her — that's crazy! Intimidatingly, she doesn't look like she's aged a day since [Looking for Alibrandi]. So it's like, I feel like I've been teleported. I'm like 'am I Kick Gurry right now?'. It was very cool." ON MAKING FUN OF THE ABC ON THE ABC "Insanely, they were so chill. It was funny how much. They were like 'you can tease us more if you want'. And we were like 'we'll see'. They were so up for it. I definitely thought we had pushed it too far with iView, because we really go at the platform. We thought they'll come back with 'you can make a bit of a joke but maybe not about technical issues'. But they were just like 'haha, yeah'." ON RUANE'S FAVOURITE AUNTY DONNA PROJECT SO FAR "It's hard to say. I mean, I was super proud of the picture book. It was one of those things that we had to keep explaining to people that we saw it as a little piece in its own right and it wasn't just a merch cash in. It was really fun to just do something completely different and to just discover a different world, and play around in a different space — and just to get people who really got the joke. I had such a specific vision in my mind of an early 90-style of Australian picture book — and to have it come out looking like that was pretty special. So that's, of the recent stuff, probably the thing I'm most proud of. But then I also love crazy stuff. Like I think $30 Bottle of Wine, which is a video on our YouTube that goes for about eight minutes and it's just repulsive, that's probably my favourite still." [caption id="attachment_791048" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, Netflix.[/caption] ON THE ORIGINAL AUNTY DONNA DREAM — AND LIVING IT NOW "I think it's always evolving and always changing. To be honest, in a really real way, I feel like it has surpassed so many of the original dreams and goals years ago. Very early on, I would've been perfectly happy if it was my full job — that became the goal really early in my twenties. If I can be entertaining people or doing something like this as my full-time job, that would be enough. To have hit that, and then had all these other things happen — we've got an ABC show, Wednesday night, that was the dream as a teenager for sure. That's what I grew up watching. To have had another show seen around the world. We've got a world tour coming up. So many of these things weren't even in the dream, weren't even a part of the picture. So to have achieved it, it's really cool and lovely and so — people say humbling, but it's the opposite. It's not that, it's cool and amazing." ON WHAT COMES NEXT FOR AUNTY DONNA "It's always about the creative, and always about doing new things. I don't think it's about [doing] more or [moving] up — I think it's just about different ways. If we can find different ways to make people laugh and to bring joy, then that's for me what it is. So who knows? Maybe it's a video game, maybe it's a board game, maybe it's more TV, maybe it's more YouTube — there's so many options, and I'm excited to just see where it goes." ON MAKING AN AUNTY DONNA MOVIE "How we would do it and how we would go about it is such a big question, but that's definitely on the list as something that I'd love to do. Our big one was that we always wanted to do like The Rugrats Movie, just a real crazy adventure. Yeah, we would love to do something like that for sure." Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe streams via ABC iView, and also screens weekly on the ABC at 9pm from Wednesday, April 12. Read our full review. Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe images: Richard Lowe / Jackson Flinter / ABC.
Few things in this life are perfect. You have to hand it to Byblos and Gelato Messina, however, because their March-long collaboration comes pretty, pretty, pretty close. One serves up drinks, the other provides the gelato to go in them, and everybody wins — especially anyone who wants to devour ice cream-filled cocktails. And let's face it, who doesn't? When there's gin and gelato blends featuring salted coconut mango salsa, blood orange, pear and rhubarb, passionfruit and pandan coconut on offer, who can resist? If your tastebuds are tingling, just head to the Portside spot every Sunday this month from 3pm. Plus, as well as the cruisy riverside setting, this boozy end-of-weekend session also comes with live music.
A spoonful of sugar isn't needed to make this medicine go down: the Mary Poppins musical is coming to Brisbane. Umbrellas at the ready for the most supercalifragilisticexpialidocious news that you'll hear all day, and all year as well, with the tale of the singing nanny set to take over QPAC's Lyric Theatre from Saturday, October 22. Mary Poppins comes to Brissie fresh from its Australian-premiere Sydney season, and marks a homecoming for two if its stars. Brisbane performers Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers, who've been acting together since childhood, play Mary Poppins and Bert, respectively. Hailing from Disney and theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, this current version of the show tells the same enchanting tale that everyone knows from the hugely popular, five-time Oscar-winning 1964 film — which, as well as inspiring this stage adaptation, also gave rise to big-screen sequel Mary Poppins Returns in 2018. Everything to do with the English governess harks back to PL Travers' books about the character, of course, and pop culture has been thankful for and downright delighted with her stories for almost six decades now. When it soars through its Brisbane season between Saturday, October 22–Sunday, December 11, local theatre fans can look forward to a new version of the show that last graced Australia's stages — and won eight Helpmann Awards — back in 2011. Since Mackintosh first teamed up with writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) to bring Mary Poppins to the theatre in 2004, the production has won four Olivier Awards and a Tony as well. A Cinderella musical is coming the city's way this winter, too — and Frozen started off 2022 as well — so it's clearly a great year to love stage musicals based on beloved tales. If you'd been crossing your fingers that a date with Poppins, the Banks family and their Cherry Tree Lane abode might also come Brissie's way, consider that wish granted. Consider 'A Spoonful of Sugar', 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious', the Oscar-winning 'Chim Chim Cher-ee' and 'Let's Go Fly a Kite' stuck firmly in your head until October blows in, too. Check out the musical's trailer below: Mary Poppins will play QPAC's Lyric Theatre from Saturday, October 22–Sunday, December 11. To sign up for the ticket waitlist, head to the musical's website — with presales from 10am on Monday, August 1 and general sales from 9am on Monday, August 8. Images: Daniel Boud.
Anything that Brisbane's northside can do, the city's south can as well — at least when it comes to kidulting hubs that let you putt your way around pop culture-adoring boozy mini golf, then puzzle through an OTT challenge room bar with an accommodation theme. In 2022 and 2023, Chermside welcomed Holey Moley and Hijnx Hotel to the Gympie Road shopping centre. Now, since July 2024, Mt Gravatt's Westfield shopping centre has also become home to both venues. If you're new to Hijinx Hotel, it isn't for vacationing and staycationing in. Instead, it mixes The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shining's Overlook Hotel and Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, all with puzzles and games to play inside its doors. Throw in alcoholic beverages and it too is aiming to serve up an adult-focused spin on childhood activities, as Holey Moley does — but this time sleuthing your way through various spaces with a beverage or several in your hand. That's what you'll now find at a shared 350-person hub featuring ten challenge rooms on Hijinx Hotel's part (and 18 holes of putt at Holey Moley, plus karaoke in three function rooms across the site, and two bars slinging cocktails and food). Among the Hijinx Hotel highlights: a ball pit, UV basketball and a claw machine quiz, and plenty more, all in spaces with names such as Zig-a-Zag ah Ball Pool, Poke-The-Dot, The Lodge, Abandoned Arcade and Rubix Cube. Images: Markus Ravik.
Whether you studied it in high school or just obsessed over Baz Luhrmann's glorious 90s movie, everyone knows how Romeo and Juliet ends — and it doesn't conclude happily for either of its eponymous star-crossed lovers. But what if it didn't wrap up that way? What if Juliet lived to love again? And what if her experiences from there, after thwarting theatre's greatest tragedy, involved a whole heap of pop tunes from the last couple of decades? There's no need to ponder how all of that might turn out because the answer already exists, all thanks to Olivier Award-winning jukebox musical & Juliet. A hit in London's West End since 2019, it remixes the iconic love story in multiple ways — tinkering with its narrative and throwing in all that toe-tapping music. Even better: in only its second stop outside of the UK, following Toronto, & Juliet has locked in a trip to Australia. Come Sunday, February 26, it'll hit Melbourne's Regent Theatre — and is planning to stay until at least Saturday, July 29. Whether it'll then head to other Aussie cities — as most big productions tend to do after their premiere seasons — is yet to be announced. If you're now thinking "wherefore art thou?" about & Juliet's setup, it picks up after the ending we all know doesn't eventuate. And, it muses on what might happen if Juliet could choose her own fate instead. That scenario involves Anne Hathaway — no, not that one — and her husband William Shakespeare, and features songs by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Robyn, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, Kelly Clarkson and more. Tunes that get a spin: 'Larger Than Life', 'I Want It That Way', '... Baby One More Time', 'Show Me Love', 'Oops!... I Did It Again', 'As Long As You Love Me', 'Stronger', 'I Kissed a Girl', 'Since You Been Gone', 'It's My Life', 'It's Gonna Be Me' and a whole heap more. The common factor between them all is Swedish songwriter Max Martin, who penned or co-penned every track on the musical's soundtrack. As well as Martin's involvement — including as one of & Juliet's co-creators — the musical features a book by the Emmy-winning Schitt's Creek writer David West Read. And if you're wondering about the show's shiny Olivier Awards, it was nominated for nine for its West End debut season, and nabbed three: for Best Actress in a Musical, Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical and Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical. Images: Johan Persson. Updated May 8.
Tasmania's north-west is a land of dizzying mountain peaks, ancient rainforests and rushing waterways. It's home to the Tarkine Wilderness, Cradle Mountain and the Franklin River. These wild places provide plenty of inspiration for local chefs and producers, who are spoilt for ingredients — be it pristine water, native berries, iron bark honey or fresh salmon. And the good news is, it's all too easy to spend a weekend indulging in their marvellous creations. Simply jump in your car and get yourself to Port Melbourne to board Spirit of Tasmania, which will sail you straight to Devonport and make your journey to Australia's southernmost state one to remember. Here, you can get a jump on your foodie road trip before you've even hit land. Partake in Tasmanian oysters in the ship's restaurant, indulge with ice cream from The Pantry shop, and enjoy the brews and sea views in the ship's bars. May to October there's even a Flavours of Tassie showcase, where you can sample everything from local cheeses and chocolates to wines and spirits. Here's your guide to eating and drinking once you drive off the ship in Devonport and hit the road to Launceston. SOUTHERN WILD DISTILLERY Your eating and drinking adventures begin as soon as you hit Devonport, with some gin tasting. You'll find Southern Wild Distillery on the western banks of the Mersey River. Master distiller George Burgess creates unique spirits that express Tassie's wild landscapes, using water from mountain streams and ingredients grown by locals. Meadow Gin, for example, is a heady mix of lavender, sage and oranges (alongside 12 other botanicals), while Ocean Gin features aromas of seaweed, nori, jasmine, ocean spray and rose petals. Burgess's weapon is a one-of-a-kind copper still, handcrafted for him by Stillsmiths, who live just up the road. Southern Wild Distillery is at 17 Fenton Way, Devonport SEVEN SHEDS BREWERY Now that you've tried some of Tassie's finest gin, it's time to find out how the brewers compare. Just half-an-hour's drive south of Devonport, in Railton, is Seven Sheds Brewery, Meadery and Hop Garden. Here, brewer Willie Simpson grows organic hops, which, along with mainly local malts, go into small-batch beers and Kentish ales. Meanwhile, local honey is turned into mead. Relax on a bar stool and (if you're not the designated driver) work your way through his creations, starting with Black Inca — a rich, black ale infused with cacao beans, as well as organic oats and quinoa — and working your way to Razzamatazz, a wheat ale infused with local clover honey. It also includes raspberries and blackberries from Christmas Hills Farm, your next destination. Seven Sheds Brewery, Meadery and Hop Garden is at 22 Crockers Street, Railton [caption id="attachment_666229" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] by Eugene Hyland[/caption] CHRISTMAS HILL RASPBERRY FARM CAFE Continue along Railton Road for another 20 minutes to reach the Christmas Hill Raspberry Farm Cafe, devoted to one of the best things in life: fresh raspberries. The farm cafe menu is an explosion of brilliant red, juicy goodness. Start with a raspberry daiquiri or Red Cow (blended raspberries, raspberry liqueur, Kahlua, milk, syrup), then tuck into crumbed mushrooms with raspberry chilli sauce or Petuna ocean trout with raspberry hollandaise, followed by raspberry ice cream. There's also a shop peddling jams, sauces and chocolates, letting you take some bucolic memories home with you. The Christmas Hill Raspberry Farm Cafe is at 9 Christmas Hills Road, Elizabeth Town [caption id="attachment_665957" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] by Adam Gibson for Tourism Tasmania[/caption] 41 DEGREES SOUTH By now, you could probably do with a stroll, so pop on your hiking boots and drive to 41 Degrees South, an inland salmon farm within Tasmania's World Heritage-listed wilderness. The self-guided walk takes you past the working farm and through wetlands before reaching Montana Falls. Along the way, expect to meet native birds, meandering creeks, diverse grasses, tranquil ponds and, if you're quiet and patient, maybe a platypus or two. Once you've worked up an appetite, sink into a chair at the cafe and prepare to taste some of the freshest salmon you've ever eaten. There are tasting plates, hot smoked salmon sandwiches and a mighty salmon burger, with local beers and wines to match. 323 Montana Road, Deloraine BLUE HILLS HONEY If you've time to explore further afield, head west to visit Blue Hills Honey, in Mawbanna – about 90 minutes' drive from Devonport. The Charles family have been making honey here since 1955 and, today, they sell it all over the world, from Hong Kong and Singapore to Germany and Russia. Every mouthful is created by European honey bees, who draw nectar from the flowers of leatherwood, manuka, blackberry and other Tasmanian natives. Bees wax and honey chocolate are on offer, too. 1858 Mawbanna Road, Mawbanna SLEEPING With so much eating and drinking to do, you'll need to make sure you get a good sleep. Stays don't get any more peaceful than Eagle's Nest Retreat, a luxe, totally private getaway on a rural property, with views directly over Tasmania's renowned Cradle Mountain wilderness. Expect a lush king-sized bed, floor-to-ceiling windows affording 360-degree views, your own campfire and an oversized spa. If you're really keen to float away, book a relaxation massage or a hot stone therapy session. You can also invite a private chef over to take care of dinner. THE NITTY GRITTY DETAILS HOW TO GET THERE: Sail to Devonport on Spirit of Tasmania, which departs Port Melbourne. That way, you can take your car with you, and load it up with gourmet gifts galore on the journey back — there are no weight restrictions stopping you. WHEN TO GO: Tasmania is spectacular all year round. WHAT DOES IT COST: This varies, depending on how many fancy lunches you plan on indulging in. Expect to spend anywhere between $50 and $200 a day (plus accommodation). To book your Tasmanian adventure today, head to the Spirit of Tasmania website.
Like karaoke? Fond of singing in public in general, whether you're solo or in a group? Then it's time to up your crooning game. Pub Choir is exactly what it sounds like — aka a gathering of folks belting out a tune, together, in a boozy environment. It's basically what happens whenever someone puts 'Wonderwall' or 'Weather With You' on the jukebox, but in a far more organised fashion. Specifically, each session features a particular song, which attendees learn in three-part harmonies. Talented professionals are there to show you the ropes and lead the way, so all you need to do is show up and get singing — and drinking. Doing the rounds of Brisbane venues since early 2017, Pub Choir has become mighty popular, with tickets getting snapped up very quickly for each monthly show. As a result, it's heading to the Riverstage for its biggest gig ever at 6pm on Sunday, May 9. And, although specific names haven't been announced, it'll have some sizeable Aussie music stars taking to the stage. Yes, the CBD will be alive with the sound of music and the sounds of plenty of folks singing and sipping, because both go hand-in-hand here. And if you're not usually the type of person to unleash their inner Beyonce in front of the masses, don't worry. The great thing about choirs is that everyone is singing, so you are literally a voice in the crowd. In fact, you might just find joining in the fun cathartic. If you can't feel free when you're crooning along with hundreds of others, when can you? Tickets for Pub Choir at the Riverstage are on sale now for $45.
When Andor begins, the new Disney+ series digs into the Star Wars franchise's past, tussling with its history. Starring Diego Luna (If Beale Street Could Talk) as its titular figure, the show is a two-season prequel to 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, telling the tale before that tale. Luna reprises his role from the movie — a feature that was the first official Star Wars side story to reach cinemas, and unfurled the events that led to 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Yes, that makes Andor a prequel to a prequel. Yes, starting to stream its first season from Wednesday, September 21, it's also the latest example that this George Lucas-created realm will never stop sprawling across this, any or every galaxy. Long gone are the times when the space-opera saga's films were infrequent, and the main way to experience its ups and downs. A relic, too, is the idea that Star Wars is a rarity, or something that occurs every decade or so. And, absent is all traces of belief that huge sci-fi and fantasy hits won't take over every space they can, be it screens big or small, as Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings also have of late. That's a lot of baggage for Andor to carry — and shoulder it, it does. The result: a thrilling, confident and gloriously gritty addition to an on-screen world that viewers now either unquestioningly adore or feel like they've already seen every story ever from. An antidote to that second train of thought, Andor is a complex gem and a must-watch. With Star Wars fatigue in mind — five movies, five animated series and three prior live-action Disney+ shows have vied for wannabe Jedi and rebel eyeballs over the past decade alone, including Obi-Wan Kenobi already in 2022 — it's fitting that Andor's first moments actually recall another sci-fi franchise. Prepare to think about a different pop-culture favourite that dates back decades, recently made its own jump from cinemas to television screens and has its own debut live-action streaming series on the way, in fact. The Blade Runner aesthetic is as instantly recognisable as Star Wars' TIE Fighter roar, but Andor brings the former to the fore first, saving the latter for a few episodes down the track. That move makes a statement: there's more to Andor than being slavishly beholden to its own universe. Of course, when it arrived between Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi, Rogue One also sent that message in its own spy-slash-heist flick way. It felt earthier and murkier, more urgent and complicated, and far more steeped in everyday reality — within its science-fiction confines, of course — and more concerned with the here and now of its specific narrative than the bigger saga picture. It was certainly and unshakeably bleaker, and felt like a departure from the usual template, as well as a welcome risk. The same proves true of Andor, which slips into its namesake's routine five years prior. The Galactic Empire reigns supreme, the Rebel Alliance is still forming and, when the series opens, Cassian is a wily thief living on the junkyard planet of Ferrix. The Blade Runner-esque sheen hovers over a different place, however: the industrial-heavy, corporate-controlled Morlana One, which couldn't be further under the boot of the Empire if it tried. As Monos-style flashbacks to Cassian's childhood aid in fleshing out, he's searching for his sister, but his latest investigatory trip results in a confrontation and the Preox-Morlana Authority on his trail. Back on Ferrix, he endeavours to hide with the help of his friend/presumed ex/mechanic/black-market dealer Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona, Morbius) and droid B2EMO (Dave Chapman, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker), while keeping his latest antics a secret from his adoptive mother Maarva (Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve). But, even after being told to drop the case, persistent Imperial Deputy Inspector Syril Karn (Kyle Soller, Poldark) and higher-ranking officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough, Under the Banner of Heaven) aren't willing to give up. Also vital on-screen: Stellan Skarsgård (Dune) as the charismatic Luthen Rael, who Cassian first crosses paths with while trying to sell a still-packaged Imperial Starpath Unit (aka Andor's MacGuffin) to fund his getaway; and Genevieve O'Reilly (The Dry) as the returning Mon Mothma, a senator with a key part in the Rebel Alliance. Andor has a mission, after all: showing how Cassian evolves from pilfering whatever he can steal from Imperial ships, seeking out his lost sibling and eking out the only existence he can to discovering how he can fight the Empire, firstly; and also charting the beginnings of that rebellion, including how its pieces, people and planets come together in response to such a fraught political climate. If Morlana One plays like 'Blade Runner but make it Star Wars', Ferrix does the same with WALL-E. As the series progresses through its first three episodes (all of which debuted to kick off the show), plus the fourth episode that follows, it's easy to think of Fast and Furious and The Lord of the Rings at times, too. There's also a taut and intense spy-thriller vibe that's right out of creator Tony Gilroy's playbook, given that he has four Bourne screenplays to his name and helmed The Bourne Legacy before co-writing Rogue One. Crucially, though, Andor doesn't ever feel as if it's borrowing from elsewhere because it doesn't have its own strengths, sources of intrigue or direction. While its initial two instalments take their time, this series is too gripping, smart, meaty and fleshed out — and too bold and ambitious — for that. Also in 2022, Jurassic World Dominion showed how dire something can be when it stitches in elements from other movies (riffing on whole scenes, too) to make up for its own glaring lack of interest, but that's never Andor for a second. It helps that Andor has a magnificent cast, perhaps the best that Disney+ has assembled for its Star Wars series so far, even with The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi already in its catalogue. Also assisting immensely: that its main talents relay a grounded yet impassioned story, as the plight of folks teaming up to stop nefarious influences that've turned their existence into a dystopian nightmare should be. That Luna is mesmerising, always weighty in the emotions he's conveying, and that the look of angst that's so often on his face speaks volumes about what it takes to strive to resist when the wrong forces are lingering (and they're firmly against you), couldn't be more important. And, that Andor knows the grim end that awaits — and knows that its audience knows it — is just as essential. Stepping backwards hasn't always worked for Star Wars, as Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Episode II — Attack of the Clones and Episode III — Revenge of the Sith demonstrated, but Andor isn't driven by easy nostalgia and connecting obvious dots. Rather, it interrogates and re-emphasises what the entire space fight has truly always been about anyway, and why it matters. Check out the trailer for Andor: Andor streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, September 21. Images: ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Whether you're a resident or a visitor — a lifelong local, a recent denizen of the city, a regular traveller, first-time tourist or anything in-between — walking around Melbourne, and also spending that time talking to friend, is one of the best ways to soak in the Victorian capital. Even if you're snapping photos and recording video along the way, most people aren't making a film while they amble and chatter, however. Fwends is about Em (Emmanuelle Mattana, Videoland) and Jessie (Melissa Gan) strolling through and around the inner city. Their journey is the movie's filmmaking journey, too. The feature debut of writer/director Sophie Somerville after shorts Peeps and Linda 4 Eva, both of which picked up awards at the Sydney Film Festival, this walk-and-talk comedy completely improvised its dialogue and also shot in order. Discovering a flick as it unfurls is usually just the audience's experience; for Fwends, which premiered at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, won the Caligari Film Prize for its innovation and had its Australian debut in the Harbour City on the way to the Melbourne International Film Festival, that applied as much to everyone making it. We've all had the kind of day, night and weekend — one at least, likely several — that Em and Jessie navigate in Fwends. The former is a junior lawyer in Sydney with a workaholic's dedication to her career, in no small part because of the effort it took to get there. The latter is an ex-stripper who spent time in Europe before returning to Melbourne, and is fresh from a breakup. They haven't seen each other for years when Jessie meets Em at Southern Cross Station, so catching up is built into their wanderings. Step by step, story by story, they mosey and meander and babble and banter, and it feels to them — and to viewers — that anything can happen. Lingering just as strongly: the sense that nothing, whether getting coffee or dinner, or repeatedly running into strangers, or making plans for the evening, will turn out as either Em and Jessie expects. Deep bonding happens on jaunts like these. Truths and secrets are shared. Revelations are gleaned — about each other and about where you're sauntering. Rambling happens in both senses of the word. Sleep is forgone. Only the moment matters. And the main event is the walking and talking and bonding and exploring, regardless of what else is supposed to be on the itinerary. For Em and Jessie, they're digging into how work-life balance, the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, mental health and sexual harassment touches their existence — alongside sifting through their hopes, dreams, yearnings, fears, failings and regrets. Somerville is diving into the ups of downs of friendship as well, and of life, plus the fact that we all simply just want to connect. Fwends' guiding force is certain that the chronological approach to making the film is a key to why it resonates with audiences as such a relatable slice of life. "Part of why it feels so real is because we shot the film in order. So normally when you shoot a film, all the scenes are out of order and you'll be like 'oh, we do that scene, and then we jump forward and we do that scene'. But for this one, we were just telling the story while we shot it," Somerville notes to Concrete Playground. "So we would go to one place and then be like 'okay, so we shot that part, and we're going to use that take. So we'll go to the next thing and we'll talk about these things'. So it was this very living process." [caption id="attachment_1018129" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Berlin International Film Festival[/caption] "And it's the kind of luxury that you can have in filmmaking when you have no money at all, or when you have millions and millions of dollars. But because we had no money at all, it meant that we could create that freedom. That's why it feels so relatable and so alive — because we were living it while we were shooting it," she continues. This is a film about anxiety and life's mess and existential dread, too — but, as Em and Jessie keep trekking, it's also literally about putting one foot in front of the other and keeping on going. "I didn't think of it that way, but that's really cool," Somerville says. Having the tiniest of budgets and relying on free filming permits meant not contemplating about where and how Fwends would makes its way to audiences when it was finished as well. 2025 from the Berlinale onwards has been "pretty up and down", then, Somerville reflects. "After we got back from Berlin, it was chill for a little while — and then we had Sydney Film Festival, and then it's just been film festivals and then overseas, and now I'm back in Melbourne and more film festival, and then more film festivals after that. So it's just — it's crazy." Fwends' Melbourne homecoming is a proud moment. "It is such a Melbourne film in the sense that all the crew are emerging young people, and there's such an amazing community of young filmmakers here who help each other out," Somerville shares. "And it's a real success story for that whole culture. So we're just super proud, and hopefully this means that people like me and people who are young and bold and making innovative, exciting films have more belief and money and time invested in them." We also spoke with Somerville about everything from improvisation as a filmmaking technique, the importance of having the right cast willing to go on this excursion with her, and being unafraid to get dark and reflective, to shooting Melbourne in a realistic but loving way, plus being another example of Australian filmmakers going the DIY route to features and international recognition (see also: kickstarting careers via YouTube, as Talk to Me and Bring Her Back's Danny and Michael Philippou and Together's Michael Shanks did). On the Fwends Experience So Far for Somerville — From Premiering in Berlin and Winning an Award to the International Embrace of the Film and Bringing It Home to Australian Festivals "I feel very lucky that it's not just me going through it on my own — it's been everyone who made Fwends with me. So we've been going through it together. We were all together in Berlin when it came out, and it was a very nice time. And then after that, when we played in the Opera House in Sydney, it was a very insane moment in our lives — because we just never imagined that was possible with our tiny film. So I feel very glad that our friends made our film and our friends have been supporting us through our film coming out." On Not Having Expectations for Fwends' Future While Somerville Was Walking Around Melbourne Shooting It "Because the film was made with so little money, we didn't really have any expectations of 'oh, this will set us up, this will ... '. We didn't really think of it that way. We were just being like 'here's our chance to experiment and try all these innovative techniques of filmmaking, like with improvisation and not having a script and being guerrilla-style and having that kind of freedom that you can't have when you have people with money riding on the film'. So the lack of expectation is the reason the film is the way it is — because we didn't set out having this very judgmental kind of feeling of like 'oh, this needs to make or break anything'." On Whether Somerville Anticipated That Fwends Would Resonate So Strongly with Audiences, Including Around the World "No, we were just wanting to be heard in whatever way we could be. When the film played so well in Berlin, we were all very amazed because we were like 'wow, they really connect with these Australian girls'. And then when we thought about it, we were like 'yeah, of course they do, because the problems they're having are the same ones that people in Berlin are having and that people in so many cities feel'. It's weird now, trying to think back to the headspace we were in when we were making the film, but I think really we were just trying to recreate the depth of the experiences of those two characters, and we were just absorbed in that journey, that process." On Improvisation as a Filmmaking Technique "Working with improvisation is a technique that me and some other filmmakers have been talking about for a little while and experimenting with. And I made a short film called Peeps with five teenage girls in it, which was my graduate film when I was at VCA. I did a bit of improvised filmmaking with those kids, because I knew that it would free them up and make them be quite funny and loose. And I became super interested in it as a way of working just because it just a really surprising, refreshing thing to watch — it feels more alive than a more-scripted thing. And so then I did another short film with Melissa Gan, which was also improvised. And I learned a lot about how to work with that as a filmmaking style. Then with Fwends, I was like 'let's just fully take the risk and improvise the whole thing. Let's see what happens'." [caption id="attachment_1018130" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Berlin International Film Festival[/caption] On How Important It Was to Find the Right Leads to Go on Fwends' Journey with Somerville "People have asked me 'oh, did you have an elaborate casting process?'. And the answer is actually no. I just messaged two really talented people on Instagram because we didn't have the money or the time to do a big complicated long casting process. But I was super lucky to connect with Emmanuelle through Melbourne filmmaking adventures — and they are one of the most-talented actors in the world and they're absolutely killing it at the moment. So it was really, really awesome to work with both Melissa and Emmanuelle, because they're so talented." On Ensuring That Fleshed Out, Recognisable, Everyday Characters Are at the Movie's Heart "I really wanted to have that feeling that there's this real depth to these two people, more so than a traditional film. And I also think just authenticity is a real buzzword these days, and it's something that younger audiences really want out of their entertainment. They want to see realness and they want to see honesty. And I think it's a really exciting way of making a film, because you challenge the actors to make themselves more vulnerable, which makes it a more interesting thing to watch." On How the Film's Tiny Budget, and Using Free Filming Permits, Helped Shape the End Result "You kind of have to adjust your mindset, because when you normally make a film, you'll have a script and then you'll be trying to find all the components after the fact, after the script's been written. But with the way we made this one, it was very much being adaptive and responsive to the things we had available, and then being completely willing to be like 'okay, we can't do that scene in this way, so we're going to do this scene using that over there instead'. So some of the best moments in the film weren't storyboarded or thought of beforehand, they were just decided in the moment. They were just like 'oh look'. Like that star scene, that was just there the night we were shooting and it looked amazing, so we were like 'okay, we have to go do something with that star'. But we didn't plan that." On Giving Voice to the Fact That Everyone Just Wants to Connect — But Doesn't Want to Admit It "I guess it's just a thing that was on my mind and something I feel about my relationships, where you just constantly want to tell them how much you love them, and it's always awkward and shit, and embarrassing and doesn't come across very well. I think their friendship is one that is like that. It's messy and they have moments of deep connection, and then they have to go away and we don't know when they'll see each other again. Love is important." On Fwends Being a Fast-Talking Buddy Comedy That's Also Unafraid to Get Deep, Dark and Existential "I think all my films gravitate towards this feeling of wanting to address real, dark stuff, but then somehow find a way to package it in a way that's entertaining — as a way of digesting your real experiences and being like 'but then this funny thing happened'. But I think that's how real life is. I think with Fwends, we were really trying to convey this feeling of realness and authenticity, and so to be like 'yeah, there's all this bullshit, there's bad shit happening, but there's also all this joy and all this life, and they're totally coexisting all at the same time'. And just to try to live with the complexity of that experience, rather than being sucked into 'everything sucks' or being all delusional and escapist — trying to just live with the complex dimensions of our experiences." On the Walk-and-Talk Genre and Fwends' Influences "I know Before Sunrise is the film it's being compared to a lot, but I intentionally didn't watch it before I made this one because I didn't want to feel like I was too absorbed by the Linklater-y thing. I think when I was making the film, I wasn't thinking about it in terms of 'where does this sit in the constellation of cinema?'. I try not to get too sucked in thinking about that kind of thing, because I think it distracts you from what you're really doing when you're making a film — which is 'how do I show this particular person's journey?'. I love all kinds of films and Fwends is definitely influenced by my own taste, which is a field of movies from the French New Wave and slacker films and all kinds of cinema, really." On Whether It's Rewarding Making an Improvised Film — and Taking an Inventive, Problem-Solving Approach to Budget and Resource Constraints "Yeah, for sure. Because filmmaking is so prohibitive. It can feel so out of reach to people who don't have access to a lot of money. And none of my films were ever made with lots of money because I didn't have any. My short films were made with really, really small budgets as well, where it was just a problem-solving thing of being like 'how do we make cinema out of nothing at all?'. So Fwends was a combination of all those skills, of being like 'how do we make this thing feel bigger than it is using the very limited resources that we have?'. I guess I'm very lucky because I'm in today's day and age, where it is possible to make a great movie on your laptop. And I really hope that we can — I don't think we should be ashamed of the fact that we're making a film with no money. I think it's a powerful thing and it can be used to your advantage." On Somerville's Approach to Showing a Realistic — But Still Affectionate — Version of Melbourne "I didn't want it to look too pretty and too ugly. I wanted to strike a middle ground between 'this is a real place' and also wanted to frame it quite lovingly. Because we were shooting the world out there, just regular people walking around, and so I think when you do that you owe the city a kind of respect. So I hope that it t does come across that way, because we do love living here. And I think I was just trying to just show it the way it is — and also find a romance and a beauty in the messiness of the real world." On Fwends' Journey Around Melbourne, Including Both Planned Stops and Surprises Along the Way "Some places were very planned. Carter [Looker, an alum of Peeps and Linda 4 Eva] and I, the cinematographer, we did a lot of walking around — and a lot of 'oh, we really want to do a shot there'. The shot in the rainforest where they walk around, that was always, very early on, something that we were going to do, because we were very excited about this idea of doing this long take where they weave around the whole place. So it's a real mixture. Some of the nicest shots in the film were not planned at all, and then others were totally imagined and planned out and storyboarded. I mean, that's the beauty of making a film — some of it is totally planned and it doesn't even work, and then some of it is fully improvised in the moment and it's the best thing ever." On How Shorts Helped Prepare Somervile for Making the Leap to Features "I wouldn't have been able to make Fwends if I hadn't made those two short films. It's so important that you experiment and try things. And those two short films, they're very different — really, really different aesthetically. But I think there is something about Fwends that they join in the middle a little bit. Then I hope with my next one, that it'll be even more of a joining together of all these different vibes. And I'm super lucky to have worked with some really generous, talented people for my short films." On How Somerville Plans to Build Upon Both Fwends and Her Shorts for Her Next Feature "Our next thing, we want to make with proper funding and all that stuff. So it's an interesting conversation now to try to bring all these methods that came out of working in the DIY space and bring them into a professionalised environment. But I think it's going to be so exciting. Because I think we've proved, because of how well Fwends has done, we've got real proof that filmmakers like me who are taking bold experiments deserve to be given trust. So I'm really excited to make the next one." On Being an Example of Australian Filmmakers Taking the DIY Path to Features and International Recognition "That's very, very cool. I hope that lots more films get made with no money — and I know how hard it is, but I think that it's super important that you have a space to experiment. And sometimes the only way you can find that space is by doing things yourself and taking those risks." Fwends screens at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival. MIFF 2025 runs from Thursday, August 7–Sunday, August 24 at a variety of venues around Melbourne; from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 17 and Friday, August 22–Sunday, August 24 in regional Victoria; and online nationwide from Friday, August 15–Sunday, August 31. For further details, visit the MIFF website.
Empty streets. Long lines of cars at COVID-19 testing sites. Six-foot buffers between people. Doomscrolling. Rampant online misinformation about the pandemic. Five years ago, these were all a reality — and that's when Ari Aster has set his fourth feature. Eddington is also the acclaimed writer/director's fourth film in seven years, following Hereditary in 2018, Midsommar in 2019 and Beau Is Afraid in 2023. Two years after stressing out Joaquin Phoenix in the latter flick, the filmmaker has more tension and chaos in store for the Oscar-winning actor, all in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eddington ventures into a New Mexico town of the same name, and into the locale's attempts to cope with the abrupt change to life as its citizens know it. Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux) portrays the spot's sheriff Joe Cross, who decides to run for mayor against incumbent Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us). Both the first teaser trailer earlier in 2025 and the just-dropped full sneak peek at the A24 release — which premiered at Cannes in May — paints an unsettling picture, not just for the feuding Joe and Ted, but also for Joe's wife Louise (Emma Stone, Kinds of Kindness). Offering a calmer vibe is Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler, The Bikeriders), whether he's meeting Joe or popping up preaching on the internet. The storyline: putting Joe and the mayor on a collision course that leads to arguments and slaps in the new trailer. Their conflict unsurprisingly causes ripples throughout Eddington, in a tale that's set to see townsfolk clash in a period that we all know couldn't have been more heightened and stressful. Aster is back cultivating unease, then, as he did so expertly in his initial three features. Alongside Phoenix, Butler, Stone and Pascal, the filmmaker has enlisted Luke Grimes (Yellowstone), Deirdre O'Connell (The Penguin) and Micheal Ward (Empire of Light) to help among his cast. Eddington releases Down Under on Thursday, August 21, 2025. If you're in Sydney or heading to the Harbour City for the 2025 Sydney Film Festival, it's also screening there until Sunday, June 15, as well as at the fest's SFF 2025 Back By Popular Demand sessions until Friday, June 20. Check out the full trailer for Eddington below: Eddington releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 21, 2025 — and is also screening at the 2025 Sydney Film Festival until Sunday, June 15, and at its SFF 2025 Back By Popular Demand sessions until Friday, June 20.
As ballet fans are well-aware, heading to the Thomas Dixon Centre in West End usually means seeing a show. Soon, visitors will be able to drop by just for a meal, too. The Montague Road precinct is set to unveil not one but two new eateries: Layla, Shane Delia's first-ever Queensland restaurant, plus just-announced daytime cafe Tom's Kitchen. News about Delia's addition to Queensland Ballet's home first arrived in 2024, with the venue's name then announced at the end of February. Now comes the lowdown on Tom's Kitchen, which is set to launch first. While you'll be able to hit up Layla from Friday, March 28, Tom's Kitchen will welcome in patrons from Wednesday, March 12. Operating from 6.30am–4pm daily, Tom's Kitchen will have a clear focus: local ingredients, seasonal menus and a produce-driven range. The aim is to give the precinct the type of place that serves up meals and bites — so leisurely and quick options alike, including at brunch — and sees West End residents, dancers, visitors to the precinct and more stop by. "Tom's Kitchen is a place where people can connect over great coffee and fresh, approachable food, while the premium dining restaurant — launching later this month — will offer a more refined experience, bringing a different expression of culinary excellence to Brisbane," explains Lisa Summer-Hayes, Director of Customer Experience at Thomas Dixon Centre. "We like to think of Tom's Kitchen as a place that will fuel creativity, community and conversation," added Daryl Kerry, CEO of VenuesLive, the precinct's hospitality partner. [caption id="attachment_993450" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Angharad Gladding[/caption] Patrons can expect Sprout Bakery's bread and ST ALi coffee on the menu at Tom's Kitchen — and dishes such as market mushrooms, 'nduja, salted ricotta and a poached egg atop sourdough; a cheeseburger made with smashed beef patties, provolone and pickles, then paired with house fries; and a potato hash plate featuring smoked salmon and tomato béarnaise. As for Delia's Layla, the new venture from the Melbourne-based chef and restaurateur will continue his focus on Middle Eastern flavours and rich, bold, spice-fuelled dishes. The restaurant is a partnership with Queensland Ballet, with Delia Group teaming up with VenuesLive. [caption id="attachment_979995" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Angharad Gladding[/caption] Tom's Kitchen will open at the Thomas Dixon Centre, 406 Montague Road, West End on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Head to the precinct's website for more details.
Byron Bay is known for many things, including beaches, Hemsworths, a stunning lighthouse and, sadly, a terrible reality TV show. From October, the crews behind existing favourite Luna Wine Store and natural wine importers Lo-Fi Wines are hoping that the coastal town draws folks in for another reason: Bar Heather, their new Paris-inspired natural wine go-to. A restaurant as well as a watering hole, the soon-to-open venue sees owners James Audas and Tom Sheer (ex-Noma, Oscillate Wildly and LP's Quality Meats) team up an impressive staff list: chef Ollie Wong-Hee (ex-Ester, Sixpenny and Franklin), sommelier Ollie Smith (formerly at 10 William St) and restaurant manager Amalia Oxley (previously Agrarian Kitchen). They'll oversee a 68-seater on Johnson Street, located just across from Luna, that'll pair some of the best vinos from around the world with a locally focused food menu. "Over the years we've collected some very special bottles and always thought that if we ever opened a drink-in venue this is where they would go," says Sheer. "We only plan to do this once, so we figured we better do it right." Those drops will include from wine names such as Matassa, Alessandro Viola and Gut Oggaua — with vino by the glass starting at $14 and bottles from $50. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bar Heather (@heather.bar) Both the wine list and the culinary lineup will rotate frequently; however, diners can look forward to a range of snacks, small dishes and larger share plates among Wong-Hee's offerings. Think: a potato chip, comté and shiitake combo; duck confit with betel leaf and kohlrabi; and grilled king green prawns in a sauce made from the seafood's shells. And, price-wise, snacks will start at $8, mains at $32 and desserts from $16. Seaside vibes might breeze through Byron by default, but Audas and Sheer are nodding to their French inspiration in Bar Heather's decor, which'll include an attention-grabbing, mortadella-coloured, marble horseshoe bar. Patrons will also spy French wooden flooring, green leather banquettes with an aged appearance and hanging art aplenty. And, as a soundtrack, afro beats, funk and late disco will set the mood. Bar Heather will open evenings from Wednesday–Sunday, and keep part of its seating — 60 of which will be found indoors, and eight outside undercover — open for walk-ins each night. Find Bar Heather at G9 Jonson Lane, 139 Jonson Street, Byron Bay from early October — with reservations currently open from Wednesday, October 19. It'll operate from 5pm–12am Wednesday–Sunday. Images: Jess Kearney.
Paying tribute to great authors and writers is easy. Libraries beckon, as do whatever happens to be on your own bookshelf or Kindle. Getting the chance to celebrate the talents behind some of the greatest works of literature ever committed to paper in a stunning exhibition is far more rare, however. Indeed, Writers Revealed: Treasures From the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London is a world-first. Clearly, it's a special treat for word nerds — especially if you're a fan of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, JRR Tolkien, Bram Stoker, the Brontë sisters, Virginia Woolf, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and more. What goes on display at a showcase dedicated to wordsmiths? When it arrives at HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast from Saturday, April 12–Sunday, August 3, 2025, Writers Revealed will span author portraits, plus rare handwritten manuscripts and first editions. Over 70 pieces of art will feature the likenesses of the writers responsible for Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, The Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Sherlock Holmes and other masterpieces. More than 100 texts will be included, too, with six centuries of literature covered. [caption id="attachment_987067" align="alignnone" width="1920"] William Shakespeare, associated with John Taylor, oil on canvas, feigned oval, circa 1610. © National Portrait Gallery, London[/caption] As the exhibition's full name states, this is a collaboration between the British Library and the National Portrait Gallery, London. If you're wondering why the two institutions are pairing portraits with texts, one of the showcase's aims to explore how literature and visual expression are linked. Also in the spotlight: the legacy of influential writers, plus digging into their creative processes. Oscar Wilde, Harold Pinter, William Blake, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Lord Byron, TS Eliot, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, DH Lawrence, John Keats, William Wordsworth and Rudyard Kipling are some of the other greats earning Writers Revealed's attention, as are AA Milne, Beatrix Potter, Dylan Thomas, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith. Among the highlights that'll fill 1000 square metres in HOTA's Gallery 1 for 16 weeks: Austen's writing desk, what's thought to be the only Shakespeare portrait to be painted while he was alive, illustrated letters from Tolkien to his grandson, Lewis Carroll's diary entry about Alice in Wonderland and Virginia Woolf's handwritten Mrs Dalloway manuscript. [caption id="attachment_987064" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Harold Pinter by Justin Mortimer, oil on canvas, 1992. © National Portrait Gallery, London[/caption] "We are thrilled to collaborate with the National Portrait Gallery on Writers Revealed, a truly unique exhibition that brings together some of the most exceptional objects from our collections. Visitors will experience rare first editions and exquisite manuscripts alongside celebrated portraits of the writers who created them," said Alexandra Ault, Lead Curator of Modern Archives and Manuscripts at the British Library, announcing the exhibition. "Featuring treasures that rarely leave our gallery in London, this major new exhibition will bring HOTA's visitors closer to some of the most-important figures in English literary history," added Catharine MacLeod, Senior Curator of 17th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery. "Encountering these displays, visitors will discover what is revealed and what is hidden when life, writing and portraiture intersect." [caption id="attachment_987063" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, oil on canvas, 1839. © National Portrait Gallery, London[/caption] [caption id="attachment_987062" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Beatrix Potter by Delmar Harmood Banner, oil on canvas, 1938. © National Portrait Gallery, London[/caption] [caption id="attachment_987066" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lord Byron, replica by Thomas Phillips, oil on canvas, circa 1835, based on a work of 1813. © National Portrait Gallery, London[/caption] [caption id="attachment_804623" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Scott Chrisman, Pixeltape Media[/caption] [caption id="attachment_987061" align="alignnone" width="1920"] A vista through the Romantics display through to Queen Victoria by Sir George Hayter (1863) at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Photo by Oliver Hess.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_987060" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Antoniou[/caption] Writers Revealed: Treasures From the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London displays at HOTA, Home of the Arts, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, from Saturday, April 12–Sunday, August 3, 2025. Head to the gallery's website for further details and tickets. Top image: Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen, pencil and watercolour, circa 1810. © National Portrait Gallery, London.
Who doesn't love a good chicken burger? There's something about deep-fried, buttery, seasoned chicken breast, coated in some form of tasty sauce and crammed between two fluffy buns that really satisfies a hunger. When the craving for a juicy chicken burger strikes, forget fast food chains (herbs and spices should never be kept a secret, anyway) and try one of these Brisbane venues that are renowned for their unique spin on the classic chicken burger. We've tracked down five spots that know how to make a mighty chicken burger. Whether you like your burg to be an OTT monstrosity with onion rings and maple bacon, or you'd rather go the more traditional route with fresh salad, we've got you covered.
Inspiration comes in many forms — and, as the folks at Cork & Chroma have already established, booze is definitely one of them. Always fancied yourself as an artist, but haven't had the courage to put brush to canvas? That's where alcohol-fuelled paint-and-sip sessions have come in over the past few years. Cork & Chroma's next class isn't any old excuse to knock back drinks and show your arty side, however. At Cork, Culinary and Colour, you'll be drinking and getting creative in the open air. Your destination: the Treasury Hotel's courtyard, where you'll spend an afternoon whipping up a masterpiece while downing rosé. Next taking place from 1.30–3.30pm on Sunday, February 12 — the first session for 2023, this leisurely session spans that impressive location and two glasses of pink. Your $80-per-person ticket also includes a cheese platter. Fancy more plonk? A cash bar will be open. And the theme for this session: love island. 'Tis the time of year for all things romance, and for wishing you were still on holiday. Images: Adam Shaw.
The Great Barrier Reef is high on many family bucket lists and this adventure at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site makes it all the more accessible. For an entirely unique experience, give the gift of a day with reef tour operators Great Adventures with an underwater scooter adventure. It's the perfect option for less confident swimmers (as no swimming is actually involved). They'll be sitting comfortably with their head and shoulders safely enclosed in an astronaut-like dome supplying airflow and 180-degree sight lines while they cruise the reef. This experience is an optional tour extra ($175 for over 12s) on top of the snorkelling, underwater observatory viewing and catering that a standard tour ticket supplies. Image: Great Adventures
UPDATE, July 13, 2021: Due to travel and quarantine requirements stemming from Greater Sydney's current lockdown, the 2021 2021 Brisbane Night Noodle Markets have been postponed. With many of the event's vendors based in New South Wales, the markets can't go ahead as planned on from Wednesday, July 21–Sunday, August 1. New dates haven't yet been announced, but we'll update you when they are. Usually when July rolls around, Brisbane's culinary scene gets thrust into the spotlight, all thanks to Good Food Month. In 2020, things were a little different, with the jam-packed celebration of all things food and drink taking place in November instead. This year, though, Brisbanites will be hopping between eateries to warm up their winter once more. It's the eighth year that Good Food Month has hit the city, and 2021's program takes its cues from one of the big culinary trends of the past decade. Yes, it's skewing local and heroing homegrown talent — including by welcoming back acclaimed chef Alanna Sapwell (ex-Arc Dining and Bar), with her pop-up Esmay returning for a day of dishes at Spring Hill's Alliance Hotel. Among the other Brisbane stars making an imprint, Louis Tikaram will lend his skills to this year's Young Chefs Lunch, which will serve up a four-course meal prepared by the Stanley chef with the city's culinary up-and-comers — and Ben Williamson will open Agnes up to celebrated Melbourne restaurant Embla, teaming up with the latter's Dave Verheul on a one-night-only meal. Over at Gerard's Bistro, Adam Wolfers will join forces with Shane Delia (Maha Bar, Layla) for a night of Middle Eastern cooking. And Za Za Ta Bar and Kitchen will play host to Shannon Martinez (Lona Misa), with a plant-based, Tel Aviv-inspired feast clearly on the menu. Also on the lineup: a five-course truffle degustation at Otto, a murder mystery dinner at Alchemy, a shawarma party at Gerard's Bar and Libertine's Bastille Day French-Vietnamese menu. Montrachet will host a decadent five-course dinner, E'cco Bistro is dedicating an afternoon to cheese and wine at and The Gresham will roll out Whisky Appreciation Month sessions. Plus, over at the Living Room Bar at W Brisbane, a three-course cocktail degustation will let you sample its new menu created by the team behind London's Oriole Bar. And, the Night Noodle Markets are returning as part of this year's Good Food Month, too — this time at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Top image: Libertine.
The world is grey and there are few absolutes. That slavery is abhorrent, however, is not a matter for debate. It is a black and white issue based on the black and white issue that ought never have been an issue in the first place. For some reason, though, cinema — so often the most effective form of public debate — has either largely steered clear of it or, at best, touched upon it with altogether reckless abandon (Django Unchained). Not so, 12 Years A Slave. In its own right, Steve McQueen's new movie is an extraordinarily accomplished and captivating piece, yet in the wider context of American history, both literary and filmic, it is nothing short of revelatory. Adapted from the 1853 memoir of the same name, it chronicles with undaunting authenticity the story of Solomon Northup, a free man of the north who was abducted under the pretence of observing the Fugitive Slave Act, then secreted across the Mason-Dixie line where he was sold into slavery for the next 12 years. Playing Northup is British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in an assured and career-defining role. Subjected to countless closeups by McQueen, Ejiofor's every expression speaks volumes, with his near-impercetible parting of lips or minisucle tilt of his shoulders marking the difference between irrepressible joy and despairing submission into subservience. There are no weak links in the packed cast that also boasts Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano and Brad Pitt (who produced the film); however, it is newcomer Lupita Nyong'o who best supports Eijofor as 'Patsey' — his fellow slave and the subject of a violent, destructive infatuation by their master, Epps (Fassbender). This is an unquestionably difficult film to watch; uncomfortable and unsettling for reasons that extend far beyond what transpires on screen. The enslavement of Northup — an educated, respectful and respected family man — feels an affront at every stage: he is conned, drugged, kidnapped, blackmailed, transported in secret, beaten and betrayed — even by those who were smart enough to recognise he was clearly never meant to be there. And therein lies perhaps the most discomforting layer of all, because, of course, no one was meant to be there. Slavery was the affront, and the realisation that Northup's tragedy feels somehow more unjust than (for want of a less despicable expression) those of the 'normal slaves', is at once confronting and embarrassing. This imagined distinction between 'slavery' and 'unfair slavery' is as redundant as Todd Aiken's 2012 reference to 'legitimate rape', yet in 12 Years a Slave the sense that gradations of cruelty exist visits you repeatedly. There are good slavers and bad, you feel; cruel overseers and kinder ones, despicable racists and the just mostly despicable. In his short carrer McQueen has already established himself as a director both prepared and determined to capture honest and unflinching representations of life, no matter how unattractive. Both Shame and Hunger cast their lights upon dark areas of the human condition, yet in 12 Years A Slave McQueen somehow goes even further. One extended scene, for example, involves an uninterrupted and excrutiatingly graphic lashing that was so horrific it momentarily warranted turning away from the screen. As my eyes met those of my neighbour, it was clear we were far from alone in doing so, yet our temporary retreat from the film was in no way an indictment upon it. It should be unbearable to watch, and it is, but you must persist, because in 12 Years A Slave McQueen has crafted an enthralling, thoughtful and necessary modern classic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=z02Ie8wKKRg
Maybe you love getting away, but hate the possibility of noise echoing through the walls from neighbouring hotel rooms. Perhaps you adore nature, and yet camping doesn't quite float your boat. Or, you could be mighty fond of hitting the water, but you're not so fussed about actually sailing anywhere. For all of these situations and more, the Gold Coast has now a new holiday option: Drift Flotel. What's a 'flotel'? It's exactly what it sounds like — and it's really a luxe houseboat decked out for stays, but you get the idea. And if you're wondering what makes the three-storey, 12-metre-long Drift Flotel different from other seafaring vessels, this one only floats rather than cruises. When you arrive, you'll find it anchored in one spot, and it won't move from there during your entire visit. That means you'll get to slumber on the water without needing to worry about operating the boat. You'll also score both water and national park views, too. When you're not taking in the sights, you and five mates — because the flotel sleeps six — can also hang out on the walkaround deck or up on the rooftop terrace. Naturally, they're great place to take in the scenery as well. Available for $680 per night, the refurbed houseboat features two bedrooms and bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and a lounge and dining space. And, if you're keen to hang out with a few more pals during the day, it can hold 12 all up. Upstairs, there's a bar as well — complete with an ice machine and cocktail-making equipment, aka all the essentials. As for where you'll be anchored, Drift Flotel calls a small inlet 10–15 minutes from Jumpinpin home. To get there, you'll take a 40-minute voyage on a 32-foot flybridge cruiser, leaving from Horizon Shores Marina at Steiglitz near Jacobs Well and travelling through the Southern Moreton Bay Islands National Park. And if you are keen to go exploring by water during your stay, the Drift Flotel comes with a five-horsepower tender — which'll get you to the shore, too, if you're also keen to go wandering on land. For more information about Drift Flotel, or to make a booking, head to the houseboat's website.
UPDATE, September 17, 2021: Ammonite is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Looking at an ammonite fossil is like putting your ear up to a seashell: in their ridged spirals, it feels as if a whole new world could exist. In the latter's case, each one is made from the remains of extinct molluscs from millions of years ago, and lingers now as a reminder of a different time and existence, its compact coils encasing all of its secrets. The striking specimens from the past provide the film Ammonite with its title, and with an obvious metaphor as well — but also an apt one that's brought to life with meticulous delicacy. The two central characters in this patient yet always evocative 1840s-set romance are the product of centuries of convention and expectation, with society's engrained views about women both weathering away at them and solidifying their place. They're also as tightly wound as the historical remnants they tirelessly search for along the craggy, cliff-lined West Dorset coastline. Writer/director Francis Lee made his feature debut with 2017's exceptional God's Own Country, which means he has already deployed many of the choices that are pivotal to Ammonite. Both brandish a title that functions literally and symbolically. Both spin stories about queer love that arises slowly and organically in heightened and intimate circumstances. Both dive into specific, labour-intensive fields with a resolute and instinctive connection to the land, and derive an elemental tenor from their crucial locations. The two films each watch on tenderly as a new arrival upends the status quo, unleashing a wave of affection that takes both parties by surprise — unlocking a lifetime of closely held emotions, and gifting lonely souls a connection they wouldn't otherwise admit they yearned for. But Lee's latest feature isn't just the lesbian counterpart to its predecessor. While the movies complement each other perfectly, Ammonite unearths its own depths and boasts its own strengths. Lee has made the concerted decision not just to focus on women, but to fictionalise the relationship between real-life scientists who find solace in each other as they're forced to fight to be seen as anything other than housewives. Living in Lyme Regis with her ailing mother (Gemma Jones, Rocketman), Mary Anning (Kate Winslet, Wonder Wheel) is no one's wife, and doesn't want to be — but, toiling in the male-dominated realm of palaeontology, she's accustomed to being treated differently to her peers. As a child, she found her first ammonite fossil, which is displayed in the British Museum. Now scraping by running a shop that sells smaller specimens to rich tourists, she hasn't stopped looking for other big discoveries since. When geologist Roderick Murchison (James McArdle, Mary, Queen of Scots) visits Mary's store, however, he's after her services in a different way. In a casual reminder of just how dismissively women are regarded, she's asked to take care of his melancholic wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan, Little Women) while he travels abroad for work. Roderick thinks it'll be good for Charlotte to learn from Mary, to get outside daily and to have a sense of purpose, but Mary only agrees for the money. Ammonite swells with foreboding, rather than with astonishment. Viewers know where the narrative is heading, and soak in every moment of the gradual journey along the way. And, as Mary and Charlotte form a friendship and then something more, working through their individual traumas in the process — Mary's heart is hardened from a failed relationship with another villager, while Charlotte's depression stems from a miscarriage — the audience dives into their passion and their struggles in tandem. Eventually, heated trysts ensue, but Ammonite isn't a torrid, feverish, corset-ripper. Lee paces his film deliberately, colours it with grey and naturalistic hues thanks to cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine (Jackie, Elle), and gives it an almost grim mood, all to stress just how Mary and Charlotte's bond offers a ray of sunshine in an otherwise austere existence. Mirroring the restrained lives enforced upon 19th-century women in general, and those trying to forge careers specifically, the filmmaker's approach proves thoughtful, involving and moving; to truly understand why his central couple dissolve with such contentment in each other's embrace requires deeply feeling the oppression and unhappiness that surrounds them everyday. Casting frequent Oscar favourites Winslet and Ronan has a significant impact, of course. God's Own Country didn't need high-profile names to leave an impression, and neither does Ammonite, but Lee has enlisted two of the best actors for the current job. The former won a golden statuette for 2009's The Reader, the latter nabbed four nominations before her 26th birthday, and both rank among the greats presently gracing our screens — a status that Ammonite only reinforces. Playing complex and conflicted characters so used to aching inside that it shades every element of their demeanour, they're each quietly and potently expressive here in their own ways. Winslet is stern, fierce, no-nonsense and task-oriented, while Ronan is eager and open but heartbroken and tentative. Each recognises more than a little of themselves in the other, and the magnetic pull drawing Mary and Charlotte closer becomes palpable in their hands. Watching Winslet and Ronan's often-silent, always-emotionally loaded stares, viewers can be forgiven of thinking of the past year's other stellar sapphic romance; however, Ammonite doesn't merely lurk in Portrait of a Lady on Fire's shadow either. Exquisitely told love stories can simmer and sparkle to the point of threatening to catch ablaze, as the French film does so magnificently. They can also ebb and flow back and forth like the tide washing against the rocky shore, which this English drama prefers. Ammonite serves up its own equally nuanced and resonant affair as a result, crackling with the salty ocean air and clinging to the forbidding cliffs rather than shimmering and sitting in the beachside sun. A solemn sense of beauty emanates, too, as does an earthy reminder that romances, women and under-appreciated bright minds alike never just adhere to one type — and that excavating that truth should be commonplace, rather than monumental. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZAQT0jTFuU
One of the ideas at the heart of Squid Game — and fellow battle-to-the-death fare like The Hunger Games and The Running Man, too — is that people like to watch others risk their lives, and sometimes give them, while striving to survive deadly contests. While the competitions at the heart of shows and movies with these storylines are purely fictional, folks IRL do indeed love viewing them. Indeed, with its final season, Squid Game notched up a few big firsts for Netflix. If you couldn't wait to discover Seong Gi-hun's (Lee Jung-jae, The Acolyte) fate when the South Korean hit dropped its third and last batch of episodes on Friday, June 27, 2025, you had company. Netflix reports that the six-instalment season notched up 60.1-million views in just three days, breaking the record for such a short period. [caption id="attachment_1011923" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Squid Game S3 Cr. No Ju-han/Netflix © 2025[/caption] Squid Game season three also became the first Netflix show to reach number one in all countries that the streaming platform ranks in the week it premiered, and the only series to hit the service's most-popular list in its debut week. Less than seven days out from releasing, season three is placed ninth among Netflix's most-watched shows ever in languages other than English as well. While the series' final run served up surprises on-screen, its success among audiences isn't one of them. The exploits of Player 456 in a secret tournament that turns childhood games fatal with 45.6-billion won up for grabs has been a must-see, and embraced as such, since its beginnings. Season one proved such a smash that more episodes were locked in, as was IRL competition series Squid Game: The Challenge (without the death, of course). The latter has been picked up for a second season. The next question: will there be more on the fictional side of the franchise? It has been rumoured that David Fincher (The Killer) is keen on an English-language remake — although he is working on directing a different return, stepping into Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's realm to helm the Brad Pitt (F1)-starring follow-up to Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-winning picture, at present. Also, the season-three finale swiftly sparked thoughts of Squid Game finding a way to continue. With Entertainment Weekly, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk recently mentioned a spinoff idea set between seasons one and two — and has floated similar concepts before — but nothing beyond a new round of Squid Game: The Challenge has been confirmed in in the Squid Game universe so far. Watch the trailer for Squid Game season three below: Squid Game streams via Netflix. Images: Netflix.
Much has happened in the Melbourne International Film Festival's 70-year history. A vast array of movies have flickered across big screens and, via its online program during the past few years, through Australian homes as well. Famous names aplenty have graced the fest on-screen and in-person. Films have brought their glow to the planetarium, dedicated cinephiles have sat through 13-hour rare gems, and plenty of heated discussions about what's great — and isn't — have livened up cinema foyers. But only in 2022 has MIFF awarded a $140,000 to the winner of its very own film prize. That lucky flick: Afrofuturist musical Neptune Frost, which has just been named the Bright Horizons Award-recipient at the fest's closing night. Back in February, MIFF announced that it was launching its own competition — to commemorate the longest-running film fest in the southern hemisphere's huge milestone year, and join the Cannes, Venice and Berlin film festivals, as well as Sydney, in giving out a prestigious gong. Eleven movies were chosen to compete as part of the full 2022 fest program, with the winner receiving the Best Film Award — and, thanks to that $140,000 sum, the southern hemisphere's richest feature film prize. Hailing from poet and musician Saul Williams and playwright Anisia Uzeyman, who co-direct, Neptune Frost is a bold and inventive Rwanda-set sci-fi musical that firmly stands out among the Bright Horizons contenders — which also included Australian films Petrol and The Stranger, the Paul Mescal (Normal People)-starring Aftersun, wild Filipino genre-bender Leonor Will Never Die, weighty American drama Mass and Mexican drug trade drama Robe of Gems. Its MIFF win comes after proving a critical hit at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and also after boasting Lin-Manuel Miranda's seal of approval, with the Hamilton creator and star one of the movie's executive producers. Picking the winner: actor and director Shareena Clanton (Fires, Wentworth), the jury president, plus filmmaker and artist Lynette Wallworth (Tender), cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom, True Detective) and director/screenwriter Mouly Surya (Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts). Announcing their selection, Clanton said that "Neptune Frost was like nothing we have ever seen before. By disrupting the colonial gaze and connecting the rising influence of technology in all our lives, this film penetrates deeply into your heart and soul to say that you are not too far disconnected from me. It felt at once absolutely specific, and entirely global." The MIFF jury also highlighted one other film from the fest's 2022 lineup for another gong: the $70,000 Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award. Also new, it recognises an outstanding Australian creative from one of the festival's movies, and can span span a large number of roles, including the winning flick's director, technical or creative lead, or other craft positions. This year's recipient was indeed a filmmaker, Nyul Nyul/Yawuru director Jub Clerc (The Turning), who emerged victorious for coming-of-age road movie Sweet As — starring Tasma Walton (How to Please a Woman), Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), Carlos Sanson Jr (Bump) and Shantae Barnes-Cowan (Firebite). And, similarly announced at MIFF's 2022 closing night: this year's MIFF Audience Award Winner, which went to Bruce Permezel and Rhian Skirving's Greenhouse by Joost. As the name makes plain, it follows zero-waste activist Joost Bakker and his Future Food System, which resulted in a farm-to-table restaurant in Melbourne's Federation Square. The 2022 Melbourne International Film Festival runs until Sunday, August 21 in-person, and until Sunday, August 28 via MIFF Play, the fest's online platform.
Green living and financial prosperity are often pitted against each other, but a little village in Bavaria, Germany has shown that the two can actually get along quite nicely. Wildpoldsried, a village with a population of just 2,600, has put itself on the map via its concerted efforts to become energy efficient. It currently has four biogas digesters, seven windmills, three small hydro plants, seven public builidngs and 190 private houses fitted with solar panels. Indeed, the village is now so energy efficient that it produces 321% more energy than it requires, which has enabled the village to sell energy back to the national grid thus providing the village with US$5.7 million dollars in annual revenue. As a result, the village has become a bastion for green businesses and green initiatives. It has also become a model for other councils, both nationally and internationally, who are looking to ensure a greener, yet financially viable future. Not content with their current success, the people and council of Wildpoldsried have bigger and greener plans for the future, including another biogas digester, two more windmills, installing LED street lights and to initiate Project Irene (Integration of Renewable Enery and Electric Vehicles). There is also plan to add a hotel to the cafe and community centre to house the politicians and eco-energy tourists that have flocked to the area. Sounds like a good place for our politicians to visit on the next jaunt around Bavaria.
Start practising your royal wave: it's time to bid farewell to The Crown. Netflix's hit regal drama is wrapping up with its upcoming sixth season, which now has both a release date and a first teaser trailer. If you're wondering when to get watching, you have two dates to put in your calendar. The Crown's final season is being split into two parts, with both arriving before 2023 is out. The first four episodes will stream from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. As well as saying goodbye to the series overall, viewers will also be moving on from The Crown's time in the 20th century in this sixth and final season. Although the just-dropped initial sneak peek is all about the past, permanence and legacy — Claire Foy (Women Talking) and Olivia Colman's (Heartstopper) versions of Queen Elizabeth II both feature, in fact — the hit show will embrace the 21st century in its latest run. Accordingly, The Crown will cover the early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton's relationship, and focus on the man currently second in line to the throne after Queen Elizabeth II's passing in 2022. Screen debutant Ed McVey takes on the role of Prince William, while newcomer Meg Bellamy is slipping into Middleton's shoes. The show's sixth season will follow the IRL pair's first meeting at university in St Andrew's, starting the story that's played out in plenty of headlines and a ridiculous amount of worldwide media coverage since 2001. While everything that's popped up in the series draws its details from history — dramatised history, of course, but still history — this next instalment is bound to feel even more familiar. Getting closer to our current time will do that. When The Crown began, it kicked off with Queen Elizabeth II's life from her marriage to Prince Philip back in 1947. The first season made its way to the mid-50s, the second season leapt into the 60s, and season three spanned all the way up to the late 70s. In season four, the royal family hit the 80s, while season five covered the 90s. Just like in season five, Downton Abbey, Maleficent and Paddington star Imelda Staunton dons the titular headwear in season six, while Game of Thrones and Tales from the Loop's Jonathan Pryce wears Prince Philip's shoes — and Princess Margaret is played by Staunton's Maleficent co-star and Phantom Thread Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville. Also, Australian Tenet, The Burnt Orange Heresy and Widows star Elizabeth Debicki returns as Princess Diana, with The Wire and The Pursuit of Love's Dominic West as Prince Charles. News around the show's fifth and sixth seasons has changed a few times over the past few years. At the beginning of 2020, Netflix announced that it would end the royal drama after its fifth season. Then, the streaming platform had a change of heart, revealing it would continue the series for a sixth season after all. Check out the first teaser trailer for The Crown season six below: The Crown's sixth season will hit Netflix in two parts, with the first four episodes streaming from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. Images: Alex Bailey / Keith Bernstein / Netflix.
Wine, dim sum and live music combine at Loose Lips, the latest event from Drnks. Brisbanites can't step foot inside the natural wine purveyors' Sydney bottle-o, but you can do the next best thing when it comes to town — aka taste plenty of tipples; chat to many a vino maker, grower and importer; and browse the pop-up shop for some top-notch bottles to take home with you. In total, more than twenty companies will be on hand to pour their wares, including Godot Wines, Addley Clark, Little Reddie, Smallfry Wines and Brave New Wine, plus Yetti and the Kokonut, I'll Fly Away, Lo-Fi and Limus too. All of your samples are included in the $40 entry price, as is a spread of modern Chinese small plates cooked up by Little Valley, which is where this boozy afternoon is going down. It all takes place from 12–4pm on Sunday, August 4, with tickets on sale now.
Zach Braff is doing it, Amanda Palmer turned it into an art form, and now crowdfunding has landed on the Sydney hospitality scene with Stanley Street's IconPark. It's a simple enough genesis story: Spreets co-founder and former CEO Dean McEvoy bought a property, asked Paul Schell (formerly of Ruby Rabbit) to open a business, and got a potentially revolutionary concept instead. Happy accidents, hey? "People get great ideas in hospitality, but they don't have access to the capital, infrastructure and knowledge to make it a reality," explains McEvoy. "And we saw that dynamic from other industries where crowdfunding was working and by early indicators we are on the right track." And, with noise already coming from New York, California and London to launch the platform overseas, it sounds like he is underplaying his hand. "Our aim is to actually go big on this one ... it's going to be a global brand." Come Tuesday, March 25, the winner of the inaugural three-month residency will be announced, and a new tri-level hospitality concept will be born at 78 Stanley Street — albeit for a brief tenure before season two. One hundred and seventeen hands answered IconPark's premier cattle call. McEvoy, Schell and their team then shrunk that number to 24 before they teamed up with mentors Darren Robertson (Three Blue Ducks), Sudeep Gohil (Droga 5), Chris Morrison (Head Sommelier at the Guillaume group), Joel Meares (Time Out) and Claire Bradley (Inside Out Magazine) to pick the final six. The ball is now in our court. "The consumer decides and lets the IconPark platform know what is the product they want to experience," says Schell. "The main reasons why hospitality businesses fail is that they are not really hitting on something the market wants — you can go and spend millions on a lease and fitout and then open the doors and find out no one really wants what you've got," elaborates McEvoy. "So this mechanism lets the customer have early input into what will and won't work." Given the explosion of the small bar scene — and how Sydney's ever-growing appetite for new culinary destinations seems only surpassed by its appetite for opening them — it is astounding to think this platform has not surfaced earlier. Okay, let's meet your season one finalists (in order of most pledgers at the time of writing) and find out what a $50 pledge will get you: https://youtube.com/watch?v=htsQ34VJKlU Stanley St. Merchants An all-hours sustainable funhouse from the mind of West Wind Gin's Jeremy Spencer with rock 'n' roll chef Matt Stone, and coffee shop of the year St Ali (from Victoria). These boys will feed and caffeinate you; settle in for amaro and dominos or head upstairs to cocktail guru Bobby Carey (formerly of Shady Pines) for a mess hall-themed tipple. $50 pledge: $50 voucher redeemable throughout the building. Ruby's BBQ Husband-and-wife team and Bondi-ites Ruby and Eli Challenger promise a man-cave to bring the fabled flavours of US BBQ to Stanley Street; smoked meats, trivial pursuit, potential for a mini-golf set-up and cocktails courtesy of Fat Rupert's bar manager Sean Duncan. Condiments, competitions and meat by the gram. $50 pledge: A share platter and booze for two. Sedgwick Ave Street art. Hip Hop. Katz-style sandwiches. NYC cocktails and coffee. All that and internationally renowned chef Alejandra Saravia. Sedgwick Ave wants to bring a bit more Brooklyn to Stanley Street than it can handle. Oh, and check out the Mr Brainwash walk-through they pulled off to prove their networking skillz. $40 pledge: Sit yourself down for a cocktail class with Paul Flynn. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tVvrQaGKd2Q Min Joo Social K-Pop karaoke, cocktails, photo booths and Korean BBQ are looking for a home on Stanley Street under the guidance of Jamie Woolcott, David Wright and Phil Bracey. $50 pledge: $50 to spend in the building. British India Trading Co. A celebration of cultural cross-pollination centred around British India and heaped with chef Matt Taylor's Michelin star experience to bring you an exploration of flavours that keep vegos, meatheads and booze hounds satiated equally. $55 pledge: A Royal British India platter for two. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2bkahk4_WcU Blackcats Jazz, gin and wagyu beef. Jay Gray (formerly of Lobo Plantation), Pia Andersen (vintage songstress) and chef Phil Tsompansis have partnered with Victor Churchill Meats (that gallery-like Woollahra butcher that's been tempting vegetarians since 1876) to promise coffee, late-night tunes and choice cuts within a 19th-century gin palace decor. $50 pledge: Dinner and a show. https://youtube.com/watch?v=g4IQRENio20 All six finalists will be vying for your attention at Taste of Sydney (March 13-16) to ensure their spot in the top four. Applying next time? Ruby's BBQ got over the line by tempting the panelists back for seconds during the tasting session and Sedgwick Ave set the bar for branding. McEvoy recalls, "We walked down to work one morning down here and the whole front of our building had been tagged with the words Sedgwick Ave; it was a really nice piece … and they only revealed who they were on the last day of applications." Mind you, if Stanley St Merchants stays in top spot, you may not get the chance. "I intend to make the profit book strong enough that they don't want us to go," says Spencer when asked about a future past IconPark. But McEvoy has his own plans: "Our goal is to really create a hospitality icon for the future that people will look to in a couple of years and say, they really set a trend for the city."
Sure, you've eaten tacos and burritos before — but have you tried tortas and arepas? One of the benefits of the street food surge is the easy accessibility of different types of international delights. And when it comes to all things Latin, Comuna Cantina is on the bandwagon. The new addition to Albert Lane champions the flavour, experience and spirit of South America in a market-style eatery in the heart of the Brisbane CBD. That means more than just Mexican cuisine, though a few old favourites are also on the low-carb, high-protein menu. Expect everything from grilled street corn to cassava chips to barbecue skewers — all made fresh in-house daily, right down to the sauces and salsas. Comuna Cantina is the kind of place that you can grab a char-grilled chicken torta and go, or settle in for a few share plates and frozen margaritas — the choice is yours. And while the former is perfectly acceptable, it's the latter that is most encouraged, as the space features a well-stocked cocktail bar serving Comuna Coladas and Comuna Martinis, and some great, lively Latin vibes. Comuna does mean community in Spanish, after all.
After spending a day, evening or both sipping on your favourite wine, you might feel as though you've been soaking in boozy grape juice. That's understandable. You'll feel the same when you're enjoying a glass of Edivo Vina's tipples — but expect to dive deeper, literally. Edivo Vina is Croatia's first underwater winery, and they're now open for visitors. Yes, that means doing more than simply plunging your face into a wine glass. You'll descend into the ocean's depths to explore their operations, and check out a sunken shipwreck that's used as their underwater cellar while you're down there. And, you can even help bring your own bottle of vino back up to the surface. Located off of the coast of Drače on the Pelješac Peninsula, the winery first starts their booze-making process on land, where their wines are aged for three months. They're then stored in clay jugs known as amphorae, corked and protected by two layers of rubber, and submerged 18 to 25 metres into the sea for one to two years. Relying upon natural cooling, giving the booze a pinewood aroma and also benefiting from the water's "perfect silence" — because quiet wine-making is the best wine-making, apparently — it's a system that the ancient Greeks used. They are known for their love of wine, after all. Unsurprisingly, after such a substantial stint in the ocean, the bottles come back to the surface coated in shells, corrals and algae. Now that's something you won't find at your local bottle-o. Images: Edivo Vina.
Whether you've been directly affected or have watched from afar, this summer's catastrophic bushfires have taken a physical and mental toll on many of us. With fires burning record amounts of land, and flooding making things worse in some spots, you might be looking for a way to help out as areas begin to recover. While there are plenty of charities and organisations to donate money to, you can also donate your time as a volunteer to help those in need. From caring for injured wildlife to answering the phones at evacuation centres, here are seven ways that you can use your time (and your skills) to lend a hand. GET OUT IN NATURE WITH YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE With more than ten percent of forest destroyed by bushfires in NSW's national parks alone this season, our national park services are going to need plenty of volunteers around the country to help with wildlife recovery. From caring for and spotting animals to conserving the bush and educating visitors, there's something for everyone. In NSW, you can register your interest with the National Parks and Wildlife Service here. Once you've done that, sit tight as NPWS will be contacting potential volunteers once bushfire recovery activities have been planned. Or, you can have a look through its current job opportunities and find something that tickles your fancy. In Melbourne, you can register to volunteer for Parks Victoria here and Brisbanites can check out Queensland National Parks. LEND A HAND TO BUSHFIRE-AFFECTED FAMILIES IN THE REBUILD If you're keen to get your hands dirty, volunteering with BlazeAid might be your cup of tea. As a BlazeAid volunteer, you'll head out to a basecamp in a bushfire-affected area and spend the day helping property owners rebuild damaged fences and other structures. You don't need any experience and all your meals and protective gear will be provided — all you need is some camping gear. Plus, you can volunteer for as little or long as you like. Sounds right up your alley? There are open BlazeAid basecamps in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, so find one near you here, and contact them a few days before you arrive. CARE FOR INJURED KOALAS, BIRDS AND CRITTERS One of the biggest impacts of the bushfires has been on our native animal populations — there are millions of creatures of all sizes in need of medical care, habitat relocation and food supplies. If you're passionate about helping animals, there are organisations all around the country where you can donate your time and skills to. Sydneysiders should check out WIRES. To get started, you'll need to become a licensed carer by completing a training course run by WIRES. At $125 per person, you'll learn how to handle, examine and immediately care for animals — you can find available training sessions here. There's also the Wildlife Volunteers Association on the Sunshine Coast and southeast Queensland's Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Wildlife Victoria isn't currently accepting new volunteers (there have been so many people offering to help that the organisation doesn't have time to train everyone), but you can follow its Facebook to keep up to date on new opportunities as they pop up. You can also register with Conservation Volunteers Australia here to get more info, or get in touch with your state's RSPCA. [caption id="attachment_761222" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Organic Regenerative Investment Co-operative[/caption] HELP ORGANIC FARMERS GET BACK ON THEIR FEET With bushfires putting even more pressure on already drought-affected farmers across the country, the Organic and Regenerative Investment Co-Operative (ORICoop) is looking for volunteers to help them get back on their feet. The company is aiding organic and biodynamic farmers across NSW, Victoria and SA with bushfire-recovery efforts and helping them maintain their organic status. ORICoop is looking for assistance of all kinds from volunteers with different skills. You can offer on-the-ground support or help out with logistics — think everything from tree planting to marketing and coordinating volunteers. There is plenty to do. If you want to find out more or sign up to volunteer in your state, head here. GET CRAFTY FOR A GOOD CAUSE For the crafty volunteer, you can use your skills to help rescued animals, too, even if you aren't located near a bushfire zone. Whether you sew, knit, crochet or quilt (or you've always wanted to learn), there's something you can do. If you're into knitting and sewing, why not make some pouches for joeys and other young animals rescued by WIRES, Wildlife Victoria or the Wildlife Volunteers Association? Before you do, though, check what each charity is looking for. You can also join the Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild, which shares patterns and guides for all sorts of items like knitted jumpers and crocheted bird nests. Interested in joining? Sign up with their Facebook group and start with this post. [caption id="attachment_761225" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NSW State Emergency Service[/caption] DON THE BRIGHT ORANGE GET UP OF THE SES While responding to emergencies might seem daunting, there are a bunch of ways you can help your state's emergency services by becoming a volunteer. You can assist the SES by clearing debris, helping residents prepare for severe weather, answering phones and supporting teams in the field in a logistics role. Plus, NSW SES lets you sign up as a spontaneous volunteer, so can get involved without committing long term or having previous experience. To find out more about volunteering and to apply, head to the NSW, Victorian and Queensland SES websites. LEARN FIRST AID OR ANSWER PHONES WITH ST JOHN You might have seen St John volunteers at concerts, sporting events or local festivals, but they have also been supporting our firefighters and the police during the bushfires, too. And there are plenty of ways you can get involved. As well as providing first aid (which you'll need a first aid certificate for), St John volunteers can assist in communications and logistics roles. Currently, you can help at evacuation centres or answer phones at police-run emergency call centres. Along the way, you'll pick up even more skills, including how to use different medications and what to do during to life-threatening emergencies. To become a volunteer with your local division, fill in an application here.
No matter where they pop up around the world, Yayoi Kusama's infinity rooms instantly attract hordes of eager visitors, as anyone who has lined up to peek inside can attest. At present, with galleries and public spaces closed across the globe, no one can explore the Japanese artist's dazzling mirrored spaces in person — but one American venue is providing virtual access. That'd be The Broad in Los Angeles, which is currently home to Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away. With the whole site closed due to COVID-19, the gallery has started an online video series called Infinite Drone that steps through the glittering, LED light-filled attraction. And, it's pairing each clip with a drone, electronic, ambient and pop music-filled soundscape. Attempting to mimic the sensation of standing inside one of Kusama's infinity rooms in person — and, as the artist intends, soaking in her dazzling contemplation of eternity as it gleams all around you — the idea is to give art fans as an immersive experience as possible. Of course, when you're viewing the installation via virtual means, you don't have to queue — or worry about a time limit. So far, one video has been released, with Los Angeles-based artist and composer Geneva Skeen on scoring duties. Available to watch via Facebook and Instagram, the first 14-and-a-half minute clip watches on as the infinity room's lights glow and fade over and over again — and as well as offering an escape from being glued to the news, it serves up quite the meditative experience. https://www.facebook.com/thebroadmuseum/videos/2906806926047006/?__xts__[0]=68.ARBOxGpmFiisf4BHLIydeMauefG6Y0zMqYRM-_OEsoFmmwxv1XErWIVbc9OrYayVAN4R2pMW4F0LUdPiihR9Zwgv6eh-Hlwgd0DTcZXT5qKh780Ngti2z4G1jYkk_FGa4-u70sYu4n2RM3u8wLuDHncUysxot5mMb5qjoRMP46B4BEaHJNdzT_HMubTLIcu32LXtUEi57v0FlZ6H_WVtCaizQZwoT677vUqlthU8vUsd2-NVXIZFLqwQVZhUudCPCmN_W13ZzMXe-bTRcdQRUjvh_jn02gqPan5HZyXkQfq1G4IsLJh6dJHXxW0X69Z4h_5GodXgnb7N-DGc89xUwb98yrekEHJO01AKWQ&__tn__=-R To check out The Broad's virtual Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away tours, head to the gallery's Facebook and Instagram. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
One weekend of Coachella 2024 might be over, complete with lively sets and plenty of special guests, but this Californian music festival doesn't just run once each year. First, it throws its huge party in Indio across three days. Then, the next week, it backs it up to do it all over again. And for those playing along at home, that means that you have another chance to hit up the YouTube livestream. Wondering who is playing when? That's where set times for Coachella's second weekend come in. There aren't many changes from the first weekend's bill — but you will find Kid Cudi joining the lineup this time around. [caption id="attachment_950213" align="alignnone" width="1920"] petercruise via Flickr[/caption] In the headline spots as with weekend one: Lana Del Rey, Tyler, The Creator, Doja Cat and No Doubt. Coachella's second 2024 run spans across Friday, April 19–Sunday, April 21 — which is Saturday, April 20–Monday, April 22 Down Under. Among the highlights on Saturday in Australia and NZ: Del Rey, Justice, Peso Pluma, Lil Uzi Vert, Sabrina Carpenter, Deftones, Suki Waterhouse, Peggy Gou and Tinashe. The list goes on, of course. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Coachella (@coachella) On Sunday Down Under, get excited about Tyler, The Creator, No Doubt, Blur, Ice Spice, Jon Batiste, Sublime, Dom Dolla, Grimes, Orbital, Oneohtrix Point Never and RAYE — and more, obviously. And, come Monday for Aussies and New Zealanders, Doja Cat, Kid Cudi, J Balvin, Lil Yachty, Kruangbin, Reneé Rapp, Flight Facilities and DJ Seinfeld are on the bill, plus a heap of others. [caption id="attachment_936351" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Casey via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Spotted a dreaded set clash? This year, for the first time ever, you can livestream multiple stages at once. How many? Four in total. Each year, Coachella and YouTube join forces to beam the massive music fest around the world, which is no longer such a novelty in these pandemic-era times — but being able to fill your screen with a quartet of Coachella sets at the same time definitely is. YouTube's multiview concert experience is enjoying its debut in the music space, and globally, at Coachella. This year, the service is capturing six different stages, as it did in 2023 for the first time ever — with Sonora on the list for the first weekend and Yuma now up on the second. [caption id="attachment_951352" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaime Rivera via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] That said, while you can feast your eyes on four stages simultaneously, you'll only be able to hear one, so you will still need to pick a favourite in any given timeslot. Bookmark Coachella's YouTube channel ASAP — or hit it up below: Coachella 2024's second weekend runs from Friday, April 19–Sunday, April 21 — which is Saturday, April 20–Monday, April 22 Down Under — at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, and livestreams via YouTube across the same dates. Top image: demxx via Flickr.
Those currently working from home have probably seen two major changes to their routine: less shoes and more snacks. To help with the latter, Australia's much-loved biscuit maker Arnott's is opening its vault and releasing some of its coveted recipes — for the first time in history. For week one of the snack expert's Big Recipe Release it unveiled its Monte Carlo recipe. Next up is the always reliable Scotch Finger. This recipe has been adapted for home bakers by Arnott's Master Baker Vanessa Horton and has only four ingredients — much easier than the 11-ingredient Monte — so if you're looking for something relatively simple to test out your baking skills with, it might be a good one to start with. As you'd expect, one of those ingredients is, in fact, flour, but we've rounded up some of the spots selling the essential ingredient across the country, which aren't supermarkets. Australia's oldest baker will continue to release a new recipe for one of its famous biscuits every week until social distancing regulations are lifted. Next up, will it be the Tim Tam? Mint Slice? Pizza Shapes? We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, though, here's the Scotch Finger recipe: ARNOTT'S SCOTCH FINGER 170 grams salted butter, softened 90 grams soft icing sugar 1 cup (165 grams) plain flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder Method Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 30 x 20 centimetre rectangular slice pan and line base and sides with baking paper, extending paper two centimetres above edge of the pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and icing sugar for two minutes or until pale and creamy. Sift the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and mix on low speed or with your hands until combined. Press mixture into slice pan and smooth over with a pallet knife. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and using a small sharp knife, immediately slice five centimetres crossways and 7.5 centimetres lengthways into rectangular pieces. Then run the knife gently ½ way into the shortbread pieces, not touching the bottom, to make the finger indent. Let the biscuit cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Note: If you would like to imprint SCOTCH or your NAME into the biscuit, this should be done before the biscuit cools. Trim edges, if desired, before serving.
