If you grew up in Melbourne over the last few decades, there's a near-certain chance you spent at least a few scorching hot days at Funfields Themepark. Opened in 1985 as the Alpine Toboggan Park, this family-owned business is now ready to celebrate its 40th birthday, having just reopened with a host of exciting new rides and activities. Foremost among these is the Lava Lagoon Lazy River, a relaxing experience made for seeing out the hottest of hot days. Taking about 18 months to complete, more than 5000 tonnes of earth and two million litres of water were shifted to make way for this massive project. Now up and running, this summer retreat is primed for both relaxation and adventure. Floating along a scenic, heated lazy river, wave generators shipped in from Scotland transform the final stretch of peaceful waters into undulating rapids, punctuated with overhead bridges and dormant volcanoes. Plus, the surrounding beach area — lined with 3500 plants and 12 towering palm trees — features VIP cabanas and sun loungers designed for soaking up the sun. "Our Lava Lagoon Lazy River has been something families have been asking about for years," says Funfields General Manager of Operations Flynn Simsek "It's designed for everyone, parents can unwind, kids can play, and friends can float together. It's relaxing, heated and makes you feel like you've been transported to a tropical resort." Also forming part of this expansive $10 million upgrade, visitors will encounter another brand-new activity — Cyber Drift Bumper Cars. Bringing a supercharged twist to the action, smash and crash your way around the rink before slinging yourself down all 137 metres of the Typhoon Water Slide or tackling Victoria's first outdoor heated wave pool. "This year is about celebrating 40 years of memories," says Simsek. "So many Victorians grew up coming to Funfields, and we're proud that it's become a place where families continue to make memories together." Funfields Themepark is open Saturday–Sunday from 10am–5pm at 2365 Plenty Rd, Whittlesea. Head to the website for more information.
There aren't many better, or cheaper, ways to feed an entire family than a hot roast chook. And with the cool winter weather meaning the rich, tender, warming flavours hit even harder, now is the perfect time to load one into the oven. However, Portuguese chicken maestros Oporto are inviting you to put your feet up this winter with a special holiday giveaway. From 12pm on Tuesday, June 10, over 200 participating stores across the nation are handing out 10,000 Portuguese flame-grilled chickens for free. Coinciding with Dia De Portugal, aka Portugal Day, this festive event is the ideal excuse to get the whole family together — or your closest pals — with a free meal bound to fill your belly and lift your mood this cold season. "This is about more than just chicken," says Ben Simmons, head of marketing at Oporto. "Dia De Portugal, or Portugal Day, is a global event in Portuguese culture, and what better way to mark it than with our craveable, Portuguese flame-grilled chicken? It's our way of bringing people together with food, flavour and generosity." Made the Portuguese way — that means butterflied and basted in flavourful options like lemon and herb, original chilli or extremo picante — these flame-grilled treats are incredible on their own or served with plenty of hearty sides. Each participating restaurant has a minimum of 50 free chickens to give away, with a limit of one per customer. If you miss out, the good news is that Oporto's much-loved Bondi Burger is also available for $5 to mark the occasion, too. Oporto's 10,000 free chicken giveaway is available at participating stores from 12pm on Tuesday, June 10. Head to the website for more information.
She's a longtime icon of Melbourne's party scene and the fun-loving soul that brought us spots like the Carlton Club and the Windsor Castle Hotel. Now, Tracey Lester has unveiled her latest hospitality project, reimagining Fitzroy's Gertrude Hotel as a stylish party pub with a glam-rock edge. A destination for dining, dancing and memory-making, the corner site has taken a wild departure from its former self, rocking the same high-energy colour palette that's become something of a Lester trademark. [caption id="attachment_857810" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sharp and Lester[/caption] The hospitality veteran herself is behind every aspect of the zingy interiors, from the dramatic pendant lights, to the flocked wall panels, to the mirrored glass bouncing bold jewel tones around the rooms. If an Aussie party pub had a lovechild with Studio 54, you'd imagine it'd feel a lot like this. Expect pumping dance floors upstairs and down, weekend DJ sets bringing the groove, and disco parties in abundance. A separate tropical-themed bar sits on Level 1, along with two private party rooms that open onto the rooftop. The new Gertrude Hotel is more than just a pretty, entertaining face, though. A menu by Serradan Sharp (ex-Press Club, Maze) sits modern pub classics alongside a slew of crafty snacks and shares you can hit before the dance floor. You'll find comte and tapioca fritters with a jalapeno relish, charcoal roasted Skull Island prawns elevated with a hit of nduja, and crumpets topped with macadamia butter and shiitake. There's a whole barbecued flounder to share; pork schnitzel done with apple sauce and a fennel salad; a veg-friendly rigatoni with mushrooms and leek; and a cheeseburger loaded with your choice of American-style or blue cheese. To match, the cocktail list boasts a classic party energy — think, Tommy's margaritas, a spicy mango daiquiri and the prosecco-topped Tequila Fizzer. You'll also find a crop of mostly Aussie wines, a familiar lineup of brews on the tap list, and drink specials that include half-price negronis from 5–7pm each night. Find the newly reimagined Gertrude Hotel at 148 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. It's open 4–11pm Wednesday and Thursday, 4pm–1am Friday and Saturday, and 1–10pm Sunday. Images: Amy Whitfield and the Gertrude Hotel
Love has always been a little bit rebellious. From secret letters and forbidden relationships, to modern-day DMs and fandom-fuelled devotion, the search for connection has rarely followed the rules. And a new exhibition at State Library Victoria is shining a light on those who dared to break them. Free to visit, Rebel Heart: Love Letters and Other Declarations dives deep into Australia's romantic past, present and imagined futures. Drawing from the Library's vast archives of intimate diaries, handwritten letters and rare manuscripts, the exhibition traces centuries of passion and pain — amplified by newly commissioned music from some of Australia's most compelling artists. [caption id="attachment_1070885" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Angie McMahon[/caption] The stories at the heart of the exhibition span eras and circumstances. Visitors will meet figures like Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcomb, the so-called 'gentlewoman farmers' who lived together in the 1840s, their bond preserved through Drysdale's diaries. Angie McMahon's new musical work will draw directly from those personal writings. Elsewhere, Wiradyuri-Filipinx artist Mo'Ju will respond to the letters Aileen McColl wrote to Immigration Minister Harold Holt, pleading for her Filipino husband to be allowed to return home to Melbourne. Music legends Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter will also feature, with their extraordinary love story — forged while sleeping rough as teenagers and sustained through decades of artistry — honoured in a new piece by their son, Amos Roach. [caption id="attachment_1070886" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mindy Meng Wang[/caption] Another highlight will come from a letter of unrequited love discovered tucked behind a painting in the Library in 2009, reimagined through a commission by Mindy Meng Wang. Even bushranger lore gets a romantic reframe, with the story of Captain Moonlight and James Nesbitt, who met in Pentridge Prison and remained together until Nesbitt died in Moonlight's arms during a shoot-out. The exhibition doesn't stop at the past. Rebel Heart also explores how we connect now — and what love might look like in years to come — through mixtapes, fandoms, zines, fan fiction, AI relationships and digital intimacy. Visitors can look forward to more contemporary artefacts on show too, including Taylor Swift friendship bracelets from the Australian leg of the 2024 Eras Tour. [caption id="attachment_1070888" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Victorian Valentine's Day cards will feature in Rebel Heart[/caption] Timed to coincide with Valentine's Day, the Library is also hosting a slate of themed events. Highlights include Love Letters Live, featuring candid and comedic readings by beloved comedians hosted by Nina Oyama, and Love and Art, an intimate evening series exploring how love shapes creative practice, launching with Melbourne duo The Huxleys. Rebel Heart: Love Letters and Other Declarations opens February 12th, 2026 at State Library Victoria. Images: Supplied
J-horror devotees, rejoice: Australia's Japanese Film Festival is back for 2023, and it boasts a couple of highlights for lovers of scary cinema. If you're a fan of Japan's contribution to frightening flicks, then The Forbidden Play is your first must-see. Behind the lens is Hideo Nakata, the director of 1998's iconic Ringu, aka the movie that helped spark a global obsession (and the American spinoffs, too). This time, the filmmaker tells of a son wanting to bring his mother back to life, so much so that he keeps chanting a resurrection spell that awakens something evil. This year's JFF isn't just about unsettling titles, but it does also feature Immersion, which hails from Ju-On: The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu (who also helmed the first US remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar). In his latest effort, he's playing with grudges again, as well as traditional Japanese superstitions, virtual reality and a secluded island — which is never a good setting for a horror film. That's the unnerving contingent for JFF 2023, which is focusing on films that explore connections between the past and the present when it tours the country across spring. Of course, it will also serve another function: letting audiences head to Japan from their cinema seats. Everyone has a favourite place in the world to visit. If you love travelling vicariously through movies when you can't do the real thing — in-between trips, or when your budget or just life in general doesn't have room for big holidays — then you likely have a favourite country-focused cinema event as well. JFF is one such event, surveying the latest and greatest in the nation's filmography. 2023 marks its 27th year, in fact, complete with a packed program. Among the delightful aspects of this film festival is its two-pronged approach in most cities, giving both recent and retrospective titles their own time to shine. One part of the event heroes latest releases, the other goes big on classics, and each has their own run of dates. You'll find that setup in Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from September–November, with Perth the only location solely focusing on new movies. Officially opening the fest for 2023: We're Broke, My Lord!, a character-driven story about an unexpected inheritance from director Tetsu Maeda (And So the Baton Is Passed). From there, audiences can also look forward to the aforementioned to J-horror pictures; the animated Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom; Citizen Kitano's tribute to actor, comedian and filmmaker Takeshi Kitano (Outrage Coda); and Yokaipedia, which is about three boys on a monster-filled quest. Fellow standouts include Yudo: The Way of the Bath, a comedy about bathhouse rituals; romance We Made a Beautiful Bouquet; Natchan's Little Secret, where three drag queens head to a funeral; and Single8, with director Kazuya Konaka's paying tribute to filmmaking before the digital era. And, in the special series — aka the fest's retrospective thread — post-war Japanese cinema figure Kо̄ Nakahira is in the spotlight. JFF will screen 1956's Juvenile Jungle and Milkman Frankie, 1957's Temptation, 1962's Danger's Where The Money Is!, and 1963's Mud Spattered Purity, as well as Flora on the Sand, Only on Mondays and The Hunter's Diary from 1964, plus 1965's The Black Gambler. JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 DATES: Canberra: Special series: Saturday, September 30–Monday, October 2 at NFSA Latest releases: Wednesday, October 11–Sunday, October 15 at Palace Electric Perth: Latest releases: Monday, October 16–Sunday, October 22 at Palace Raine Square Brisbane: Special series: Friday, October 6–Sunday, October 8 and Wednesday, October 11 at QAGOMA Latest releases: Wednesday, October 18–Sunday, October 22 at Palace Barracks Melbourne: Latest releases: Monday, October 23–Sunday, October 29 at The Kino and Palace Balwyn Special series: Thursday, November 2–Sunday, November 5 at ACMI Sydney: Special series: Monday, October 23–Wednesday, October 25 at The Chauvel Latest releases: Thursday, October 26–Tuesday, October 31 at Palace Central, Palace Norton Street and Palace Verona The 2023 Japanese Film Festival tours Australia from September–November. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website. Top images: ©2023 The Forbidden Play Film Partners, © 2023 IMMERSION Production Committee.
When it comes to leaders in Melbourne's food scene, The Mulberry Group's founder Nathan Toleman has been right up there for well over a decade. When the city was undergoing somewhat of a cafe renaissance, he founded Three Bags Full, Top Paddock, The Kettle Black and Higher Ground. These were and continue to be some of Melbourne's best brunch spots. After conquering the cafe world, he set his sights on the dinner and late-night drinks trade in Melbourne's CBD, launching Dessous and Hazel. Dessous is still one of the best bars in Melbourne, and Hazel is one of the city's top restaurants. And now, Toleman's putting all of his learnings into two new neighbouring sites in Abbotsford that'll cover all your day- and night-time needs when it opens in June this year. Little Molli will be part deli, cafe and pantry, and Molli will be a sleek wine bar and bistro. Open from 8am every day, Little Molli will be serving locals a selection of loaded sangas — think smoked pork shoulder with whipped cod roe on To Be Frank's legendary focaccia and ciabatta. As it transitions to later in the afternoon, Little Molli will offer an extensive range of charcuterie and cheeses, plus a carefully chosen selection of wines by the glass that'll pair well with whatever's hitting the food menu. [caption id="attachment_868652" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hazel[/caption] Hazel Head Chef Aleksis Kalnins is heading up both kitchens, giving great attention to Molli's dishes that are said to "sidestep the everyday wine-bar fare". Small and large plates will include eats like pork neck skewers straight from the Josper oven with a rich date puree; whole alpine trout coated with a horseradish emulsion; and pork rice crispies. "As an Abbotsford local myself, I want Molli to be the kind of place I've been missing," says Kalnins. "Really high quality and creative, but not pretentious. The food would be simple enough not to scare my mum and technical enough to make my chef friends wonder how I did it." Kayla Saito — who spends most of her time dreaming up Hazel's and Dessous' ever-changing beverage lineup — has designed a drinks list that's said to be "relaxed but thoughtful", with a deep sustainability ethos. Saito will work closely with the kitchen when fermenting some funky tipples and aims to ensure that Molli takes food waste issues seriously. Wines will lean away from the old-world varietals, aiming to be different yet unpretentious. Molli and Little Molli are still under construction, but Addition Studio is bringing plenty of light into the space with floor-to-ceiling windows. Warm, natural tones and wood finishes will keep things simple and lean into those classic bistro vibes, while a large rooftop garden with city views will open for special events. Toleman has high hopes for Little Molli and Molli, hoping to make them institutions just like so many of his previous venues. Given his track record, we feel pretty sure he'll nails these, too. Little Molli and Molli are slated to open in June this year at 20–30 Mollison Street, Abbotsford. Little Molli will be open 8am–5pm every day, and Molli will open 5-11pm on Wednesdays, 12-11pm Thursday–Saturday, and 11.30am–4pm on Sundays. Images: Tim Harris
If the last couple of years in pop culture are to be believed, it mightn't be a great idea to go away with a character played by Cristin Milioti. In three of the always-excellent actor's most recent high-profile roles, she has decamped to idyllic surroundings, only to find anything but bliss awaiting. Palm Springs threw a Groundhog Day-style time loop her way in its titular setting. Made for Love saw her trapped by sinister futuristic possibilities. In The Resort, which hails from Palm Springs screenwriter Andy Siara, she now has the ten-year itch — and a getaway to Mexico that's meant to soothe it slides swiftly into a wild mystery. In this instantly twisty comedy-thriller — which brings its first three episodes to Stan in Australia on Friday, July 29, and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand, then drops the remaining five weekly — Miloti plays Emma, spouse to William Jackson Harper's (The Good Place) Noah. After a decade of marriage, they're celebrating at the Bahía del Paraíso in the Yucatán, but they're really trying to reignite their spark. At this stage in their relationship, he recoils at her bad breath, she makes fun of him falling asleep on the couch, and they're rarely in sync; even when they're floating along the resort's lazy river, cocktails in hand, they want different things. And, they each tackle their matrimonial malaise in wildly dissimilar ways. She wants to find herself above all else, while he's desperate to reconnect. What they both find is a missing-persons case from 15 years ago, after Emma goes tumbling off a quad-biking trail, bumps her head and spies an old mobile phone. It belongs to Sam (Skyler Gisondo, Licorice Pizza), a guest at the nearby but now-shuttered Oceana Vista Resort, who was on holidays over Christmas 1997 with his parents (IRL couple Dylan Baker, Hunters, and Becky Ann Baker, Big Little Lies), as well as his girlfriend Hannah (Debby Ryan, Insatiable). As Emma learns via Sam's photos and text messages, all wasn't rosy in his romantic life. After running into fellow guest Violet (Nina Bloomgarden, Good Girl Jane), his SMS history skews in her direction. But the pair promptly disappeared, and any potential clues were lost when a hurricane struck and destroyed their getaway spot. Initially, Emma and Noah could've waltzed right out of The White Lotus, which also saw a sunny and sandy holiday turn sour — and surveyed couples looking to reignite their love, or solidify it, but getting caught up in thorny feelings and a murky death, too. When Emma takes to solving Sam and Violet's disappearance with the kind of enthusiasm she clearly hasn't shown towards Noah for years, she could been on loan from Only Murders in the Building as well. And, the more that the obsessed Emma and the reluctant Noah investigate, the more than The Resort has in common with Palm Springs. No one relives the same day again and again, but showrunner, writer and executive producer Siara displays the same sense of playfulness. Can bonding over a 15-year-old cold case fix a flailing marriage? Did a holiday romance end in tragedy all that time ago? They're The Resort's two key questions. It has more, many uttered by Emma and Noah as they track down every tidbit they can, but they're not the only people interested. In the series' flashback timeline, Oceana Vista Resort's head of security Baltasar (Luis Gerardo Méndez, Narcos: Mexico) tries to get to the bottom of things, while Violet's father Murray (Nick Offerman, Pam & Tommy) is understandably frantic. Also part this layered tale: Gabriela Cartol (Hernán) as knowing concierge Luna, Ben Sinclair (Thor: Love and Thunder) as erratic resort owner Alex, plus Parvesh Cheena (Mythic Quest) and Michael Hitchcock (Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as two married Teds dissecting their own long-running nuptials. The Resort's three main threads — a marriage in peril, holidays gone wrong and crime-inspired sleuthing — are as familiar as scenarios get on-screen in the past few years. Indeed, picturesque vacations taking turns for the worst have become a pandemic-era staple, as M Night Shyamalan's Old, the Tim Roth-starring Sundown, the aforementioned The White Lotus and fellow TV series Nine Perfect Strangers have all demonstrated. Siara moulds his addition to the landscape knowingly, though. He approaches all three of his well-worn setups with an understanding of why they're popular, and with a roguish eagerness to zig and zag all over the place. One of the show's biggest thrills comes from seeing just where it'll veer off to next, even while working with such recognisable beats. Surprises arise not just for Emma, Noah, Sam, Violet and company, but for The Resort's audience. Something that won't astonish: how quickly bingeable the series becomes, even though it's drip-feeding out its later episodes. Like Emma and Noah, getting drawn deep into the mystery is easy. Like Sam and Violet, too, getting caught up in the excitement comes just as naturally. The need to piece together puzzles kicks into gear while watching — something that Siara also cultivated on the tonally similar, criminally cancelled-too-soon Lodge 49, and rang true of producer Sam Esmail's Mr Robot as well. It helps that The Resort always looks enticing, not just via locations bound to inspire travel yearnings, but in the detail that resonates in its jungles, caves, hotel bars and lavish penthouses alike. The show's four directors, including Sinclair (High Maintenance), Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman (Partisan), and Daniel Garcia and Rania Attieh (Two Sentence Horror Stories), ensure that everything seen on-screen is lively, fascinating and probing in tandem. As guides through The Resort's many turns — as audience surrogates as well — Milioti and Harper are supremely well-cast, even if both have played these types of characters before (for the latter, see: season two of Love Life). The series could've focused solely their way and unearthed ample treasures, stirring insights into love and loss among them. That said, the same is true of the reliably engaging Gisondo (who keeps building on a resume that also spans Santa Clarita Diet and The Righteous Gemstones) and Bloomgarden as Sam and Violet find their own riddle to solve. Offerman's determined father adds poignancy, plus another excellent turn to his his name, but it's Méndez who best embodies The Resort. Sometimes he's tasked with teasing out minutiae and intrigue, sometimes he's delightfully goofy, and he's always impossible to look away from. Check out the trailer for The Resort below: The Resort is available to stream in Australia via Stan and in New Zealand via TVNZ On Demand. Images: Marisol Pesquera / Peacock.
2023 marks three decades since Snoop Dogg released his first single and album, with the rap star's career evolving in a variety of ways from there. He's dropped hits like they're hot, collaborated with seemingly everyone in the music industry, and popped up on both the big and small screens. He's also taken on MC duties at wrestling matches, released his own wine and adopted aliases. And, in 2018, he shared his kitchen skills with the world via his very own cookbook. Within From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen's pages, fans can find recipes for everything from 'billionaire's bacon' and 'Bow Wow brownies and ice cream' — and, of course, gin and juice. Yes, the tome means that you can listen to Snoop's tunes while whipping up his dishes and sipping the drink he'll always be synonymous with. Yes, it was another success. [caption id="attachment_908060" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tulane Public Relations via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] From Crook to Cook reached shelves after Snoop teamed up with Martha Stewart on TV show Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party. Again, he does love a collab. So, now that it's time for a followup cookbook, the hip hop icon is also calling upon fellow rapper E-40 for help. The end result: Snoop Dogg Presents Goon with the Spoon. It's set to arrive in bookstores Down Under in November 2023, giving Snoop aficionados another way to splash their affection the musician's way after his tour across Australia and New Zealand back in February and March. This recipe collection spans more than 65 dishes, covering everything from mains and desserts to drinks. Despite the name, we're guessing that cask wine isn't included. This new kitchen bible will feature meals that take inspiration from Snoop and E-40's respective music catalogues, as well as Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party and E-40's Filipino food business Lumpia. And the reason for its moniker? Again, it isn't due to cheap boxed vino, but because that's E-40's — aka Earl Stevens — nickname, and adorns his range of sausages, ice cream flavour and burritos in the US. Snoop Dogg Presents Goon with the Spoon will also get Snoop-loving cooks sharing its wares, thanks to a selection of suggested event menus. Fancy a 4/20 potluck? Catering for a summertime block party? The cookbook includes options for both, plus headnotes and sidebar stories from Snoop and E-40's well-known pals about dinner parties and nights out together. View this post on Instagram A post shared by GOON WITH THE SPOON (@goonwiththespoon) Snoop Dogg Presents Goon with the Spoon releases on November 15, 2023. Top image: Jason Persse via Wikimedia Commons.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to watching anything, we're here to help. We've spent plenty of couch time watching our way through this months latest batch — and, from the latest and greatest to old favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from December's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW LANDSCAPERS In 2013, in an ordinary backyard in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, UK police excavated the bodies of Patricia and William Wycherley. The elderly couple was last seen 15 years prior, with their librarian daughter Susan Edwards and her accountant husband Chris telling neighbours that the Wycherleys had moved — before Susan and Chris fled their own bills and chased their own love of Gallic cinema to France, that is. In 2014, the younger duo were convicted of the Wycherleys murders, despite willingly returning to England to face questioning and offering their own version of events in the process. To the police, the crime was a premeditated act motivated by money. In their tale, Susan and Chris spoke of multiple layers of abuse, of a heated night that ended badly, and of poor decisions inspired by a lifetime of fear. With Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) playing Susan and David Thewlis (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) as Chris, Landscapers unfurls the Edwards-Wycherley saga, digging into the story's details across a four-part true-crime miniseries. But as its irreverent name makes plain, this isn't the usual dive into real-life crime — and not just because its two leads turn in phenomenal performances that rank among their very best. As he's done in both TV series Flowers and recent feature The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, filmmaker Will Sharpe brings his whimsical style to this experimental retelling. On paper, such a tone and the visual flourishes that come with it might seem ill-suited to the material, but it's all a part of the show's interrogation of how its central pair — and everyone in general — navigate life by spinning their own version of reality. It's an inspired touch, and makes Landscapers one of the most distinctive and engrossing additions yet to a ridiculously busy, ever-popular genre. Landscapers is available to stream via Stan. ENCOUNTER Excellent casting can't save all films. Ambitious directors can't, either. But with Encounter, it's easy to see how the sci-fi thriller would've turned out if anyone other than Riz Ahmed was leading the show — and if a filmmaker other than Michael Pearce was at the helm. Across the last three years and his past three movies, Ahmed has turned in a trio of stunning performances that lay bare struggling men battling to reclaim a sense of normality. Indeed, arriving after Mogul Mowgli and Sound of Metal, Encounter couldn't be better placed on his resume. As for Pearce, he jumps into this slippery story of a father, a road trip and a possible alien parasite invasion after making a tremendous feature debut with 2017's Beast, and serves up the same commitment to telling thorny tales without needing to explain away everything. When Ahmed's ex-soldier Malik Khan kills a wasp in his motel room with intense determination, it's clear that he's unusually passionate about eradicating insects — and, believing that a meteorite crashed into earth not so long ago, brought extraterrestrial invaders with it, but hardly anyone else noticed, he has good reason for his entomophobia. His mission: to rescue his two young sons (Heartland's Lucian-River Chauhan and first-timer Aditya Geddada) from the bug-sized aliens, even if it means whisking them away from his ex-wife (Janina Gavankar, The Morning Show) in the middle of the night. Co-written with Joe Barton (Girl/Haji), Pearce's film isn't quite the mystery he thinks it is, but it doesn't need to be to relay its weighty character study. Whenever Ahmed is on-screen, which is often, this is a tense and moving examination of trauma, stress and endeavouring to cope with chaos both everyday and extraordinary. Encounter is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS Here's a great way to know whether a new TV comedy is worth watching: check whether Mindy Kaling is involved. After stealing every scene she could in The Office, then turning The Mindy Project into a smart, funny and adorable rom-com sitcom made with oh-so-much love for the genre, she just keeps adding new shows to her resume as a co-creator, writer and producer. The Sex Lives of College Girls is the latest, and quickly thrives thanks to the kind of savvy, authentic, honest and highly amusing writing that's always been a hallmark of Kaling's work. If you didn't know she was behind it going in, you'd easily guess. It also sports an immensely descriptive title, following four college freshmen — strangers to each other, but now roommates — as they navigate the move from high school to the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Because three movies currently in cinemas starring a member of Chalamet family just isn't enough (aka Dune, The French Dispatch and Don't Look Up), The Sex Lives of College Girls features his Timothée's sister Pauline (The King of Staten Island). She plays Kimberly Finkle, who heads to Essex as valedictorian of her small-town school, is more excited about the classes than the parties, but still wants to have the full college experience. And, she's thrilled to find herself rooming with aspiring comedy writer Bela Malhotra (Amrit Kaur, The D Cut), star soccer player Whitney Chase (first-timer Alyah Chanelle Scott) and the wealthy Leighton Murray (theatre star Reneé Rapp) — even if the latter in particular doesn't initially return the enthusiasm. The quartet's exploits from there navigate all the usual kinds of relatable college antics, but do so with a warm-hearted vibe, a great cast, insightful humour, and a shrewd focus on friendships and figuring out who you want to be. The first season of The Sex Lives of College Girls is available to stream via Binge. SWAN SONG It took Mahershala Ali a mere two years to back up his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar with a second one, initially winning for the sublime Moonlight before again earning the nod for being the best thing about Green Book. He won't add a third Academy Award to his mantle for Swan Song, but he gives it two tries — playing a terminally ill illustrator who doesn't want to put his family through the pain of losing him, and also playing the clone his character has secretly had made to replace him without his loved ones ever knowing he was even sick. That's the futuristic sci-fi premise behind this poignant drama, which tussles with life, love, loss and two inescapable realisations. This isn't just a movie about facing your own mortality, but about confronting the fact that everything that's important to you — everyone that's important, to be specific — will still continue on after you say goodbye. Not to be confused with the Udo Kier-starring film of the exact same name that's just reached cinemas, Swan Song ruminates on Cameron Turner's (Ali, Alita: Battle Angel) moral quandary after enlisting Dr Scott (Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy) to replicate him before he succumbs to his illness. Even after seeing how fellow patient Kate (Awkwafina, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and her clone fare, it's a decision that weighs heavily on his mind — especially given his wife Poppy (Naomie Harris, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) is expecting their second child. So much of Swan Song's power stems from Ali's ability to wade through such a difficult choice, and to convey its emotional ramifications often without saying a word. In this thoughtful directorial debut by writer/director Benjamin Cleary, Ali also unpacks the flipside as Jack, who'll replace Cameron, and sees the possibilities his existence brings with literally fresh eyes. Swan Song is available to stream via Apple TV+. THE NORTH WATER When ex-army surgeon Patrick Sumner (Jack O'Connell, Seberg) secures a gig on a whaling expedition to the Arctic working as the ship's doctor, he's clearly running from something. His new colleagues are instantly suspicious of his story, bloodthirsty harpooner Henry Drax (Colin Farrell, Voyagers) among them — although Captain Brownlee (Stephen Graham, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) and whaling company owner Baxter (Tom Courtenay, Summerland) are mostly just happy for his cheap services. That's the setup for The North Water, the 19th-century-set, five-part miniseries that takes to the seas, to the cold and to a brutal world, and proves grimly mesmerising with its Moby Dick-meets-Heart of Darkness vibes. Charting a survivalist tale not just of the physical kind amid all that unforgiving ice (and on those treacherous waters), but also of the emotional and mental variety as well, this is one of the most relentlessly intense shows to hit screens in 2021 — and it's also gripping from start to finish. The first episode sets the scene in a slow-burn fashion, culminating in sights so searing they're impossible to forget — and the story, as well as the vast chasm between Sumner and Drax, only grows from there. Writer/director Andrew Haigh adapts Ian McGuire's novel of the same name, but this series has the Weekend, 45 Years and Lean on Pete filmmaker's stamp all over it. He finds as much empathy here as he has throughout his stellar big-screen projects, and once again demonstrates his extraordinary eye for detail, exceptional sense of place and winning way with actors. With the latter, having O'Connell and Farrell lead the charge obviously helps. They're not only reliably phenomenal; they each put in some of their best-ever work, and their performances seethe with complexity. So does the entire miniseries, which is never willing to pose easy answers or provide straightforward interpretations when ruminating over the minutiae is much more riveting, fascinating and realistic. The North Water is available to stream via Binge. MACGRUBER They can't all be The Blues Brothers or Wayne's World — films based on Saturday Night Live sketches, that is. Eagerly silly, as you'd expect of any MacGyver send-up, 2010's MacGruber definitely doesn't belong in the same category as the two best SNL-to-cinema flicks. That hasn't stopped an action-parody TV series hitting streaming 11 years later, however. And, with Will Forte once again donning a Richard Dean Anderson-style mullet and wearing plenty of flannelette, this MacGruber revival is the satire's finest moment yet. You could easily think that it only exists because Forte had a gap in his schedule, or because even television skits-turned-movies never die, and both are likely true. Still, when it comes to making fun of all the action cliches that'll never leave screens either big or small, this series knows its unashamedly ridiculous niche. The setup: after spending a decade in prison, the eponymous hero is given a reprieve by his pal General Barrett Fasoose (Laurence Fishburne, The Ice Road) when the president's daughter is kidnapped. He's part of the ransom demand, but his long-term foe Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth (Billy Zane, The Boys) also has other plans. Cue a cavalcade of amusingly over-the-top gags about action-flick machismo and every other trope the genre keeps throwing at viewers, all with Forte and his co-stars as committed as ever to the concept, tone and non-stop jokes. If it wasn't so self-aware — and if both Forte and Kristen Wiig (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) weren't so pitch-perfect in their parts — it might just be stupid rather than stupidly funny. Thankfully, MacGruber knows what it is, knows how to do it well, and knows the difference between being dumb and serving up gleefully dumb fun. The first season of MacGruber is available to stream via Stan. NEW SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK STATION ELEVEN Add Station Eleven to the pile of post-pandemic movies and shows that ponder that very subject — a topic that'll continue to grace our screens for years and decades to come. It's unfair to clump this haunting end-of-the-world miniseries into the same group as opportunistic flicks such as Locked Down, though. Instead, like Y: The Last Man, it predates COVID-19, arrives after garnering a devoted following on the page, and taps into something far deeper than obvious observations about being stuck at home with your significant other and having to scramble to buy toilet paper. The focus of this excellent show, and of Emily St. John Mandel's 2014 book before it, is how art and community all play immeasurable parts in helping humanity process and navigate existence-shattering traumas — and to find a path out the other side. That's a sentiment that might sound mawkish and self-evident when described in a mere sentence, but nothing about Station Eleven ever earns such terms. It all starts with a flu that swiftly proves more than just the usual sniffles, coughs, aches and pains. For eight-year-old Shakespearean actor Kirsten (Matilda Lawler, Evil), the chaos descends during a tumultuous opening-night performance of King Lear led by Arthur Leander (Gael García Bernal, Old), the aftermath of which sees her traipsing around snowy Chicago with Jeevan (Himesh Patel, Don't Look Up), who she has just met. That's really just the beginning of this multi-layered narrative, which also jumps forward 20 years to experience Kirsten's (Mackenzie Davis, Happiest Season) life with a travelling theatre troupe as the planet adjusts to its new normality — and keeps fluttering backwards into her younger exploits, and into the experiences of others connected to her story in various ways. This is a dystopian disaster tale not just about merely surviving, but about truly enduring, and it's a lyrical, heartfelt and character-driven apocalyptic musing with an immediate difference. The first five episodes of Station Eleven are available to stream via Stan, with new episodes dropping weekly. FIREBITE Trust Warwick Thornton to rove his eyes across Australia's sunburnt landscape, imagine vampires prowling the outback and cast those predators within a narrative that hails back to the First Fleet's arrival. The Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country filmmaker co-created new Aussie fantasy-horror series Firebite with Mad Bastards' director Brendan Fletcher, so the credit isn't his alone; however, given that he's spent his career exploring the nation's treatment of Indigenous Australians, it slips easily into his filmography. His third TV project in short succession following the second season of Mystery Road and stunning docoseries The Beach, Firebite also carves out a place for Indigenous tales within the undead genre. Indeed, seeing the colonisation of Australia as the act of ruthless bloodsuckers is an idea so smart and shrewd that this new streaming delight deserves to span on for several seasons. Making glorious use of Coober Pedy's dusty expanse — and its underground dugouts, which help locals escape the heat — Firebite follows two black vampire hunters, aka bloodhunters. Tyson (Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) doesn't really like the label, but he's determined to keep his hometown of Opal City free of vampires, and he's teaching his teenage daughter Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Total Control) the trade. But then The King (Callan Mulvey, High Ground) arrives, and more bloodsuckers follow. As a century of vampire fare dictates, this doesn't bode well for humans. Thornton and Fletcher — and fellow director Tony Krawitz (Secret City) — never merely follow in anyone else's footsteps, though. In fact, they don't just sink their teeth into a familiar concept, but tear into it to tell their own standout tale, and do so with a devil-may-care attitude that drips through Firebite's style, story and performances. The first two episodes of Firebite are available to stream via AMC+, with new episodes dropping weekly. EXCELLENT RECENT BIG-SCREEN RELEASES TO CATCH UP WITH IMMEDIATELY THE POWER OF THE DOG Don't call it a comeback: Jane Campion's films have been absent from cinemas for 12 years but, due to miniseries Top of the Lake, she hasn't been biding her time in that gap. And don't call it simply returning to familiar territory, even if the New Zealand director's new movie features an ivory-tinkling woman caught between cruel and sensitive men, as her Cannes Palme d'Or-winner The Piano did three decades ago. Campion isn't rallying after a dip, just as she isn't repeating herself. She's never helmed anything less than stellar, and she's immensely capable of unearthing rich new pastures in well-ploughed terrain. With The Power of the Dog, Campion is at the height of her skills trotting into her latest mesmerising musing on strength, desire and isolation — this time via a venomous western that's as perilously bewitching as its mountainous backdrop. That setting is Montana, circa 1925. Campion's homeland stands in for America nearly a century ago, making a magnificent sight — with cinematographer Ari Wegner (Zola, True History of the Kelly Gang) perceptively spying danger in its craggy peaks and dusty plains even before the film introduces Rose and Peter Gordon (On Becoming a God in Central Florida's Kirsten Dunst and 2067's Kodi Smit-McPhee). When the widowed innkeeper and her teenage son serve rancher brothers Phil and George Burbank (Spider-Man: No Way Home's Benedict Cumberbatch a career-best, awards-worthy, downright phenomenal turn, plus Antlers' Jesse Plemons) during a cattle-run stop, the encounter seesaws from callousness to kindness, a dynamic that continues after Rose marries George and decamps to the Burbank mansion against that stunning backdrop. Brutal to the lanky, lisping Peter from the outset, Phil responds to the nuptials with malice. He isn't fond of change, and won't accommodate anything that fails his bristling definition of masculinity and power, either. The Power of the Dog is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. THERE IS NO EVIL The death penalty casts a dark and inescapable shadow over There Is No Evil, which is just as writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof intends. The Iranian filmmaker has spent his career examining the reality of his homeland, as previously seen in 2013's Manuscripts Don't Burn and 2017's A Man of Integrity — so much so that he's actually been banned from his craft, not that that's stopping him. With There Is No Evil, Rasoulof doesn't simply continue the trend that's guided his cinematic resume thus far. Rather, he interrogates the most severe form of punishment that any society can enact, and doesn't shy away from horrors both obvious and unplanned. To call the result powerful is an understatement, and it's won him Berlinale's prestigious Golden Bear in 2020, and now the 2021 Sydney Film Festival Prize as well. An anthology film that unfurls across four segments, There Is No Evil explores capital punishment, its impact and the ripples that executions have upon Iranian society. Even the mere concept of state-sanctioned killing rolls through the feature like waves, changing and reshaping much in its wake. It touches a stressed husband and father (feature first-timer Ehsan Mirhosseini), a conscript (Kaveh Ahangar, Don't Be Embarrassed) who can't fathom ending someone's life, a soldier (Mohammad Valizadegan, Lady of the City) whose compliance causes personal issues and a physician (Mohammad Seddighimehr, The Sad Widows of the Warlord) unable to practise his trade. While some sections hit their mark more firmly and decisively than others — There Is No Evil's introduction sets a high bar — this meticulously crafted movie, both visually and thematically, has a lingering cumulative effect as it ruminates on the threats and freedoms that come with life under an oppressive regime. There Is No Evil is available to stream via SBS On Demand. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November this year — and our top new TV shows of 2021, best new television series from this year that you might've missed and top straight-to-streaming films and specials as well. Top image: Ian Routledge/AMC+.
Clocking in at two hours and 40 minutes, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn't a short movie. Like the bulk of the acclaimed writer/director's films, however, it's one that viewers would be be happy to spend even longer with. Since the hit flick premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Tarantino has even talked about returning to its world, revealing that he has written the scripts for five episodes of the Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio)-starring fictional TV western Bounty Law — and that he plans to make and direct them all. It might take some time for that to come to fruition, though, so a new, free documentary that peeks behind the scenes of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will just have to do in the meantime. Called Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — A Love Letter to Making Movies, the half-hour doco lives up to its title. Not only does it step through the making of Tarantino's feature, but it explores how the filmmaker's obsessive love of cinema informed everything about the movie. QT's fondness for the medium he works in isn't new news. Neither is his tendency to fill his films with references to his inspiration, or his dedicated attention to detail. But if you want to hear more about how that all plays out on this specific 19169-set flick — a movie that's, among other things, a love letter to Hollywood's heyday just as it was fading — then here's your chance. Currently available to watch on Youtube, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — A Love Letter to Making Movies features plenty of the movie's heavy-hitters, so expect to-camera chats from Tarantino — obviously — as well as DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant and the late Luke Perry. With the film industry's annual awards season currently in full swing, and with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood not only vying for ten Oscars, but hotly tipped to nab the coveted Best Picture prize —if Parasite or 1917 doesn't beat it, that is — the documentary's release is obviously extremely well-timed. Check out Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — A Love Letter to Making Movies below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AxkaueDxYM Top image: © 2018 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
What are your thoughts on a good acrobatics show? Are you entranced by the physicality, the movements that require seemingly impossible feats of strength and concentration? Then check your calendar and get ready to witness Le Aerial, a globally praised show coming to the Playhouse Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne from Wednesday, May 3 to Sunday, May 7. Le Aerial brings top-shelf Aussie stars of the stage and screen to a production of Cirque-style skill and heights. Le Aerial is more than just feats of acrobatic wonder — keep your ears peeled for two singers and live music for an extra level of entertainment. These productions involve a lot more verticality than your typical stage play or musical, so it takes a special kind of performer to bring these shows to life. Those performers include international gymnastics sensation Alex Caulfield, fresh from performing with Cirque Du Soleil in Totem, local Melbourne musical theatre star Mike Snell, Craig Monley and Sriani Argaet (Dancing With The Stars) and a lineup of exceptional gymnasts and dancers. The show has captivated audiences worldwide for the better part of eight years, but this Melbourne stint is only six shows over five days (plus a few special matinee performances), so you'd better get your tickets ASAP. Le Aerial will play daily from Wednesday, May 3 to Sunday, May 7, in the Playhouse Theatre of Arts Centre Melbourne. For more information on the show and the venue or to secure your tickets, visit the website.
It tells of gold rushes, of brave and dusty new worlds, and of yellow frontiers stretching out beneath shimmering and inky blue skies; however, the true colour of the western is and always will be red. This isn't a genre for the faint-hearted, because it's a genre that spins stories about power and its brutal costs — power over the land and its Indigenous inhabitants; power-fuelled in-fighting among competing colonialists; and power exercised with zero regard for life, or typically for anyone who isn't white and male. It's a rich and resonant touch, then, to repeatedly dress Emily Blunt in crimson, pink and shades in-between in The English, 2022's best new TV western. She plays one instance of the show's namesakes, because the impact of the British spans far beyond just one person in this series — and the quest for revenge she's on in America's Old West is deeply tinted by bloodshed. In her first ongoing television role since 2005 — and following a varied array of big-screen parts in the last couple of years, including navigating theme park ride-inspired chaos in Jungle Cruise, monsters that pounce on every sound in A Quiet Place Part II and bad Irish accents in romance Wild Mountain Thyme — Blunt dons such eye-catching hues as Lady Cornelia Locke. With a mountain of baggage and cash in tow, she has just reached Kansas when The English begins, seeking vengeance against the man responsible for her son's death. But word of her aims precedes her to this remote outpost's racist hotelier (Ciarán Hinds, Belfast) and, with stagecoach driver (Toby Jones, The Wonder), he has own mission. That the aristocratic Englishwoman arrives to find her host torturing Pawnee cavalry scout Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer, Blindspot) is telling: the plan is to blame her end on him. Before the first of this Prime Video miniseries' episodes ends — all six of which stream from Friday, November 11 — Cornelia and Eli have rescued each other and notched up a body count. She's still determined to get her retribution, he's trying to head home to Nebraska to claim land promised for his military service, and they're each endeavouring to find peace in their own ways. This isn't the genre for that to come easily, either, as stop after stop on their journeys makes clear. The bulk of The English takes place in 1890, but to survey the way that rampant and engrained imperialistic violence and dehumanisation — of First Nations Americans, and of women — leaves scars that linger, the series also jumps backwards 15 years, and takes a flashback trip to Cornelia's native London. Writer/director Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line) charts pain that bakes as unforgivingly as the frontier sun: massacres of Indigenous Americans and non-English-speaking settlers alike, the ruthless money- and power-first mentality to staking claims and seizing everything in view, and the dark hearts festering inside abhorrent men who can only hate what they refuse to spend time knowing. The English is a show of shootings, scalpings, stabbings and slaughter, and blood is an oh-so-frequent sight. But Blick also makes a compelling and compassionate series about two kindred souls fighting for what they hold dearest, and against the kinds of horrors that everyone should battle, no matter the cost to their own personal survival. The tone isn't quite as unrelenting bleak, and the setting is on the other side of the world, but Jennifer Kent's Australian masterpiece The Nightingale springs to mind — and The English doesn't suffer in the comparison. As the iconic spaghetti westerns of the 60s and 70s, exceptional TV series Deadwood, and recent big-screen period-set westerns like The Harder They Fall and The Power of the Dog have all shown, this genre also serves up a gallery of rogues living, dying, striving and thriving amid such inhospitable surroundings. The English is no different; when Black-Eyed Mog (Nichola McAuliffe, The Man Who Fell to Earth) shows up, she isn't quickly forgotten, and nor are Gary Farmer and Kimberly Guerrero (both of Reservation Dogs) as a Native American couple getting by, or Rafe Spall (Trying) at his most operatic and nefarious (and with quite the accent and wardrobe). Including Stephen Rea (The Stranger) as a small-town sheriff in Hoxem, Wyoming and Valerie Pachner (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) as another put-upon woman greeted by hardship in her adopted homeland, there's no weak link among The English's cast. Even brief appearances make a mark, as aided by banter that recalls Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight western-genre best. That said, Blick never lets his two stars slip from the limelight — from the golden beams that colour his setting with far more splendour than sites of such grim events deserve, to be exact. Traversing the birth of colonised America, his narrative does what the greatest westerns do, unfurling a clash between good and evil, right and wrong, and the outdated and the modern against landscape that lends itself to myth; his series is always about people first and foremost, though. Blunt's resume overflows with highlights, given that it spans My Summer of Love, The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria, The Muppets and Looper through to Edge of Tomorrow, Sicario, Mary Poppins Returns and more, and her phenomenal efforts in The English slot in swiftly besides her finest work to-date. Spencer comes to the series with less fame (The Twilight Saga, Banshee, Sneaky Pete and Jessica Jones are among his other credits) but with just as much command and presence. Indeed, to watch Blunt as Cornelia is to watch a woman wield her strength, grief, heartbreak and empathy like no one expects her to, and keep picking herself up to do so again and again. She won't let her pain subside, or submit to anyone that tells her otherwise — and while the action-hero aspect of the series is nothing new to its best-known talent, she's phenomenal every time the camera peers her way. To watch Spencer is to watch a star-making turn, a part of brooding and swagger as well as deep soul and honesty, and a performance that's as riveting as Clint Eastwood and John Wayne ever delivered. In a TV realm that is welcomely starting to centre Indigenous American actors and stories (see also: Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls), as it should, he's a magnetic powerhouse. To watch The English is also to luxuriate in spectacular imagery, as lensed by Arnau Valls Colomer, that says as much as the show's stars and dialogue. The cinematographer arrives fresh from making every detail of every frame matter in stellar Spanish filmmaking satire Official Competition, and the same approach is pivotal here. One particularly glorious detail: the way that extreme long shots keep showing Cornelia and Eli galloping both towards and from their destinies, often in static compositions that let their horses storm in from each side of the image, then start being swapped for slightly closer vantage points in later episodes. It's a thoughtful move that mirrors its two protagonists' paths, and also never lets the world they're rallying against fade from view. It's also stunning and powerful filmmaking in a series that earns those terms several times over. Check out the trailer for The English below: The English is available to stream via Prime Video from November 11.
When you've ushered the world into Vincent van Gogh's work — getting them not just peering at it but stepping through it thanks to an immersive 360-degree experience — what comes next? For the folks at Melbourne-based Grande Exhibitions, it's now Claude Monet and his impressionist peers' turn. Hot on the heels of Van Gogh Alive touring the country, and even hitting up some cities multiple times, Monet in Paris is set to dazzle from winter 2023. This exhibition will enjoy its world premiere in Brisbane, hitting Northshore Hamilton for two months from Wednesday, June 7–Sunday, August 6. While further stops haven't yet been announced, the River City stint is being hailed as its global debut — and it will tour Australia afterwards. Art lovers can look forward to wandering around the 2500-square-metre Grand Palais, a marquee custom-designed by Australian theatre designer Anna Cordingley, with the venue set to feature six breakout spaces, a cafe, multiple bars and a gift shop. Of course, it's Monet and his pals' creations that's the big drawcard. Featuring Monet's Water Lilies, getting attendees dancing with Edgar Degas' ballerinas and just whisking visitors into 19th-century Paris' bohemian vibe — with detours to the French countryside — there'll be plenty to see. Fans of Van Gogh Alive know how it works from there, with iconic paintings projected large — pieces not just by Monet and Degas, but also from Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and more. Once again, that means using Grande Experiences' state-of-the-art technology, which is behind those beamed images. And, there'll also be a classical score soundtracking the experience. "The team at Grande Experiences are absolutely thrilled to premiere Monet in Paris in Brisbane in June," said Founder and CEO Bruce Peterson. "Produced in the same immersive multi-sensory format as the hugely successful Van Gogh Alive, this very new and unique experience will captivate and enthral audiences young and old as we enjoy many of the colourful works of art from the French masters of the 19th century, combined with a wonderful musical score and special aromas permeating throughout the venue," he continued. If Monet in Paris sounds familiar, that's because Grande Exhibitions also run Melbourne's digital-only gallery The Lume, which has been hosting the similar Monet & Friends Alive since October 2022. Monet in Paris' debut season will run from Wednesday, June 7–Sunday, August 6 at Northshore, Brisbane, with ticket pre-sales from Thursday, March 9 and general sales from Tuesday, March 14. For further details, head to the event's website. Images: Grande Experiences.
In the space of less than a week, the last two Super Bowl half-time show headliners have both announced 2025 tours to Australia. First, Kendrick Lamar locked in a prime slot at Spilt Milk just months after taking to the field. Next, 2024's Super Bowl performer Usher has confirmed Aussie dates for his Past Present Future world tour. He's heading to Melbourne in November and Sydney in December. The appropriate reaction if you're an Usher fan: yeah! This will be the eight-time Grammy-winner's first Australian solo headline tour since 2011. Celebrating his three-decade career is the name of the game — which means going all the way back to his first single 'Call Me a Mack' from 1993, also playing tracks off of his latest 2024 album Coming Home, plus working his way through plenty in-between. "I can't wait to bring this tour to Australia, a place where I hope to retire in the future. See you soon!" said Usher, announcing his trip Down Under. Eight dates have been locked in for when Past Present Future makes its Aussie stop: four each at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne across Wednesday, November 19–Thursday, November 20 and Saturday, November 22–Sunday, November 23, plus another four at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney from Monday, December 1–Tuesday, December 2 and Thursday, December 4–Friday, December 5. And yes, that timing means that Usher and Lamar will be here at around the same time, given that Spilt Milk runs across the first two weekends of December. The first US shows on the Past Present Future tour were announced just days before Usher's Super Bowl set, which worked through hits from across his lengthy career itself. From August–December 2024, the Texas-born singer made his way across North American stages, before heading to Europe (including England, France, the Netherlands and Germany) from March 2025. Also popping up on his setlist across the tour so far: 'Yeah!', of course, plus everything from 'Can U Get Wit It', 'Nice & Slow', 'U Remind Me' and 'U Got It Bad' to 'Burn', 'OMG', 'Euphoria' and more. Usher Past Present Future World Tour Australia 2025 Dates Wednesday, November 19–Thursday, November 20 + Saturday, November 22–Sunday, November 23 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Monday, December 1–Tuesday, December 2 + Thursday, December 4–Friday, December 5 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Usher is touring Australia in November and December 2025. Presales start on Monday, May 12 at 11am for Melbourne and 12pm for Sydney, while general tickets go on sale at 12pm for Melbourne and 1pm for Sydney on Friday, May 16 — head to the tour website for more details. Images: Marcus Macdonald / Bellamy Brewster.
It's that time of year, somehow. Christmas is almost here, summer has officially started and you're probably thinking about your 2021 shenanigans. While jetting overseas still isn't an option for Australians at the moment, you can make plans to roam around much of this country we all come home now that borders are reopening — and, if you'd like to head over to South Australia in the new year, its government wants to give you an extra incentive. As part of the returning Great State Vouchers scheme — which first ran in October this year — the SA Government is giving away $50 and $100 vouchers to use at hotels in the state between Thursday, January 7–Wednesday, March 31, 2021. The amount of the voucher varies depending on where you're planning on staying, with $50 vouchers on offer for regional and suburban accommodation, and $100 vouchers available to use for Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide stays. During the first round of vouchers, more than 50,000 where snapped up in just over an hour — but they were only available to South Australian residents. This time around, with more than $2 million worth of vouchers available, the scheme is open to interstate folks as well. And, in another expansion, they can be redeemed over a longer booking period, and can also be used at accommodation places with five or more rooms (up from ten or more last time). That means that you'll be able to choose between hundreds of places to stay — with more than 800 accommodation providers eligible to participate. To take part, you'll need to download a voucher from the scheme's website on Tuesday, January 5, then make your booking between Thursday, January 7–Sunday, January 31. There are a few caveats, unsurprisingly. The vouchers don't cover Saturday nights and, to try to nab one, you'll have to log on to the voucher website and prove your identification via your driver's license or proof of age card. Border-wise, SA currently doesn't require interstate visitors to quarantine, after opening its borders to Victoria on Tuesday, December 1. But some states do currently have restrictions in place for anyone who has travelled to South Australia, or parts of it (such as Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania) — or require permits (Victoria) to enter if you've been in SA. So, it's best to keep an eye on your state's requirements when you're trying to score a voucher and then making a hotel booking. For further details about South Australia's Great State Vouchers scheme — or to nab one on Tuesday, January 5 — head to its website.
If you're after a fitting chocolate treat to spread the Valentine's Day love, you'll find it hard to go past the Baci. An indulgent morsel of chocolate and hazelnut, wrapped in foil with a love note inside, and named after the Italian word for kisses? Now that's amore. And once again, your mates at Piccolina Gelateria have taken the concept and run with it, creating a new Baci-inspired gelato cake guaranteed to have your boo (or just you) swooning on February 14. This year's limited-edition Valentine's treat comes in the form of the Baciami (a more passionate variation of "kiss me") — a Baci-shaped frozen cake featuring hazelnut gelato, Frangelico hazelnut croccante and gianduja ganache, along with the signature Better than Nutella gelato and a hazelnut dacquoise. In a nod to the original, this supersized version is glazed in dark chocolate and packaged in the tell-tale silver foil. And in a win for Valentine's Day gifters, the wrapping also hides a love note — inspired by one featured in Frank Sinatra's Baci collaboration back in 1962. Clocking in at $28, the Baciami is big enough to serve two, making the perfect date-night dessert. Pre-orders are now open, with pick-up available from all six of Piccolina's Melbourne stores. [caption id="attachment_848617" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Piccolina Hawthorn, by Jana Longhurst[/caption] Piccolina's Baciami is available to pre-order online, to pick up from the Collingwood, Hawthorn, Richmond, St Kilda, Hardware Lane or Degraves Street stores.
Family-run Nagambie wine bar Eighteen Sixty has one clear mission: to celebrate and showcase the wide-ranging vinous delights of the Nagambie Lakes, Strathbogie Ranges and Goulburn Valley. Named in a nod to the region's lengthy viticulture history, which dates right back to 1860, the venue pays homage to the local wine scene, with more than 50 drops available to sip and an impressive rotation by the glass. Familiar labels and undiscovered emerging acts star alongside a tidy crop of beer, cider and spirits. To match, you'll find a lineup of simple, Italian-accented fare, also celebrating the region's best ingredients. Here, you can pop in to enjoy refined drinking snacks like a duck and sour cherry terrine ($15), kingfish crudo with fennel and lemon ($24), or focaccia matched with whipped lemon ricotta ($7). Crostini might come topped with the likes of asparagus, broad bean and goats curd ($10), while those with heartier appetites can tuck into pasta dishes including a squid ink linguine ($29), and pappardelle in a Tuscan-style beef cheek ragu ($27). The space itself is one you'll happily settle into for a few hours, complete with a rustic charm, whitewashed brickwork, a heated courtyard and a woodfire taking pride of place at its heart. And if you swing past between 3pm and 5pm Thursday to Sunday, you can look forward to prosecco, beer, spirits, wine and snacks for $5–10 as part of the venue's Apero special. Images: Parker Blain
The sun is shining, your out of office is on and you've already spent a good amount of time curled up streaming TV shows. Now's the chance to catch up on your reading — so, find a shady spot on a beach, next to a pool or by a waterfall and start making your way through our favourite ten books of 2019. It's a mixed bag this year — we've been turning the pages of a novel about a debaucherous secret society, the latest Booker Prize winner (no, not The Testaments), devastating nonfiction works about Australian bushfires and a heartwarming page-turner combining politics, royalty and queer history. Some of them are immersive, some of them knotty and uncomfortable, which makes them perfect for mulling over during the holidays, and provide flavourful fodder for dinner conversations. Take your pick. LANNY BY MAX PORTER In 2016, Max Porter won the Dylan Thomas Prize for his debut novel Grief Is the Thing With Feathers — a story in which a trickster-babysitter crow visits two grieving children. This year, Porter delivered another poetic and daring tale, this time centring on a creative and mysterious boy called Lanny. There's a rhythm to Porter's writing; he illustrates one of his most exciting characters through a scrawling, italicised font that seems to slip and slide off the page. Dead Papa Toothwort is a shapeshifting spirit that feeds on the life and grime of Lanny's village in the English countryside — one with gossip at the school gates, nosy but well-meaning neighbours, and a woodland where children like to build treehouses. Reliable old Pete is Lanny's good friend. He's an older man, an artist, and one of the more likeable characters. What starts as an eerie, but largely quiet, tale of village life gathers speed towards the end, when Lanny is missing and the village mob starts pointing fingers. SUPPER CLUB BY LARA WILLIAMS Lara Williams' novel about a secret society of women who meet after dark to feast is superb. At the centre of the novel is Roberta, and the novel jumps back and forth between her days at university, where she teaches herself to cook and dates a lecturer, and the present day, where her and her wild, intense friend Stevie start the supper club. Over bowls of pasta, slabs of meatloaf, messy bouillabaisse and gallons of wine, the women gorge themselves and behave in an incredibly 'unladylike' manner in rebellion of their oppression by men. They throw food at each other, vomit, dance topless and go wild with debauchery. Intelligent and boldly written, Williams' story is less about food and more about the characters' appetites to acquit themselves of their everyday lives. Easy to read, you'll smash it quicket than your avocado on toast. RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE BY CASEY MCQUISTON It might be questionable of us to include a book that would certainly not be considered literary, and falls firmly in the romance and new adult categories. But Casey McQuiston's debut novel Red, White & Royal Blue is so joyous and hopeful that it makes you want to throw away any pretence of trying to appear cool. Incorporating, and elevating, all the best cheesy rom-com tropes — enemies to friends to lovers, fake friendships, a secret relationship and an email scandal — McQuiston's writing is heartwarming, funny and intelligent as she blends politics, royalty and queer history into a big ball of happiness. I challenge you not to fall in love with this book's diverse cast of characters: Alex, the obliviously bisexual Mexican-American son of the first woman president of the United States; Henry, the compassionate, quietly homosexual prince of England with a scholarly interest in queer history; Pez, the prince's dastardly attractive Nigerian best friend; Zahra, the president's fierce and frightening chief of staff; Amy, a transwoman and former marine-turned-secret service agent who likes embroidery. Would recommend to anyone looking for a book so firmly placed in the now — but a better one than the one we've got. If it were possible, it would make your heart smile. ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS BY OCEAN VUONG Ocean Vuong's debut novel found itself on a host of nominee lists for literary prizes his year, earning reviews describing it as shattering, tender, haunting and stunning. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother, tracking a family history back to its roots in war-torn Vietnam and forward to the son's experiences as a queer, biracial American, and telling a story trapped between the worlds of trauma and compassion. Vuong's poetry background makes for prose that is fluid, raw and earnest, in an intimate exploration of race, class, grief and masculinity. SALT BY BRUCE PASCOE Likely already on the radar of fans of his work, Salt offers an insight into the range and depth of influential Indigenous Australian historian Bruce Pascoe. This collection of stories and essays from the award-winning author of Dark Emu includes some of his most revered work and previously unpublished pieces of fiction — tender stories exploring country, nature and identity — just waiting to be discovered. For those with a short attention span or looking for an introduction to Pascoe's works, this is an ideal read for afternoons on the beach, and a poignant reminder of our nation's history. BEAUTY BY BRI LEE Beauty marks the second book by Bri Lee in as many years to make it onto our Summer Reading List, so she must be doing something right. Once again imbuing her words with a brutal candour, Lee explores our obsession with thinness and beauty, in a world that has made huge strides against the patriarchy, yet still finds us holding ourselves to an impossible and unattainable standard of physical 'perfection'. Readers are invited into Lee's world in a 150-page essay on her battle with eating disorders and her final rejection of society's punishing ideals. For anyone that loved Eggshell Skull — and pretty much everyone else, too. THE ARSONIST: A MIND ON FIRE BY CHLOE HOOPER Published in October 2018, this novel isn't a 2019 book. But, with catastrophic bushfires currently burning across Australia, its content couldn't be timelier. Following the trial of the man charged with lighting the Latrobe Valley fires, part of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires that killed 173 people in regional Victoria and burnt over 450,000 hectares, Chloe Hooper's The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire is devastating and haunting. It includes harrowing accounts from those injured in the fires and fascinating details from the investigation, all delivered with captivating and lyrical prose. And, while it's a work of nonfiction, it reads like a thriller — and it's impossible to put down. GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER BY BERNARDINE EVARISTO Two books won this year's Booker Prize: Margaret Atwood's 34-year follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale, called The Testaments; and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. We're recommending you read the latter. Following the interconnected lives of 12 characters, mostly Black British women, from different generations, religions and social classes, it's a joyous, poetic read. You'll meet lesbian playwrights, investment bankers and farmers, all battling everyday problems and larger social issues, such as race and sexuality. As well as being a collection of 12 separate, intimate portraits, the book successfully paints a polyphonic picture of modern-day Britain. FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE BY TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER A renowned celebrity profiler — if you haven't already, we suggest you read her New York Times Magazine piece on Gwyneth Paltrow ASAP — Taffy Brodesser-Akner first dipped her toe into fiction this year with the release of her debut novel Fleishman Is in Trouble. And Fleishman, a recently divorced, now-single dad navigating the world of dating apps, sexts and raising two children, really is in trouble. As is our narrator: stay-at-home mum Libby. And Fleishman's ex-wife, Rachel. While the bulk of the novel is dedicated to Fleishman and his struggles, it also cleverly explores how women's stories are often over-looked and sidelined. Its ending more-than rewards readers for pushing through some of the less-gripping sections, too BELOVED BY TONI MORRISON The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison passed away in August at the age of 88. Her novel Beloved wasn't published this year — in fact, it was published way back in 1987 — but we think this summer is the perfect time to revisit it, or pick it up for the first time. Arguably Morrison's best-known novel, Beloved follows an escaped enslaved woman who is haunted by decisions and trauma from her past. It's not an easy read, nor should it be. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has had far-reaching cultural influence since its publication, including on Jordan Peele's 2019 horror flick Us. If you'd like to explore this connection further, we suggest listening to this episode from The New York Times podcast Still Processing. Words by Aimee Sics, Emma Joyce, Leisha Kapor and Samantha Teague.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your next trip. In this instalment, we take you inside the San Domenico Palace, a Four Seasons Hotel. This luxe Sicilian stay is the real life set of The White Lotus season two, set within a 14th-century convent. Welcome to the playground of the rich and famous. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? This hotel is located within the ancient town of Taormina, sitting atop cliffs overlooking the sea. Yes, it's stunning. It's also where The White Lotus season two was filmed, meaning that you'll be walking in Jennifer Coolidge's footsteps — perhaps even staying in her glam suite. (A note: it does close over the European winter, with 2022 stays ending on November 28 and 2023 stays beginning from March 14.) THE ROOMS This swanky joint has 111 rooms and suites dotted about the property, most of which boast incredible views across the Ionian Sea. And those without ocean views get to look out towards Sicily's famous active volcano Mount Etna. It's obvious, but still worth mentioning that entry into this world doesn't come cheap, with rooms starting at about AU$850 a night and suites going for upwards of AU$10,000. It's stupid, but look at the photos — this place is gorgeous. We can imagine ourselves sitting in one of the sea-view suites, dipping in and out of our private plunge pool with a cheeky negroni sbagliato in hand — and then living off nothing but packets of ramen noodles for the rest of our lives. FOOD AND DRINK This is a Four Seasons Hotel, so you can expect some incredible food onsite. It has three separate restaurants and a garden bar (with the obligatory room service, too). Principe Cerami is the fine-dining restaurant, where you can wear your most glamorous holiday gowns and suits — because, we all have those, right? The slightly (just slightly) more chill restaurant Anciovi is where you'll get those White Lotus vibes. Grab a seat looking over uninterrupted views of the ocean and sink deep into la dolce vita. Sicily has got to be one of the best places in the world to eat, thanks to all that Italian cooking — be sure to get all the best local dishes while you're here. THE LOCAL AREA San Domenico Palace is in one of the most stunning parts of Sicily. Views from any part of this town are incredible, but this area is also steeped in history, with so much being preserved. The most famous site is the Teatro Antico di Taormina, as also seen in The White Lotus. It's an ancient Greco-Roman theatre which is still used to this very day. When visiting, you can see openair live orchestras and theatre permeances, all the while looking out over the sparkling waters. And, of course, you've also got plenty of beautiful beaches and coves down below the cliffs of the town. Beach hop for a few days before heading off another iconic Sicilian town — our picks are Palermo, Modica, Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento and any of the Aeolian Islands. THE EXTRAS A place this lavish doesn't just offer stunning views, rooms and food. There's always more. Treat yourself even more with massages, facials or scrubs in the Botanica Spa, or hit up the gym to work off all the arancini and pasta you'll be eating during the stay. But you really should explore the local area while you're here, too — and the San Domenico Palace team will organise all the best exclusive travel experiences for you. Go on a stargazing safari, a food tour around Mount Etna (led by the hotel's head chef), an Aeolian Islands sailing trip or even try a unique Sicilian sushi masterclass (yes, that's a thing). If you want to take advantage of all this, best get saving now — or start buying some more lotto tickets. For more information about San Domenico Palace, head to the hotel's website. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
The Standard Store on Gertrude Street is anything but standard. From eccentric pins made by graphic designer Georgia Perry to uber-trendy tops from Commune de Paris and bright, geometric dresses by Henrik Vibskov, owners Orlando and Nicola Reindorf know how to create a store filled with the kind of items that make you feel unique. There's no fast fashion to be found. Instead, the pair make bi-annual overseas trips to ensure that anything they source from over the pond is of the same quality as the homegrown brands they consistently back. Image: Caitlin Morahan.
In February 2018, we announced that Melbourne was getting a huge new rooftop urban farm in what could prove to be the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Since then, plans for the groundbreaking new development — dubbed Burwood Brickworks — have been approved by council and construction has begun. And now, we've got our first real look at what the 2000-square-metre farm will actually look like. It's just been announced that the rooftop — which will have both a farm and a restaurant — will be designed and managed by consulting firm Tully Heard, which runs Acre, an eatery in inner Sydney that operates alongside (but independently from) an urban farm. This brand new space will be an extension of the Acre concept, and, like its Sydney counterpart, will be a farm-to-table eatery that is both a cafe and a full service restaurant. That means you'll be able to eat the food that's growing around you in greenhouses, planter boxes and landscaped growing areas. While the Sydney farm is owned and operated by non-profit group Pocket City Farms, the Burwood Brickworks farm will instead be headed up by Tully Heard. But the concept is set to be very similar. Director Luke Heard will come down south with urban farmer and environmental educator Adrian Baiada — who were both involved in establishing the Sydney farm — to set up the Melbourne farm before they recruit a farming manager later this year. The plan is for the farm to regularly host workshops, talks and opportunities for city-dwellers to get their hands dirty by helping out on the farm. The community can expect to get involved in beekeeping, composting, harvesting and pickling when it's all up and running smoothly in the new year. The rooftop space and shopping centre will be part of the 12,700-square-metre Burwood Brickworks development by Frasers Property Australia, located just 15 kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD in a former brickworks site. The development will be made up of 2.5 hectares of open space and parklands, community facilities and 700 homes. Tully Heard will develop the Acre rooftop in conjunction with eco-warrior Joost Bakker (Greenhouse by Joost, Brothl) to make its as sustainable as possible. Inside the shopping centre, the sustainability continues with a solar-powered Woolworths, soft plastic recycling facilities and natural refrigerants, which aim to reduce the centre's carbon footprint. The design of the wider mixed-use development will also focus on sustainability, using a large solar PV system and an embedded electricity network to target a minimum five-star green rating, with the aim of becoming Australia's first six-star Green Star Design — and to achieve Living Building Challenge accreditation. This accreditation is seriously hard to obtain and means the building must have a net zero carbon footprint, produce more electricity than it consumes, grow agriculture on 20 percent of the site, and prove net water and waste positive. It must also be constructed using non-toxic and recycled materials, and have other social benefits like access to natural daylight and indoor air quality. The Burwood Brickworks sustainable shopping centre is expected to be completed by late 2019, with the residential housing following in late 2020. Once complete, the development will go under evaluation to see if it meets the criteria to be considered the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Acre Farm and Eatery will open at Burwood Brickworks in late 2019. We'll keep you updated on an anticipated opening date. CORRECTION: APRIL 2, 2019 — The original article stated that Tully Heard operated both Acre and Pocket City Farms in Sydney when, in fact, it just operates the restaurant, Acre. The article has been updated to reflect this and provide more context around the separate businesses.
At the end of 2023, Hotel Sorrento reopened following a luxurious transformation — constructing 13 new hotel suites, and refurbing the existing rooms, 30-metre lap pool and day spa. And now, almost exactly a year later, it's finally opening its sun-soaked rooftop restaurant and bar with sweeping views across the bay. On Friday, December 13, Hotel Sorrento's Rooftop will officially open its doors to the public, beckoning them into the space, which is inspired by the work of Italian photographer and furniture designer Willy Rizzo. Rizzo's work showcases Saint-Tropez at a time when its rooftops would come alive with summertime parties full of good Mediterranean food and drinks, plus plenty of dancing. The team here has worked closely with Six Degrees Architects and Jack Merlo Landscape Architecture to bring some of this energy to the Mornington Peninsula. Expect muted green and white striped umbrellas, plush couches, tiled high-top tables and a heap of natural finishes throughout the 320-person space — keeping it beachy and elegantly understated. Food-wise, Hotel Sorrento's Executive Chef Beth Candy has designed a menu full of shareable dishes that champion local produce — serving up a range of small snacks and larger sharing dishes. The sip and snack crowd is catered for as well as those who have a hankering for a long boozy lunch out in the sun. Expect bites like fresh oysters, spiced kingfish crudo on cassava crackers and a lobster brioche roll with pickled cucumber and watercress as well as a selection of pizzas and fresh Mediterranean salads. Local wines, draught beers, summery cocktails and a rolling music program full of DJs help amp up the party vibes, whether you're looking to hang around for a short stay or well into the night. In addition to the rooftop launch, Hotel Sorrento has also given its late-night bar Salt a cheeky little makeover. It now has its own entrance and floor-to-ceiling windows that open to a north-facing terrace. It has a relaxing cocktail lounge feel during the day and then transitions into more of a nightclub as the sun sets. It looks like Hotel Sorrento is going to go off this summer — for those spending the night in one of its luxury suites, and folks simply heading skywards for long sun-drenched lunches and parties under the stars during balmy nights. Hotel Sorrento's Rooftop and Salt are set to open on Friday, December 13 at 5/15 Hotham Road, Sorrento. For more details, you can check out the venue's website.
If you're a fan of Japanese TV series Midnight Diner, you'll be pleased to know One or Two is inspired by the anthology-style serial that traces the story of a different diner customer every episode. Tucked away off an unassuming cobblestoned alleyway, the 24-seater cocktail and whisky bar is firmly in the heart of Chinatown since 2022. One or Two is the first independent offering from Melbourne bartender Andy Chu, who's worked at the likes of the Everleigh, Black Pearl, Byrdi and Above Board. Dark natural wood and monotones abound in the chic space, which has an extensive whisky list of 50 small-batch varieties from around the world — available as flights or highballs — alongside a tightly curated wine, beer, sake and soju menu. Cocktails run the gamut from stalwarts like Margaritas, Martinis and Old Fashioneds to more inventive mixes like a rice-wine-and-gin-infused spin on hwachae (a milky Korean fruit bowl dessert) or a cosy mezcal-forward quince and spiced pear concoction. Every visit is a surprise due to quarterly menu changes, but there's always a guest bar featuring recipes from a slew of bartenders around the world. The bar doesn't accept any reservations and is only suitable for groups of up to six, so be sure to visit solo or in small groups. Images: Kristoffer Paulsen and Griffin Simm.
Internationally and at home, borders have been opening up to tourists. Finally, we can get back to crossing destinations and experiences off our ever-growing travel bucket lists. We can run away to remote beaches. We can get lost in bustling cities full of culture. And, at last, we can go to a place which isn't full of your neighbours – don't be mad, sometimes it's good to be around different people. All in all, it's time to go exploring (or escaping). To get out of our local towns and cities and experience something new. There are endless possibilities when it comes to choosing where to go next, so let us help you. We've created this list of incredible locations and paired them up with some exclusive holiday deals. All you've got to do is pack your bags and put your out-of-office on. [caption id="attachment_872774" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Taweeroj Eawpanich (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Japan Why: Thank the travel gods for Japan's reopening to tourists. This country is on so many people's travel bucket lists for so many reasons. Nature lovers, foodies, thrill seekers and culture kids are all offered something entirely unique in a place that's unlike anywhere else on earth. Who could say no to sake-fuelled karaoke nights, whacky themed restaurants and remote onsen baths? How: Get through your Japan bucket list using the country's famously elite rail system and staying in a mix of traditional ryokan accommodation and modern hotels. Experience the can't-miss places by starting in Kyoto — where you'll get the best of 'old' Japan (including the iconic Golden Pavilion and historic geisha district of Gion), making your way to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, before experiencing the sensory overload and diverse culture of one of the world's most dynamic cities, Tokyo. You'll need at least 10 days to do it properly. Go if you want to... experience a collision of cultures, both ancient and ultra-modern, in one of the most tourist-friendly places on earth. Book it now: Book the ultimate first-timer's cultural tour of Japan here. [caption id="attachment_872751" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sorasak (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Auckland Why: Based around two stunning harbours and surrounded by picturesque islands, Auckland is a city like no other. Yes, nature is on your doorstep. Wineries are just a short drive away. As are remote beaches and Lord Of The Rings-esque mountain ranges. But this city is worthy of visiting in and of itself. You've got world renowned galleries, exciting restaurants and bars opening up all the time, theatres packed with long line-ups of comedians and musicians and a heap of other cultural happenings. How: First things first, we will do you the service of directing you to the Auckland section of Concrete Playground but here's a few of our personal selections. You can explore world-class exhibitions at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, find all the best local wares and fresh produce at the Farmers Market in Matakana, visit the island of wine (Waiheke Island), do some whale watching in the Hauraki Gulf or go on a road trip up on the west coast to find some of New Zealand's best beaches. Go if you want to… see what all the New Zealand hype is about — exploring endless natural landscapes as well as experiencing the city's thriving arts and food scene. Book it now: Book the ultimate VIP Spring City Music Festival trip with access to all of Auckland's best offerings here. [caption id="attachment_872969" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sulthan Auliya (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Cook Islands Why: Each of the 15 islands that make up the Cook Islands is a tropical paradise. We could gawk at photos of the palm-lined beaches, vast turquoise lagoons and coral reefs full of your Finding Nemo favourites for days on days. But that's just pure masochism. Get on a plane and visit the Pacific paradise instead. The Cook Islands are on the bucket list of so many beach-loving travellers — be they snorkelling and scuba diving enthusiasts, or lovers of luxury resorts and beachside glamping experiences. How: Located a six-hour (ish) flight from the east coast of Australia, your first port of call will be Rarotonga. Within an hour of landing, you can find yourself at a beach bar sipping cocktails or floating around in your own private plunge pool — forgetting that the rest of the world exists. You can then go further afield on a series of island cruise tours, hikes up into the rainforests, or go snorkelling around coral reefs. Alternatively, hire a bike and find your own private patch of Rarotonga to call home for the day. Go if you want to…. escape to a tropical island paradise. Book it now: Book a peaceful getaway at a Rarotonga retreat with luxury glamping here. [caption id="attachment_872741" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Christoph Burgdorfer (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Cambodia Why: You can live out your best Lara Croft fantasies in Cambodia's jungles (with less stealing of local artefacts and blowing up of beautiful ancient sites). The underrated Southeast Asian bucket list location is a land of spectacular ancient temples that nature is slowly claiming as its own. The villages and cities each have their own bustling markets full of local wares and tasty street food. And the welcoming locals will help you better understand their own captivating culture. How: When in Cambodia, you must visit the ancient temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap (or lesser-known Ta Prohm nearby) and learn the secrets behind Khmer cuisine in bustling food markets and at some of the countless street food stalls dotted about the country. Phnom Penh is, of course, a city that also deserves your time and attention. Reflect on Cambodia's tragic history at sobering sites such as the S21 school and the Killing Fields before taking in their spectacularly colourful palaces and pagodas. And, while you're in the area, try to fit in a visit to one of Cambodia's hot ticket neighbouring countries like Vietnam and Laos. Go if you want to… explore ancient temples surrounded by nature and wildlife as well as get a culture overload within seemingly chaotic cities full of incredibly welcoming locals who will feed you all the best local grub. Book it now: Book the complete Cambodia adventure tour here. [caption id="attachment_872744" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Wheeler (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Byron Bay Why: let's just say this from the get-go — Byron Bay is so much more than just the home of soulless influencers and the brothers' Hemsworth. Byron Bay and its surrounding regions are an embarrassment of riches when it comes to incredible beaches, one of Australia's most exciting food and produce scenes, and is the ultimate wellness playground with resorts, retreats and experiences that are dedicated to losing yourself or finding yourself. How: Set yourself up in accommodation that is social. It's a great place to meet likeminded people — do some group yoga classes, find your zen during a guided meditation, or set out on a sea kayaking adventure to spot turtles and dolphins. Spend your nights out at great restaurants, hit up some local bars and stroll through the town and beyond. You don't need to go full luxury here. You can enjoy Byron's vibe on a decent budget too. Go if you want to… live without shoes for an entire week by the coast, treating yourself to all the best self-care experiences. Book it now: Book a restorative Byron Bay wellness escape here. [caption id="attachment_872743" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jake Charles (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Morocco Why: This North African country is bursting with natural wonders, from the beaches lining The Med all the way through to the red sandy dunes of the Sahara Desert. And the cities are just as special. Get lost in maze-like markets where you'll find locals selling just about anything (from extraordinary spices to beautiful textiles), before exploring a range of cities and villages steeped in history and eclectic architecture. How: Casablanca and Marrakech are the spots to set up your base. Within Casablanca, you can visit the famous Villa des Arts Gallery & Museum for world-class exhibitions and visit the mind-blowing Hassan II Mosque located right on the water. And, from here, you can get a taste of Morocco's rural culture in colourful towns such as Rabat and Meknes. Marrakech, an ancient city wrapped in European modernity is where you'll find bustling bazaars and hammams for all the best pampering. It's also close to the Sahara Desert, where you can find the quintessential camel ride experiences and luxury camps. To get the most out of Morocco, you'll want to spend a couple weeks jumping from city to city. Go if you want to... mix remote desert glamping with bustling cities steeped in culture — expressed through food, art and architecture. Book it now: Book an exclusive Morocco getaway with all the trimmings here. [caption id="attachment_872748" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Danny Lau (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Bali Why: Bali is beautiful. That's undeniable. And it's been on the top of the travel list for many Australians for decades. But some of the best parts of Bali exist in the remote areas where nature is mostly untamed. Walk along empty beaches and through dense jungles or simply swim in your pool overlooking all that natural beauty. How: Zip around the winding roads of Bali on a quad bike (or just get a taxi if you dare not undertake this feat) to explore the temples, holistic centres, yoga studios, rice fields and stacks of local markets of the Ubud region. You won't see quite as many Bintag singlets in these parts. You can also visit Canggu and Uluwatu to find the best surf or Kuta and Seminyak for those famous Bali party vibes. Choose your own Bali adventure. Go if you want to... run away to a remote jungle paradise and live that luxury lifestyle without breaking the bank. Book it now: Book an indulgent bail holiday away from all the crowds here. [caption id="attachment_872752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Niklas Weiss (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Mexico Why: Why the hell not?! Mexico has it all. Urban cities full of modern art and culture — and let's not forget the legendary and world class cuisine. Then you've got long white sand beaches that stretch on for miles as well as dense forests with hidden waterfalls for the adventurers. Small villages are also full of vibrant indigenous cultures where residents still live the traditional way of life. There are boundless ways to fall in love with Mexico. How: Mexico City is a mighty fine starting off point. The Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo (La Casa Azul) Museums are must-see. As are the colourful Diego Rivera Murals in the Mural Museum. Make sure you carve out some time to get lost in the Juarez neighbourhood too. This area, full of young creatives, has evolved in recent years. Once gritty, it is now teeming with great boutiques, bars, parks, and restaurants. Smaller cities such as Izamal and Merida are also great for a less crowded cultural experiences. You've then got Teotihuacan, Mitla and Oaxaca, where you'll find countless ancient archaeological sites steeped in history. And lastly, there is the one and only Playa del Carmen. Sit by the pool (finishing that book you've been working on for far too long) or get a little more active with snorkelling excursions. We could go on and on about the abundance of joy to be found on a journey to Mexico. Just make sure you give yourselves two weeks to see as much of this country as you can. Go if you want to… experience an intoxicatingly joyful culture — expressed through warm hospitality, flavour-packed food and all manners of modern and ancient art. The famous beaches and coastal towns aren't so bad for pure relaxation either. Book it now: Book an epic journey from Mexico City to Playa del Carmen here. [caption id="attachment_872767" align="alignnone" width="1920"] David Vives (Unsplash)[/caption] Where: Phuket Why: There are over 1400 islands in Thailand. And they range in reasons to visit. Visitors choose where to go depending on whether they're after party vibes, quiet escapes, family-friendly fun or adventure activities. But the beauty of Phuket is that it offers up a little bit of everything. You can do it all here — all while being surrounded by 50 kilometres of dazzling shoreline. How: First off, Mai Khao Beach is a big bucket list destination. This seemingly infinite stretch of sand lined with trees is what postcards are made for. It's stupid beautiful. Plus, it's also a national park and sea turtle zone. That means it's the perfect place to get your snorkel on. Patong is the nightlife epicentre of Phuket — for better or for worse. Here you'll find a booming party scene, busy beaches and neon-lit streets full of people having a ball. But if this one island isn't enough, you can easily jump on a ferry to nearby islands or take a day-long cruise around a bunch of the best. Go if you want to... get all the best bits of staying on an island without emptying your entire savings account. Book it now: Book a surprisingly affordable luxury resort in Phuket here. [caption id="attachment_872775" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ratul Ghosh (Unsplash)[/caption] Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world. Top Image: Danny Lau (Unsplash)
If your dream getaway involves staying in your favourite movie, walking in your music idol's shoes, hanging out with celebrities and once-in-a-lifetime pop culture-themed experiences all round, Airbnb has had you covered for a few years. You've seen the accommodation platform's special listings in the past, including being able to slumber at Shrek's swamp, Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse, the Ted Lasso pub, the Moulin Rouge! windmill and Hobbiton — and also Bluey house, the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, The Godfather mansion, the South Korean estate where BTS filmed In the Soop, the Sanderson sisters' Hocus Pocus cottage, the Paris theatre that inspired The Phantom of the Opera and a Christina Aguilera-hosted two-night Las Vegas stay. The list goes on — and it's only set to grow. Now, these kinds of Airbnb listings have a name and a category: Airbnb Icons. And to celebrate, the company has unveiled the next 11 spots that money normally can't buy (and in some cases, still can't, with most reservations free). [caption id="attachment_953321" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ryan Lowery[/caption] If getting some shuteye in the Up house is your idea of vacation bliss, you're in luck — located in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and taking bookings until Tuesday, May 14, it's a newly unveiled Airbnb Icon. Yes, the balloons are all there. Yes, you'll feel like you've walked into the gorgeous animated film. And yes, gazing at the stars is one of the activities on offer while you're on the premises. Still on Pixar, the latest chance to get excited about Inside Out 2 comes via the opportunity to sleep in the flick's headquarters, aka where the emotions convene and try to keep Riley's mood in check. It'll be taking bookings in June, which is when the movie releases in cinemas. [caption id="attachment_953323" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Eric Ogden[/caption] Still on cinema, maybe you'll find out what it sounds like when doves cry at Prince's Purple Rain mansion when it hits Airbnb Icons in August. This is the actual house from the inimitable film, as decked out in purple aplenty. You'll sleep in The Kid's bedroom, hear rare Prince tracks and go crazy with love for the flick and the late, great artist behind it, of course. Stepping inside X-Men '97 is also on offer, with the X-Mansion open for reservations until Wednesday, May 15. Guests will undertake student orientation, give Cerebro a whirl, get a superpower and stay in Wolverine's room. This one has a cost, setting you back AU$149.51 per guest, and can welcome in eight wannabe heroes. [caption id="attachment_953325" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Max Miechowski[/caption] Doja Cat, Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor and Kevin Hart are all also on the Airbnb Icons list, each hosting stays. Available to book from October, Doja's listing includes a living-room show. Coming from Sunday, May 12, Kapoor's will see you spend time at her Chennai holiday home. And as for Hart, as available to reserve from August, he'll get you giggling at him and other comedians at his Coramino Live Lounge. Checking into the Ferrari Museum for an evening will be open for bookings from Monday, May 6 — and it covers sleeping in a bed made with the same leather as Ferrari car seats, doing a hot lap and eating at Cavallino, Enzo Ferrari's favourite restaurant. Or, from Wednesday, May 22, you'll be able to reserve a night at the Musée d'Orsay, snoozing in a bedroom designed around its clock, watching the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony from its rooftop terrace and nabbing a private look at its impressionist collection. [caption id="attachment_953327" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Prior[/caption] The initial 11 Airbnb Icons offerings also include a gaming loft hosted by TikToker Khaby Lame, which is taking bookings now until Tuesday, May 14 — and, with reservations launching on Friday, May 3, being part of reggaeton star Feid's tour for a full week. Here's how bookings work: whether they're free or not, you need to book through the app. If you are selected for a reservation, you'll get a digital golden ticket — of which there'll be 4000-plus available in 2024 alone. Folks will be drawn at random after they put in a submission for a property, then they'll be judged as semi-finalists, all of which will take place within seven days of the booking period closing. You can only put your name up for each listing once. And if you're picked, you have 24 hours to accept the invite. As has always been the case with these listings, even before they had the Icons category, you'll also need to pay for getting to the property — that isn't included in the reservation. Still, some of your fantasy holiday spots just became a reality. [caption id="attachment_953329" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Frederik Vercruysse[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953330" align="alignnone" width="1920"] House of Pixels[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953331" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sismatyc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953334" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Federico Ciamei[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953324" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ryan Lowery[/caption] [caption id="attachment_953326" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Holly Andres[/caption] For more information about Airbnb's Icons stays, and to make bookings, head to the Airbnb website. Top image: Ryan Lowery Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Apologies to anyone who isn't a Harry Styles fan — 2022 clearly isn't your year. The former One Direction member has been everywhere over the past nine months, given that he's headlined Coachella, dropped a new album, and announced a big Australian and New Zealand tour. Oh, and he's also been the talk of the Venice Film Festival just this week for potentially spitting on Chris Pine at the premiere of Don't Worry Darling, one of two movies that'll be giving Styles' acting skills a workout on screens near you this spring. The upcoming second flick on Styles' resume? That'd be My Policeman — which will also send Styles back in time, to the 1950s to be exact, because starring in movies set seven decades ago is the ex-boy band star's own personal 2022 trend. As first revealed in the film's initial teaser back in June, this one gives off big Carol vibes, but in Britain, and focusing on a love triangle involving the titular cop, the man he falls for and the woman who loves him. Due to hit Prime Video Down Under on November 4, My Policeman sees Styles plays Tom, that eponymous law enforcement officer. In sweeping, emotionally resonant period-drama style, the movie gets him caught between teacher Marion (Emma Corrin, The Crown) and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson, All the Old Knives). And as the just-dropped new sneak shows, heartbreak seems to be the prevailing mood. My Policeman will also flit forward to the 1990s, where the older Tom (Linus Roache, Homeland), Marion (Gina McKee, Phantom Thread) and Patrick (Rupert Everett, The Happy Prince) are still haunted by how things played out when they were younger. If the storyline sounds familiar, that's because My Policeman comes to the screen from Bethan Roberts' 2012 novel of the same name. For the film version, director Michael Grandage (Red) is doing the honours, with Ron Nyswaner (Freeheld, Philadelphia) on screenplay duties. Based on the handsome trailers so far, both of which sport a hefty mood of yearning, viewers can expect an exploration of love, social expectations, and the tumult that springs when the latter dictates the former. And, obviously, for Styles' latest on-screen stint after Dunkirk, Eternals and Don't Worry Darling, which releases a month earlier in October. Check out the full trailer for My Policeman below: My Policeman will be available to stream via Prime Video in Australia and New Zealand on November 4. Images: courtesy of Prime Video © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC.
UPDATE, Friday, March 15, 2024: The Aqua with Special Guests tour has changed venues, dates and lineup. 2 Unlimited are now the only support act. The new dates and venues are: Thursday, March 21 — Metro City, Perth Saturday, March 23 — Hindley Street Theatre, Adelaide Sunday, March 24 — Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane Tuesday, March 26 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Wednesday, March 27 — Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne For the past year, we've all been living in a Barbie world, with Greta Gerwig's Margot Robbie-starring Barbie film the biggest thing in pop culture over the past 12 months. What happens when you combine the planet's love for the pink-hued hit with the never-ending trend that is 90s nostalgia? Aqua touring Australia to bust out 'Barbie Girl' at a big throwback party, that's what. Life in plastic will be fantastic when the Danish-Norwegian band make their first trip Down Under since 2019. Back then, the group responsible for still having their best-known single stuck in your head, plus 'Doctor Jones' and 'Turn Back Time' as well, toured on a bill filled with other acts from the era. This time, they're doing the same thing. Joining Aqua in March 2024 in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth: Belgian-Dutch dance duo 2 Unlimited, British boy band East 17, R&B group Big Brovaz, and English dance acts Phats & Small, Booty Luv and Urban Cookie Collective. Hitting up stadiums, these gigs will be a house of love with no limits. Expect everything from Get Ready', 'Twilight Zone' and 'Alright' to 'Stay Another Day', 'Turn Around' and 'The Key the Secret' to get a whirl. Your latest excuse to keep celebrating all things Barbie-related — and to get a big blast from the past — comes after Aqua popped up on the movie's soundtrack with rapper Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice on the tune 'Barbie World'. Also heading to Australia in the first few months of 2024 to party like it's the 90s on separate tours, because nostalgia will never die: TLC and Blink-182. AQUA 2024 TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS LINEUP: Aqua 2 Unlimited East 17 Phats & Small Big Brovaz Booty Luv Urban Cookie Collective AQUA 2024 TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS DATES: Thursday, March 21 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Friday, March 22 — John Cain Arena, Melbourne Sunday, March 24 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Tuesday, March 26 — Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide Thursday, March 28 — RAC Arena, Perth Aqua is touring Australia in March 2024 with special guests 2 Unlimited, East 17, Phats & Small, Big Brovaz, Booty Luv, and Urban Cookie Collective — with ticket pre sales from 10am local time on Tuesday, January 23 and general sales from 10am local time on Thursday, January 25. Head to the tour website for more information
First, Boy Swallows Universe was a must-read book by Trent Dalton, spinning a tale about a young boy, his prophetic brother and his jailbreaking best friend as they navigate the heroin-filled underworld of 80s Queensland. Then, the Brisbane-set story became one of 2021's stage hits, earning admirers new and old while treading the boards. Next, it's about to become your next must-binge homegrown show, with Netflix announcing a streaming adaptation of the award-winning book earlier in 2022. If you've been wondering since how the latter might turn out, the platform has just dropped more details — and some behind-the-scenes photos. You can stop your fan casting, because unveiling which famous faces are taking on the novel's characters is Netflix's new news. It's a hefty list, with the eight-part limited series set to star Travis Fimmel (Raised by Wolves) as Lyle Orlik, Simon Baker (Blaze) as Robert Bell and Phoebe Tonkin (Bloom) as Frances Bell — as well as Felix Cameron (Penguin Bloom) as Eli Bell, plus Lee Tiger Halley (The Heights) as Gus Bell. Also nabbing parts: Bryan Brown (Hungry Ghosts) as Slim Halliday, Anthony LaPaglia (Nitram) as Tytus Broz, and Sophie Wilde (Eden) as Caitlyn Spies, plus Christopher James Baker (Ozark) as Ivan Kroll, HaiHa Le (Back to the Rafters) as Bich Dang and Deborah Mailman (Total Control) as Poppy Birkbeck. And, you'll see Ben O'Toole (Barons) as Teddy, Zachary Wan (Never Too Late) as Darren Dang, and Millie Donaldson and Eloise Rothfield as Shelley Huffman (aged 17 and 13, respectively). Exactly when the series will hit your queue still hasn't yet been revealed, but it's scripted by screenwriter John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Hotel Mumbai), and the show's executive producers include Troy Lum (The Water Diviner, Saving Mr Banks, Mao's Last Dancer), Andrew Mason (The Matrix, The Water Diviner), Sophie Gardiner (Howard's End, Chimerica), Kerry Roberts (Foe, Boy Erased), and Aussie actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton (The Underground Railroad, The Green Knight). On directing duties: Bharat Nalluri (The Man Who Invented Christmas), Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker) and Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket). On the page, Boy Swallows Universe has snagged a slew of local awards, including Book of the Year, Literary Book of the Year and Audio Book of the Year at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards. The novel, which has sold a hefty amount of copies in Australia alone — 160,000 in 2019, when the play was announced — was also longlisted for Australia's most prestigious literature prize, the Miles Franklin Award. And, while bringing Boy Swallows Universe to the screen has been in the works for some time — with Harper Collins selling the television rights to the novel back in 2019, and Edgerton set to produce the show since then — if you've been waiting to actually lock your eyes on a Boy Swallows Universe series, now it's finally happening. Boy Swallows Universe will hit Netflix as an eight-part series sometime in the near future. We'll update you with further information, including a release date, when it's announced. Images: Netflix.
It only ran for three short years, but when international dance festival Creamfields took a hiatus in 2013, it left a big, fat hole in the Aussie festival calendar (large-scale festivals, at least). Now, folks who count the days for big drops have something to plan for, with today's announcement that Creamfields will make its return to Australian shores at the end of this year. Transplanting the clubbing experience into a huge outdoor event, Creamfields has given the global electronic music scene a solid shake-up since it first landed in 1998, starting life as a one-day UK show with a crowd of 25,000. In the years following, it's been staged in 22 countries, with that original UK festival morphing into a 70,000 capacity, four-day camping situation. It's raked in the accolades too, including the 2010 Music Week Award for Festival of The Year, and the 2016 gong for Best Major Festival at the UK Festival Awards. And this November, as it celebrates the big 2-0, Creamfields is heading back to Melbourne, set to bring with it a suitably huge lineup of DJs and electronic artists. Exactly which names will take the stage is yet to be revealed, but with past Aussie headliners including the likes of Skrillex and David Guetta, it's looking pretty darn promising. Both the lineup and venue for Creamfields Australia 2017 are yet to be announced, but you can register here for first dibs on tickets and the chance to win some sweet prizes. Images: Supplied.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your next trip. In this instalment, we go to Novotel Wollongong Northbeach, where we are putting up guests who book one of our epic For The Love VIP packages. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? This four-and-a-half-star hotel looks out over the picturesque North Wollongong Beach and lighthouse. It's one of the very best places to stay in the area, giving you easy access to local walking trails and swim spots as well as the thriving night life. THE ROOMS The rooms themselves aren't super flash, but they don't really need to be when you have sea views like this. In the morning, grab a seat on your private balcony, breathe in some sea air and watch Wollongong wake up — with the long stretch of coastline your backdrop. Gorge. Each of the 209 spacious rooms have all the necessities too. Air conditioning (a must for summer), a flat screen television, free wifi, a large desk (if you need to work) and a mini bar on demand. Just be aware that not all rooms have those stunning sea views — you'll need to choose one when booking. FOOD AND DRINK Novotel Wollongong Northbeach knows how to entertain. It has four separate bars, each with its own unique menu and level of formality. The Adrift Pool Bar consists of several white wooden booths and a few cute rattan tables set up around the heated pool. The best bit? Fresh seafood and classic cocktails are served out here. Hang out with some locals and fellow travellers at the public Pepe's on the Beach — where you can hire out your own cabana for the day. Or go for something a little more refined at North Bar. An impressive selection of wines adorn this drinks list, alongside a few specialty cocktails and top-shelf spirits. And when the sun goes down, American-style The Frisky Flamingo is the place to be — dress up and start your night out at this glam drinking den. THE LOCAL AREA Yes, you have so many places to eat and drink at Novotel Wollongong Northbeach, but you'd be a fool to spend all your time wining and dining. Either walk down to the beach or seaside pool for an ideal summer jaunt or head to some of the nearby walking trails along the coast to see even more of this gorgeous coastline. Boutique stores, local restaurants and all other town centre necessities are only a short walk away — with a free bus available right outside the hotel for those who want to have a chill one. If you're about to spend a day partying at For The Love, the bus is for you. [caption id="attachment_882178" align="alignnone" width="1920"] North Bar[/caption] Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips in destinations all over the world.
A hefty dose of escapism now awaits beneath Melbourne CBD's Olderfleet building on Collins Street, with underground cocktail haunt Valhalla Bar opening its doors. Boasting a sleek, moody, Nordic-inspired space and a standout beverage offering, the striking basement bar is the brainchild of Work Club, an international coworking space company that's just launched its newest outpost within the same building. Here, the organisation has created a very spiffy spot for after-work hangs and late-night adventures, paired with some truly memorable libations. The two-room space is a study in contemporary Scandi cool, with dramatic dark tones played against sleek statement light fixtures, metallic accents and leather booth seating. Brick flooring nods to the site's history, and you'll spy bespoke features like the grazing table made of azobé timber sourced from old Danish ferry wharves, handcrafted by Denmark's Thors Design. The headline act here is the inventive cocktail list, which is infused with a Nordic sensibility, packed with Aussie spirits and heroes lots of native, locally foraged ingredients. Steered by award-winning bartender Tony Huang (Lui Bar, Cloakroom Bar), it'll see you sipping creations like the Old Guard's brandy-infused take on an old fashioned, a peach and sparkling wine concoction they've called the Loki, and the Bestla — a nuanced fusion of acidified honey, honey liqueur, cumquat gin and mint. The physical drinks list even features profiles on some of Valhalla's favourite local spirits and liqueurs, sharing some extra insight into what's in your glass. There's also a tidy, Aussie-led wine selection, as well as a handful of beers that extends from Melbourne-made drops to imported brews including Mikkeller's Baghaven Violet. Meanwhile, the food offering features a menu of snacks and small bites primed for those knock-off sessions. Think: roasted chickpeas, malted caramel tarts finished with wattleseed cacao crumbs, and customisable cheese and charcuterie platters showcasing top Aussie produce. Find Valhalla in the basement of 477 Collins Street, Melbourne. It's open from 5pm till late from Tuesday to Friday.
If you've ever had a sneaky little go with some small person's Lego blocks once they're all tucked up in bed, Legoland sees you, tips you their hat… and raises you an adults-only night at its Melbourne Discovery Centre. With no children to get in the way (or outdo your creations), you'll score free rein of Legoland to check out its 4D cinema and rides, and build to your heart's content in the brick pits. Test your skills by taking on the build challenge, have a crack at a speed build or try a scavenger hunt — and vie for the prizes up for grabs. [caption id="attachment_878422" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaz Blom[/caption] As an added bonus, this adults-only instalment will be embracing a festive theme — get in the spirit by donning your finest ugly Christmas sweater, nabbing a pic with Santa and grooving to the night's festive DJ tunes while you create those Lego masterpieces. It all takes place from 6–9pm on Thursday, December 15 — and you should BYO shameless excitement, a taste for glory and boundless creativity. Entry will set you back $39.99, with food and drinks available to purchase from the onsite cafe until 8pm. [caption id="attachment_878421" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jaz Blom[/caption] Top Image: Jaz Blom
Between the cheesy margherita pizzas, parmesan-doused tagliatelle and ricotta-stuffed cannoli, you'd be forgiven for assuming Italian cuisine is forever doomed to be a vegan no-go zone. But Hardware Lane's newest resident is here to remind you that's not true. Introducing, Funghi e Tartufo — a laneway Italian restaurant with an entirely plant-based menu and wine list. Named after the Italian words for 'mushrooms and truffle' in a nod to the kitchen's signature dish, Funghi e Tartufo comes from the minds behind Clifton Hill's Osteria Italiano. And it's a dream for vegans, coeliacs and FODMAP folks alike. Following in the footsteps of dietary-friendly local Italian eateries like Farro and gluten-free pizzeria Shop 225, the newcomer is taking an inclusive approach to a cuisine that's traditionally not so vegan-friendly. On the menu, you'll find all the Italian classics, with a plant-based makeover. Kick off with antipasto bites like bolognese arancini, lemon pepper 'calamari', vegan meatballs and a Sicilian-style caponata paired with toasted bread. Pasta fiends can get their kicks with the likes of fresh pappardelle in rich truffle and mushroom sauce, a spicy penne puttanesca, and even a creamy carbonara situation. Or, try Funghi e Tartufo's take on the classic cotoletta, here matched with vegan cheese and a tomato sauce. Dessert's sorted, too, thanks to sweet creations like panna cotta and a silky chocolate cheesecake. But that's not all. The menu abounds in gluten-free options, and even the wine and cocktail list is an all-vegan affair. Pop by for aperitivo hour, and enjoy your Sicilian snacks and vegan cheese board matched with drops like a negroni or a 2018 chianti out of Tuscany. Find Funghi e Tartufo at 60 Hardware Lane, Melbourne CBD. It's open 5–10pm Wednesday and Thursday, and 5–11pm Friday and Saturday.
First, the bad news: if you don't already have a ticket to Laneway Festival 2025 in Melbourne to see Charli XCX, Djo, Beabadoobee, Clairo, Barry Can't Swim, Remi Wolf and more, they've completely soldout. Now, some good news: in the Victorian capital, Laneway is throwing an official afterparty. The small club show features RONA., nate sib and more — and it's your next chance to get in on the Laneway action. The date for the shindig is obviously the same as the Laneway date. Accordingly, you'll be heading to The Night Cat on Friday, February 14. Melbourne's gig also features DJ Ivan Berko and Laneway Festival's DJs. Tickets are limited — so, like all things Laneway, getting in fast is recommended. As for the festival itself, if you've been lucky enough to nab tix, its lineup also features BICEP doing their CHROMA AV DJ set, Olivia Dean, Eyedress, Skegss, Hamdi, Joey Valence & Brae, 2hollis, Ninajirachi, Julie, Girl and Girl, and more.
Valentine's Day doesn't have to announce itself loudly. Sometimes, the most memorable gestures are the ones that unfold slowly — a shared scent lingering on skin, a ritual you return to, a moment that turns into a habit. This edit leans into that quieter kind of intimacy, bringing together gifts that are better when they're experienced together. From objects designed to be split, shared or worn for someone else, to experiences that ask you to show up and participate, these are Valentine's Day picks from independent, thoughtful brands doing things differently. Think of them as ways to ignite a spark — or gently fan a flame that's already there. After something made with love instead? Explore our edit of beautiful, design-led things worth gifting. Hugs + Kisses Candle and Room Spray Pack, Two Good Co. A gift that sets the mood — and does genuine good. This candle and room spray duo is hand-poured and packed by women in Two Good Co.'s Work Work program, which provides paid employment pathways for women with lived experience of homelessness and trauma. Developed with perfumer Ainslie Walker, the scents are designed to evoke comfort, calm and self-worth — making this a gift that carries meaning well beyond the room it fills. Shop now. Cherry, Rose and Vanilla Bar, Hunted + Gathered Hunted+Gathered, the Melbourne-born chocolate brand that has revolutionised the chocolate market in Australia since its launch over a decade ago, strives to make chocolate better, using organic ingredients sourced directly from ethical growers. A taste of their limited-edition Chocolate, Rose and Vanilla Bar will certainly make your Valentine's Day better too. A subtle, yet undeniably cool gift, for those who have a taste for the finer things in life. Shop now. Apartamento Cookbook #10: APHRODISIACS, Pan After Published by cult independent magazine Apartamento, this anniversary cookbook explores desire through food — not as spectacle, but as something deeply personal. Featuring recipes and reflections from artists, writers and cooks around the world, it's less about following instructions and more about cooking together, lingering over pages and letting curiosity lead the way. Shop now. Bloody Cello, Departed Spirits Made by Melbourne-based disruptors Departed Spirits, this blood orange and ancho chilli vodka is bold, smoky and unapologetically expressive. Infused using Australian ingredients and a distinctly irreverent approach, it's designed to be mixed, shared and argued over — a drink that invites conversation as much as it does another round. Shop now. Meta Vanguard Sunglasses, Oakley For the person who loves their morning run, long ride or weekend hike almost as much as they love you. These performance sunglasses combine Oakley's sport-first design with hands-free POV capture and open-ear audio, letting them stay fully present while still recording the moments you share along the way. A considered Valentine's gift for partners who connect through movement — and prefer experiences over things. Shop now. Like Love (Saffron Colour Vinyl), Ball Park Music Pressed on limited-edition saffron vinyl, this intimate release from Brisbane's Ball Park Music is built for close listening. Warm, reflective and best enjoyed from the couch rather than the crowd, it's the kind of album that quietly soundtracks late nights and unspoken moments. Shop now. Cerise Black Two-Piece Camisole Set, Cloud Blvd Designed and made by an independent Australian lingerie label, this sheer lace set is sensual without being performative. It's meant to be worn for someone else — gifted with intention, not spectacle. The present isn't the fabric itself, but the moment it creates. Shop now. Private Valentine's Day SKYWALK, Sydney Tower Eye For couples who'd rather share an experience than unwrap a box, this private SKYWALK offers uninterrupted time together — 268 metres above the city. With limited sessions, panoramic views and sunset slots, it's a reminder that sometimes the most romantic thing is simply being alone, somewhere extraordinary. Book now. Lots of Love Gift Box, Koko Black For when words aren't quite enough, but chocolate might be. At the heart of Koko Black's Valentine's Day range, this 30-piece gift box brings together handcrafted pralines and truffles designed to be shared slowly — passed across the table, argued over, saved for later. Made by one of Australia's most loved independent chocolatiers, each piece reflects the brand's commitment to small-batch craftsmanship and quality ingredients. Shop now. Cloudknit Jersey Blake Shorts, Sheet Society From Melbourne-based bedding Sheet Society comes a thoughtful new loungewear apparel label — Resting. The brand's Cloudknit shorts are designed with versatility and inclusivity in mind. Soft, draped and genuinely comfortable on all bodies, they're the kind of shared wardrobe piece that quietly becomes a favourite (and rarely finds its way back to the original owner). Shop now. You n Me Pendant, Millie Savage A playful, contemporary take on the classic split-heart necklace, designed by independent Australian jeweller Millie Savage. Sold as a magnetic pair, it's jewellery made to be worn together — or kept close when you're apart. Sentimental, but never saccharine. Shop now. Body Oil of Summer, BRUXA Hand-poured in Australia and made with a plant-based, non-comedogenic formula, this jasmine-scented body oil is designed as a ritual rather than a routine. Silky, fast-absorbing and made for touch, it works as daily hydration — or something slower, depending on the mood. Shop now. Geo Urn Vase, FAZEEK Hand-blown in Melbourne using borosilicate glass, this sculptural urn is equal parts art object and vessel. Fill it with their favourite flowers — or yours — and let it live in shared space as a quiet reminder that beauty doesn't always need an occasion. Shop now. 100 Couples Challenge Cards, VUSH Created by Australian sexual wellness brand VUSH, this deck is designed to spark connection — emotional, playful or physical — on your own terms. With different levels of spice and a strong emphasis on consent, it's about opening conversations as much as igniting chemistry. Shop now. HIS | HER Fragrance, Who Is Elijah A cult favourite from an independent Australian fragrance house, this genderless scent is designed to be shared — or stolen. Clean, musky and quietly addictive, it smells different on everyone, which is exactly why it works as a couple's fragrance. Shop now. Astoria Necklace, Cameron Studio Designed by Melbourne-based Cameron Studio and made in Italy from solid 925 sterling silver, this Figaro chain is understated, durable and designed to age well. Wear it daily, layer it, or subtly match — it's jewellery that favours longevity over trend cycles. Shop now. Cooking Classes for Two, RedBalloon Because doing something together is often better than owning something together. From pasta-making to cocktail workshops, these hands-on classes turn Valentine's Day into a shared memory — and a skill you'll actually use again. Book now. ONE35 V2 Camera, Flashback Created by an independent Australian startup, this digital camera reintroduces the thoughtfulness of film photography — without the waste. Limited to 27 shots at a time, it encourages presence, anticipation and shared moments, with the option to wait 24 hours before viewing images. A modern keepsake-maker for trips, nights out and memories worth sitting with. Shop now. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence our recommendations, but they may earn us a small commission. For more information, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Melbourne's Hotel Nacional has become a gluten-free haven on Hardware Lane, featuring five levels of Mexican-inspired food and drinks — with stellar panoramic views to match. Now, on the cusp of its first birthday, the venue is celebrating with a discounted fiesta from Monday, June 23–Friday, June 27, slinging the entire menu for half price. Moving into the former home of Campari House 12 months ago, each space within this sprawling operation has been designed to make a big impression on guests. Wandering from one floor to the next, a vibrant combination of earthen tones, arched walkways, textured walls and colourful cacti combines modern Mexican aesthetics with a breezy, beachside feel. As you might expect, it goes hand in hand with the venue's feel-good flavours. Head Chef Sergio Tourn's (Tino, The Vale) contemporary fusions combine fresh seasonal produce with native ingredients. Recently added to the winter menu are highlights like pumpkin tamales with zucchini and poblano peppers; Mexican chicken balls with chipotle and tamarind sauce; and chamoy-glazed pork with sweet potato, kale and hibiscus. Best of all, the entire menu is coeliac-friendly, making it a go-to choice for avoiding cross-contamination. "I always try to mix a bit of tradition with modern learning so I can honour both," says Tourn. "Each diner that walks through the doors of Hotel Nacional will not only enjoy our Mexican food offering but also taste the experiences I have had with flavourful and native ingredients. A standout dish on the menu is the chamoy-glazed pork, which is a mix between sweet and smoky, and my upbringing as an Argentinian child." Co-owned by Alex Greco, Hotel Nacional is not his only gluten-free establishment. Elwood's Repeat Offender and St Kilda's Rufio are also forward-thinking restaurants and bars, serving Latin-inspired flavours to those with special dietary requirements. All three venues feature numerous vegetarian and vegan options, ensuring diners have plenty of choice when it comes to indulging in a top-notch feed that aligns with their needs and musts. So, with this special birthday discount only happening for a few days, now is your chance to experience Hotel Nacional's laidback, accessible vibe. "The past 12 months have been an incredible journey for our team — from launching something so bold and unique to seeing it embraced by the Melbourne community," says co-owner Taylor Granchi. "We're proud of what we've built, and our first birthday is the perfect opportunity to say thank you." Hotel Nacional's first birthday discount is available from Monday, June 23–Friday, June 27 at 23–25 Hardware Lane, Melbourne. Head to the website for more information.
Tell Joel Edgerton that you're a rower and he won't be surprised. Everyone has been. "Once you start getting involved in a movie about a certain subject, it's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork," he explains. "They're like 'oh yeah, I rowed in college or university' or 'my son is a rower' and 'my daughter is rower'. It's a more popular sport than I had realised. And certainly back at the time that this story was taking place, rowing was one of the biggest sports in the United States." The film: The Boys in the Boat. The time: the Great Depression era, including the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The tale: an IRL chapter of sporting history that Edgerton found remarkable, as audiences should as well. "I could only assume that being Australian and not American is the reason why I've never heard of it before," he advises. "But if you start to weed out anyone you know who's been on a rowing team or is a rower, they know about this story." The ninth directorial effort from George Clooney (The Tender Bar), with Edgerton in a role that the actor-turned-director might've once played himself — and could've still easily now — The Boys in the Boat focuses on the University of Washington's junior varsity team, rower Joe Rantz and coach Al Ulbrickson. The squad competed on the world's biggest stage over the college's senior crew, at an Olympics held at a difficult period and in a fraught place. On his own since he his early teens, Rantz picked up an oar solely for the money paid to the team's athletes, plus the fact that they received somewhere to stay. Ulbrickson was the former rower who saw something in Rantz, but whose inner warmth and support isn't easily given when his eyes are firmly on the prize, as they always were. Edgerton plays Ulbrickson opposite Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) as Rantz, with Clooney working with a screenplay adapted from 2013 non-fiction novel The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As the film's star himself notes, it's an underdog story, as sports movies tend to be. But the astonishing real-life details also fuel an exploration of the class clashes that see the pastime inherently equated with wealthy schools and well-off students, rather than the struggling Rantz and many of his crewmates, as told with sincerity, impactful performances and thrilling rowing scenes. [caption id="attachment_935417" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joe Maher/Getty Images for Warner Brothers[/caption] If it feels as if Edgerton is never far away from a screen, there's a reason for that: nearing three decades since his first credit in children's television series Spellbinder, his resume overflows with homegrown highlights and Hollywood productions. For Australians, he'll always be The Secret Life of Us' Will McGill. He'll always have Ned Kelly, The Square, Animal Kingdom, The Great Gatsby and The Stranger to his name as well. For everyone, he'll always be the Star Wars' franchise's Owen Lars, including as recently as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Zero Dark Thirty, Warrior, Midnight Special, Loving, It Comes at Night, The Underground Railroad, The Green Knight, I'm a Virgo: they all grace his filmography. So does directing and writing The Gift and Boy Erased while also featuring in both, producing The Stranger as well as leading it, and helping to turn Boy Swallows Universe into a streaming series. What appealed to Edgerton about taking on the part of Ulbrickson, who he notes "is basically the opposite of Ted Lasso"? How does he approach stepping into someone else's shoes, as he also did in Thirteen Lives recently? Was there a common baseline with Clooney on set, given that both are actors who direct, write and produce? Where did he originally imagine his career would take him? Edgerton chatted to Concrete Playground about all of the above — plus his first reaction to the tale told in The Boys in the Boat, which is in cinemas Down Under now, and more. ON EDGERTON'S FIRST REACTION TO JOE RANTZ AND AL ULBRICKSON'S TALES "My feeling about sports stories — I was involved in a big one, a sports movie called Warrior. I remember at the time, in the aftermath of that, realising that the sports movie isn't necessarily about the sport that's being depicted. It's really about the themes and about the character, and particularly about rooting for an underdog. And that if the movie's made well, that you can really appreciate it despite not knowing much about sport in question. So the idea that you could go watch The Boys in the Boat without really having much of a knowledge about rowing, I think it's true. You could go because it's really about the underdog story about these guys realising how they have to get united in order to achieve the victory. But I just got very excited. The biggest thing that really grabbed me was when you read that Joe Rantz had been abandoned by his father when he was 13 years old. And fully abandoned, as in left to live on his own — at the age of 13, through the depression. That, I don't know why — I'm sure it would've affected me hearing about that pre being the father, but picturing myself at the age of 13 being left to my own devices, I don't know how I would have survived. And that aspect to this underdog story really, really grabs me." ON PLAYING A ROWING COACH WHO'S BASICALLY THE ANTI TED LASSO "That's the joke: I say I didn't have to do any training, which is slightly true. Basically it's being the father of nine kids, essentially. I think coaches are like dads. There's a certain tough love aspect to them. From his part, there's the aspect for the kids that they want to impress and do the right thing by their coach, and so there's a real fatherly theme that runs through coaches, I think. And in particular with Ulbrickson, he's described as someone who barely cracks a smile, and it's pointing me in the direction of all those coaches that we see in various sports that just look like they're so determined to win that they look like they don't seem to enjoy themselves at all, except maybe when they have a trophy in their hands. I just love the idea of those aspects of him. It's basically the opposite of Ted Lasso. No warm and fuzzy edges. In fact, when I first started speaking to George about it, I was like 'can we lean into this even more?' — this idea that barely, I think it's once or twice in the film, you get a sense of the warmth that actually resides inside of him that he is proud of the kids, and that there is love inside of him. I think when we first meet Ulbrickson, he's not really looking at the individuals in the boat. He's just looking at the sizes of the different guys, and how fit and healthy they are, and just going 'let's just pick the eight'. They're not humans — just the eight best human machines that are going to power the boat." ON THE CHALLENGE OF BALANCING ULBRICKSON'S FOCUS ON SUCCESS WITH CARING ABOUT HIS TEAM "George, recently on a press tour in LA, was joking about sharing dailies, the footage, with the studio in the early weeks of the shooting. And I don't know if he was joking or not, but he was just talking about how the studio — because he and I had agreed on the sort of coldness, this sort of inability to show warmth, and I think they maybe wanted me to be a bit more likeable through the film. I was like 'no, I just want to hold off on that until the right moment to show that warmth'. I do feel like the audience is patient enough to see that there's a care waiting and brewing underneath there. But I find that every movie has its own challenges, and one of them was just trying to hold back too much warmth in this. I think that it earns its place at the right moment." ON PREPARING TO ENTER THE ROWING AND COACHING WORLDS "I did do some rowing training. I did some single-scull rowing, which I think it's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. The balance of a single scull is crazy. I just did a lot of watching of the coaches that were training the boys, and spent a lot of time sort of observing their journey they went on, which was quite remarkable actually. I was very impressed with how they went from complete novices to really very quickly in the space months pulling the trick that they could be an Olympic rowing team for the film. The relationship I had with them had this inbuilt kind of fatherly aspect to it anyway. I'm a bit older now and they're all young guys. We just had a good camaraderie in that sense. I felt a little bit perfectly removed enough from them, but admiring of what they were achieving on screen as actors and as a team that they were forming. It was a nice relationship that we formed just through the shoot." [caption id="attachment_935421" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joe Maher/Getty Images for Warner Brothers[/caption] ON THE COMPLICATIONS AND PRESSURE OF STEPPING INTO A REAL-LIFE FIGURE'S SHOES "It all depends on how indelible that person was in their real life. I was very anxious about getting Harry Harris right for Thirteen Lives and doing the right thing by that story, knowing that I would eventually meet him and hope that he felt good that I stepped into his shoes. Ulbrickson is a different story because he's not somebody that the average person would really know about, know what he looked like. Uncannily, he looked a lot like my Dutch grandfather when I saw photos of him. I was like 'he looks like my Opa'. But there's no real footage or newsreel footage or audio recordings of him, so it was really up to me to just take the essence of what was said about him and amalgamate that with me so that I could be the right version of him that would make the movie work. So I didn't feel this immense pressure. The pressure I see is when I read about actors taking on some iconic role. Any of those actors who stepped into that TV show The Crown, like Elizabeth Debicki playing Diana. And Rami Malek doing Freddie Mercury. They're being asked to play characters or real-life people that we have an image of, that we have a memory of, and we have an affinity with because we're so familiar with them. That to me is a real challenge for actor — the nerves of stepping into something like that. Something like this is different, because there's a certain freedom and therefore a lack of or less pressure." ON WORKING WITH A FELLOW ACTOR-TURNED-DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER IN GEORGE CLOONEY "I think George has a really good shorthand with how to shape performance, being an actor. It is remarkable how many directors don't really either understand how to talk to actors. Or they get nervous to direct actors. Or, in the worst-case scenario, they've had bad experiences with actors and they are sort of hard-wired to not love working with them. George has a real care and love for actors, and a really good way of shaping performance. And as an actor working after having directed a couple of movies, I just feel like I'm perhaps a bit more of a team player in understanding how a film set works, and how to play my part in making it easier for what the scene requires — but never presuming to think I know better or that I would put my hand up to say 'are you sure you want to move the camera that way?'. I would never do that, the same way I wouldn't want an actor-turned-director telling me how I should play the character in some specific way." [caption id="attachment_935424" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joe Maher/Getty Images for Warner Brothers[/caption] ON EDGERTON'S CAREER TRAJECTORY EXCEEDING EVERYTHING HE EVER IMAGINED "I feel like when I was a kid, I never really set goals. I went to drama school so I could work in the theatre, and then I started realising that it was possible to work in television and film because I knew stage actors who had also done that. Each step of the way was just stepping blindly into the future going 'alright, well maybe I could try this and try this'. But I never imagined that I'd get to work in Hollywood. I did start to develop that ambition once I saw that it was possible, but even then I didn't imagine that I'd have a nice, full career and enjoy the kinds of things that I get to do now. That said, there's still challenges that I want to get my hands on, and I've got lots to learn — like lots to learn — and lots that I want to try and wrestle with. Perhaps one of the great things about being an actor is the ability, as long as your brain keeps working, touch wood, that you can just keep evolving each step of your life, each phase life, into different sorts of characters. Here, I'm watching a bunch of other people be athletes, and I get to be the coach. And one day, if I'm lucky, I'll be playing grandfathers on film." [caption id="attachment_872851" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Stranger[/caption] ON WHAT EDGERTON LOOKS FOR IN A ROLE "It's always reading the script and just having a response. Character and story. Particularly now that I have a lot of responsibilities in my life being a dad. It's not just me and a couple of suitcases. That response has to be really, really strong that I feel a compulsion to get involved in something, particularly if it means going to another city. We stay together as a family. It's not like I'm going off for months away from my kids. I just want to feel a real draw and a real pull to do something, and usually it just starts with reading the script and going 'ohh, this is fascinating'. There's usually an element to it where I'll feel like something's got to be a bit of a challenge — or a little bit terrifying." The Boys in the Boat opened in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, January 4. Read our review. The Boys in the Boat images: Laurie Sparham © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
There's a new kid on the block in the Melbourne cafe scene, and he's quite the character. Denis the Menace is the new Cremorne venture from the owner of Prahan's St Edmonds, promising great food served with a playful attitude in an environmentally friendly space. Setting up shop in an old up-cycled warehouse, owner Adam Wilkinson was clearly channelling his cafe's namesake when deciding on his menu. Light breakfast options include Running Late Roti ($10) and Fancy Toast ("we were trying to make bread, except someone accidentally spilled raisins and orange zest in the dough"). Those after something a bit heartier might like to try the Big Green Food Fight ($14), consisting of shredded kale, broccoli, avocado, buckwheat kernels, pistachios and chilli served with a poached free range egg. The lunch selection is similarly mischievous, with a poached trout coconut curry called the Thai'm Out ($18); a meatless take on the Sunday roast dinner named Kind of Like Mum's ($15); and soba noodles with tofu, shiitake, seaweed, eggplant and snow peas in your choice of sesame or ponzu dressing called the Oh Shit-ake ($15). But while there are plenty of giggles to be had when you're ordering your food, when it comes to sustainability, Denis takes things seriously. Designed by eco-architect Simon Cookes from Duckbuild, the building is fitted with solar panels and recycled timber padding, and even has a worm farm for composting. Diners can sit on reconstructed apple crates and drink water from recycled Carlton Draught bottles while appreciating the cumquat trees that line the cafe's interior. Or if you'd rather sit outside, the cafe has its own courtyard, complete with old board games and Lego.
Plenty happens at an awards ceremony. For 2024's second round of Emmys — the first took place in January, after the 2023 event was postponed from its usual September timing during Hollywood's writers' and actors' strikes — history was made before the glitzy televised ceremony even happened. At the Creative Arts Emmys, Shōgun picked up 14 awards, making it the most-decorated show in a single season ever. The love for the series continued on Monday, September 16, 2024, and rightly so, with the historical Japanese drama also nabbing four more gongs: for outstanding drama series, directing, lead actor and lead actress. The Bear also won big again in the comedy categories — after hosts and Schitt's Creek favourites Eugene and Dan Levy joked in their opening monologue that, in the true spirit of the dramedy, they wouldn't be making any jokes in their gig. The pair's opening remarks spanned everything from calling out the number of movie stars now popping up on streaming series to noting how often Nicole Kidman (The Perfect Couple) graces the small screen these day. Baby Reindeer "sent from my iphonn" gags and recognising that it took three seasons for the Emmys to even nominate the sublime Reservation Dogs also helped get the ceremony started. A Schitt's Creek reunion, Jeremy Allen White advising that The Bear changed his life, Murphy Brown great Candice Bergen meowing, a tribute to Saturday Night Live's 50th year, a Happy Days ode with Henry Winkler punching a jukebox, John Leguizamo celebrating diversity: they all happened once the night started flowing. So did Fargo's Lamorne Morris telling The Sympathizer's Robert Downey Jr he has a poster of him in his house, Slow Horses' Will Smith riffing on the fact that he's not that other Will Smith, Brendan Hunt going all Coach Beard, Joshua Jackson's reaction to 'I Don't Want to Wait' from Dawson's Creek playing him on and familiar faces from The West Wing all together. At the first post-Succession Emmys, the list of winners is similarly hefty. While a few shows went home with multiple statuettes — including Shōgun, The Bear, Baby Reindeer and Hacks — the list of recipients also spans Slow Horses, True Detective: Night Country, Ripley and Fargo. And, thanks to The Crown, Australia was represented among the accolades with Elizabeth Debicki emerging victorious for playing Princess Diana. As always, if a nominated series didn't end up with its stars or creators on the Emmys stage, that doesn't mean it wasn't ace. Cases in point: Only Murders in the Building, Reservation Dogs, Mr & Mrs Smith, Abbott Elementary, Lessons in Chemistry, Loot, Palm Royale, Fallout and more. What did nab a trophy? Who else was in contention? We've got that covered. Here's a rundown of the awards handed out at the main ceremony, plus the nominees competing for them — and you can check out nine winning shows that you should watch ASAP, too. Emmy Nominees and Winners 2024: Outstanding Drama Series The Crown Fallout The Gilded Age The Morning Show Mr & Mrs Smith Shōgun — WINNER Slow Horses 3 Body Problem Outstanding Comedy Series Abbott Elementary The Bear Curb Your Enthusiasm Hacks — WINNER Only Murders in the Building Palm Royale Reservation Dogs What We Do in the Shadows Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Baby Reindeer — WINNER Fargo Lessons in Chemistry Ripley True Detective: Night Country Lead Actor in a Drama Series Idris Elba, Hijack Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Walton Goggins, Fallout Gary Oldman, Slow Horses Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun — WINNER Dominic West, The Crown Lead Actress in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age Maya Erskine, Mr & Mrs Smith Anna Sawai, Shōgun — WINNER Imelda Staunton, The Crown Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Matt Berry, What We Do in the Shadows Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building Jeremy Allen White, The Bear — WINNER D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Reservation Dogs Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Ayo Edebiri, The Bear Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building Maya Rudolph, Loot Jean Smart, Hacks — WINNER Kristen Wiig, Palm Royale Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Matt Bomer, Fellow Travelers Jon Hamm, Fargo Tom Hollander, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Andrew Scott, Ripley Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country — WINNER Brie Larson, Lessons in Chemistry Juno Temple, Fargo Sophia Vergara, Griselda Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun Jon Hamm, The Morning Show Mark Duplass, The Morning Show Billy Crudup, The Morning Show — WINNER Takehiro Hira, Shōgun Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Jonathan Pryce, The Crown Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Drama Series Christine Baranski, The Gilded Age Nicole Beharie, The Morning Show Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown — WINNER Greta Lee, The Morning Show Lesley Manville, The Crown Karen Pittman, The Morning Show Holland Taylor, The Morning Show Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Lionel Boyce, The Bear Paul W Downs, Hacks Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear — WINNER Paul Rudd, Only Murders in the Building Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live Supporting Actress in a Actor in a Comedy Series Carol Burnett, Palm Royale Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear — WINNER Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Janelle James, Abbott Elementary Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Jonathan Bailey, Fellow Travelers Robert Downey Jr, The Sympathizer Tom Goodman-Hill, Baby Reindeer John Hawkes, True Detective: Night Country Lamorne Morris, Fargo — WINNER Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry Treat Williams, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Dakota Fanning, Ripley Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Aja Naomi King, Lessons in Chemistry Diane Lane, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Nava Mau, Baby Reindeer Kali Reis, True Detective: Night Country Directing for a Drama Series Stephen Daldry, The Crown Mimi Leder, The Morning Show Hiro Murai, Mr & Mrs Smith Frederick EO Toye, Shōgun — WINNER Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Directing for a Comedy Series Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear — WINNER Guy Ritchie, The Gentlemen Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms Pat Show Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Weronika Tofilska, Baby Reindeer Noah Hawley, Fargo Gus Van Sant, Feud: Capote vs The Swans Millicent Shelton, Lessons in Chemistry Steven Zaillian, Ripley — WINNER Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Drama Series Peter Morgan and Meriel Sheibani-Clare, The Crown Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, Fallout Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover, Mr & Mrs Smith Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, Shōgun Rachel Kondo and Caillin Puente, Shōgun Will Smith, Slow Horses — WINNER Writing for a Comedy Series Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo, The Bear Meredith Scardino and Sam Means, Girls5eva Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks — WINNER Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two Jake Bender and Zach Dunn, What We Do in the Shadows Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer — WINNER Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror Noah Hawley, Fargo Ron Nyswaner, Fellow Travelers Steven Zaillian, Ripley Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country Writing for a Variety Special Alex Edelman: Just for Us — WINNER Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees John Early: Now More Than Ever Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool The Oscars Outstanding Reality Competition Program RuPaul's Drag Race The Amazing Race The Traitors — WINNER The Voice Top Chef Outstanding Scripted Variety Series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — WINNER Saturday Night Live Outstanding Talk Series The Daily Show — WINNER Jimmy Kimmel Live! Late Night with Seth Meyers The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The 2024 Emmy Awards took place on Monday, September 16, Australian time. For further details, head to the Emmys' website.
"We're in a war. You wanna fight?" If you've watched 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, then season one of Andor — the Disney+ prequel series to the big-screen spy thriller — then hearing those words uttered by Diego Luna (La Máquina) won't come as a surprise. Viewers know where this tale is headed, but watching the best small-screen addition to a galaxy far, far away lead us there has already proven gripping TV once. The show's namesake makes the above statements in the just-dropped first teaser trailer for Andor's long-awaited second season — and more rebellion and fighting for revolution awaits. Almost three years have passed since the Mouse House's streaming platform stepped into this story — three years that've been filled with Ahsoka, the sadly short-lived The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. When it returns in April 2025, Andor will be just the second of Disney+'s live-action Star Wars shows to extend beyond a single season (the other: The Mandalorian), although Ahsoka is also locked in for more episodes. If you missed it the first time around, Andor takes a favourite big-screen character and steps back into their story before the events that viewers have already seen — so, like Obi-Wan Kenobi. As its title makes plain, the show focuses on its namesake, Cassian Andor, with Luna reprising his Rogue One role. Star Wars fans have already seen him as a Rebel captain and intelligence agent, and also watched how his story wraps up, hence the show's need to jump backwards. The focus: following Andor as he discovers how he can play a part in battling the Empire. Indeed, charting the rebellion, and how people and planets joined in, is the series' whole remit. In season two, as the end we all know is coming gets closer, expect higher stakes — and also Ben Mendelsohn (The New Look) as his Rogue One character Orson Krennic, plus Alan Tudyk (Grimsburg) as K-2SO. The first season of Andor saw filmmaker Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy) — who co-wrote the screenplay for Rogue One — rejoin the Star Wars franchise as the series' creator and showrunner. He's back for season two. On-screen, so are Stellan Skarsgård (Dune: Part Two), Genevieve O'Reilly (Tin Star), Denise Gough (Who Is Erin Carter?), Kyle Soller (Bodies), Adria Arjona (Blink Twice), Faye Marsay (Ten Pound Poms) and Forest Whitaker (Emperor of Ocean Park) . Release-wise, the 12-episode season — which is not just Andor's second, but its final season — is being unveiled in four chapters comprising of three episodes a piece. A new chapter will hit your streaming queue each week from Wednesday, April 23 Down Under. Check out the first trailer for Andor season two below: Andor season two streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, April 23, 2025 Down Under. Read our review of season one. Images:©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Ceramiques has studios all over Melbourne, with locations in Elsternwick, Kew and Geelong — offering up wheel-based ceramics classes in its tranquil, relaxing and creativity-inspiring studios. In Elsternwick, its classes include a one-off experience where curious-minded students can experience a two-hour introduction to pottery. They'll use the wheel for the first time, and by the end of the session, they'll have created two to four pieces of which their favourite will be glazed and fired — ready for collection not long after. There is also a four-week term with one two-hour class per week. Here, you'll learn all the steps involved in wheel throwing, from the design phase to the glazing. There is also a hand-building class on Thursday evenings for those who want to experiment with the endless possibilities of hand-crafted clay. The Kew and Geelong studios offer the same courses, while the Geelong spot incorporates the Ceramiques LAB where the teachers test, experiment and create. There are events and specialty classes here too. If you already have a knack for pottery Ceramiques allows studio accessories and kiln hire for a fee, so you can swing by any time you like and perfect your craft.
If you find yourself in the backstreets of South Melbourne, be sure to head to The Montague. Despite its recent renovations, the neighbourhood spot hasn't lost its charm. Pull up a seat by the open fire in winter or sit out on the sunny footpath in the warmer weather. You can pick from the extensive wine list of predominantly Aussie vino or grab a pint of regular craft beer. The Montague also has a range of cocktails if that's more your speed, including espresso martinis, negronis and margaritas. The kitchen dishes up seasonal pub feeds using locally sourced ingredients. On the menu, you'll find steaks, a beef burger on a house-made bun ($25), roast chook ($32), lamb and mint sausages with mash and peas ($28), battered fish ($28) and bunch of starters and sides. If you're there on a Sunday afternoon, there's one thing that should be a high priority: a hearty weekend roast. The generous $28 Sunday roast special is a long-running favourite, swinging through a weekly rotating menu, each variation served with all the must-have trimmings. Maybe it'll be some slow-roasted lamb shoulder matched with crispy spuds and slaw, or perhaps a plate of pork starring plenty of crackling and roasted veggies.
The Waterside Hotel, standing tall and proud on the corner of Flinders Street and King Street, is set to open before the end of the year following a massive transformation. Come November, the revitalised venue will showcase a new beer garden, multi-level South-East Asian restaurant, rooftop bar, outdoor terrace, ground-floor pub and additional event spaces. While a huge undertaking, the project was in the safe and experienced hands of Sand Hill Road, a group known for redeveloping some of Melbourne's most notable and loved pubs. Their previous renovations include The Espy in St Kilda, the Richmond Club Hotel on Swan Street, and the Garden State Hotel on Flinders Lane. "The Waterside Hotel is the culmination of decades revitalising pubs across Melbourne. We're deeply passionate about breathing new life into treasured venues, and we felt that now was the perfect time to revive The Waterside Hotel — restoring this iconic landmark while offering something truly unique for Melbourne, that is on a global scale," says Matt Mullins, co-owner of Sand Hill Road. This project has been in the works for an eye-watering eight years. While the heritage-listed 1925 facade has been preserved, the interior was entirely redone to modernise the venue and create a new destination for Melburnians to head to for a night out in the CBD. The ground floor pub and beer garden will keep with traditions, offering up modern pub fare. At the same time, the new PAST/PORT restaurant, which spans three levels, will serve a Southeast Asian menu, all under the watchful eye of executive chef Sarah Chan (from the Espy's Mya Tiger). Sand Hill Road has led the project with their signature 'Melbourne-first approach', which seeks to honour the legacy of historic venues, while revitalising them for future success and longevity. Mullins says, "The Waterside Hotel is not just about grand design — it's about how people connect to the rooms, the mood, and each other. We've strived to create something that carries the soul of a Melbourne pub, but on a scale and ambition that feels truly world-class." Images: Michael Pham. The Waterside Hotel is set to reopen in November at 508 Flinders Street, Melbourne. Subscribe now to keep up to date with the latest information. In the meantime, check out the best restaurants in Melbourne's CBD.
You don't have to look north when planning a winter escape. Though the sunny weather and warmer temperatures are undoubtedly tempting, Victoria is home to an enviable array of top-notch stays rich in winter-warming experiences. One of the best is Dunkeld's Royal Mail Hotel, which has just unveiled a brand-new outdoor wellness suite. Available exclusively to hotel guests, this is your chance to slide into a spacious magnesium-salt hot tub or sweat it up in a Finnish-inspired cedar wood sauna. And if you get too hot, there's also a refreshing openair cool-down shower. Following a strenuous trek up into the Grampians, you won't find a better spot to soothe your weary limbs. Beyond the suite's amenities, this outdoor addition to the Royal Mail Hotel offers uninterrupted views of Mount Sturgeon (Wurrgari). Meanwhile, the surrounding property is dotted with century-old river red gums and rolling lawns speckled with wildflowers — a bustling thoroughfare for roaming kangaroos, wallabies and emus. You're also invited to shelter from the chill inside a cosy lounge area, where hot tea is brewed fresh using ingredients plucked from the property's famed kitchen garden. If you're unfamiliar, it's Australia's largest organic kitchen garden at 1.2 hectares and provides up to 80 percent of the produce for Wickens and the Parker St Project — the hotel's acclaimed fine-diner and relaxed alternative. During your stay, you can partake in daily chef-led garden tours or enjoy cellar visits and premium wine tastings guided by the restaurant's sommeliers. You're also invited to link up with the conservation team, who present a feeding time tour to raise awareness for the region's native and endemic species, such as eastern quolls and fat-tailed dunnarts. With the outdoor wellness experience complementing the Royal Mail Hotel's accommodation, you can choose a deluxe suite with Mount Sturgeon views, a refurbished bluestone cottage or the six-bedroom homestead for something extra special. Priced at $190 per session for two, the outdoor wellness suite is available for 90-minute bookings from 9am–7pm, Thursday–Saturday. The Outdoor Wellness Suite at the Royal Mail Hotel, Dunkeld, is available for guest bookings from 9am–7pm on Thursday–Sunday. Head to the website for more information. Images: We Met in June
This year has been a real doozy. For us, one of the toughest parts of 2020 is missing out on live gigs, especially in the form of music festivals. It'll still be a while before Australia (and the rest of the world, for that matter) gets its festival groove back, but that doesn't mean you can't get those festival vibes into your life in other ways. We've teamed up with our fun-loving mates at Bacardi to help you do just that. Here are seven fun things you can do to throw your own mini festival at home. Think dance-inducing tunes, DIY glitter stations, epic decor and summery rum cocktails aplenty. All you have to do is figure out who's on the guest list, then get cracking. [caption id="attachment_790477" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mushroom Creative House[/caption] PICK A FUN THEME Like any good party, your festival should have a theme. You could go for the simple dress code option, whether that's donning fun, fruit shirts, bad hats, neon ballgowns, 80s disco or chic The Great Gatsby-style threads. Or, take things up a notch and make your festival's overall vibe specific to a well-known festival and do your best to emulate its atmosphere. Go for the colourful masquerade of the New Orleans Jazz Festival, boho chic looks of Coachella or make it an EDM-style bash like Belgium's Tomorrowland. Then, there's the all-out rave in the same vein of Barcelona's Sónar. And, you should work in one Aussie festival for good measure, too — our pick is Meredith Festival. Whatever you choose, the most important thing is to avoid cultural appropriation as you go all out and have fun with it. DECK OUT YOUR SPACE Next, deck out every corner of your space, giving each area a different purpose and feel. Try out rooms based around different music genres. One room could be electronica, another indie pop or R&B, one deep house and even a dedicated 90s den playing nostalgic tunes. But, music isn't the only reason we venture around the world for festivals, with some of the best multi-day parties having many other drawcards — think installation art, group-based activities and breakaway areas with things like outdoor cinemas and karaoke stages. So, work in some of these elements to ensure you're the master of a well-rounded mini fest, offering something for everyone. Be sure to balance it out, so there are both high energy and chilled out spaces to choose from. STREAM DANCE-INDUCING DJ ACTS No festival is complete without a stellar music lineup. While you exactly can't fly in the likes of Four Tet, Lizzo or Tame Impala for your at-home affair, you can still get some epic tunes blaring through your speakers — from streaming live gigs to revisiting old festival sets and whacking on a dance-worthy playlist. First up, check out Boiler Room, which offers heaps of sets from the world's top DJs via its Youtube channel. Think Aussie artist Flume, Canadian electronic songwriter Jessy Lanza, lauded British DJ Ross from Friends and Korean-American electro artist Yaeji, who also recently released her new mixtape in a session called Yaeji in Place, which is also worth a spin. For more Aussie content, there's Newtown Festival and Splendour-inspired Spotify playlists you can queue up. Create that multi-stage experience and build energy by setting up different streams in each of your themed rooms and move from emerging artists to big-name headliners just like the festivals do. Most importantly, though, make sure these acts will get your crew on the dance floor. WHIP UP NOSTALGIC PARTY SNACKS Your festival will need to have party snacks and there's nothing like having all of your nostalgic favourites in one place. That means party pies and mini sausage rolls galore. If you want to go fancy, ditch the frozen stuff and make your own. If you have a barbie, a pack of snags never hurts, either, and you could also chargrill some corn. Don't forget the fairy bread, chilli popcorn, cabanossi sticks and even jelly that's beem moulded into a fun shape while you're at it. We recommend you prepare to serve your eats at different intervals, so your guests can snack from the arvo well into the night. SET UP A DIY GLITTER STATION We've all been there, covering ourselves in as much glitter as possible when heading to a rave. After all, getting dressed up is part of all the festival fun. If you're not afraid to find sparkles scattered around your house for months to come, then give your guests the chance to up their look at a DIY glitter station. Order some biodegradable eco-glitter online, so you can rest easy that your partying ways don't impact the planet. Your DIY glitter station can have other makeup and accessories, too, like fun hair clips, hilarious sunnies, DIY lanyards and glitzy costume jewellery. Get glammed up, put the final touches on your look and get ready to party. [caption id="attachment_786187" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mushroom Creative House[/caption] SHAKE UP A SUMMERY RUM COCKTAIL One of the best things about hosting a festival at home is that you can serve any booze you fancy — and there won't be any overpriced, mediocre wine and beer at your mini fest, either. To really add to the party atmosphere, shake up a summery cocktail for the day. One of our favourites is a spiced piña colada. Simply shake up Bacardi Spiced, fresh pineapple and coconut water over some ice. It's sure to put all of your guests in the festive mood and it's also super easy to make. You can check out more fun rum cocktails over here if you're planning on making a few. Tip: an ice sculpture is always a fun thing to add to your punch bowl. HOST A POST-PARTY YOGA SESSION The day after a festival is always tough. You've had little sleep, your limbs are sore and, worst of all, the fun's over. To lighten the mood, host a post-party yoga session. Roll out the mats and deck out your space like a mini yoga studio. Choose a spot with bright, natural sunlight, put on some calming music and burn some incense. Unless you or one of your mates are a budding yogi, we suggest following Yoga with Adriene. Her chilled-out disposition makes her one of the best online yoga instructors out there. And she even has classes titled yoga for hangovers, yoga to calm your nerves and yoga for when you feel dead inside. You're sure to find something that will perfectly suit the post-festival mood. Do what moves you this summer thanks to the fun-loving folks at Bacardi. Once you've thrown your own epic mini fest, check out Bacardi's competition, where you and 20 mates could win the chance to attend Australia's smallest music festival. Top image: Mushroom Creative House
When it comes to what we drink, we can be creatures of habit. We reach for our go-tos: a cheap-yet-standout bottle of vino, ready-to-sip cocktail cans and brews we know and love. But, if you knew how simple it is to craft winning cocktails, you'd be stocking up your bar cart, filling your ice tray and inviting your mates round for a few cheeky ones ASAP. So together with The Bottle-O, and in honour of World Gin Day — which on Saturday, June 10, is fast approaching — we've found a few easy-peasy, three-step wintery cocktails that'll have you sipping gin like a pro. Ready to up your G&T game? Impress your mates with a martini? Add a slice of summer to the cooler months with a gimlet? We've got you. MALFY ROSA G&T The classic G&T is a favourite among many. It's deliciously bitter, spotlights your gin of choice and always refreshing. In this recipe, there's the added juiciness of Malfy Gin Rosa's grapefruit notes and the sweet kiss of a Med-inspired tonic. A wedge of citrus will add some party to your glass (and a sprig of rosemary will jazz it up further), but it'll be just as delicious without. And, if you're pressed for time (or really cannot be bothered), opt for a four-pack of Bombay Sapphire G&Ts or Gordon's Pink Gin & Sodas (if you'd rather leave the tonic) — just stealthily pour the fizz into a glass and your pals won't know the difference. Ingredients Serves one 30ml Malfy Gin Rosa 60ml Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic Grapefruit to serve Method Add Malfy Gin Rosa to a glass with ice and top up with tonic water. Garnish with a wedge of grapefruit and enjoy. ROKU GIMLET If you're starting to feel the winter blues — and a tropical holiday is nowhere in sight — this short, sweet, citrusy cocktail is the drink for you. It looks fancy, but once you've secured your coupe, the hardest part is done. You want your glass to be chilly, the liquor to be a delicious pour like Roku Gin and a selection of salty snacks alongside. If you can't find the Japanese spirit, opt for any of the other top-quality (yet affordable) options, like Hendrick's or Four Pillars. Ingredients Serves one 50ml Roku Gin 50ml lime syrup Lime to garnish Method Add Roku Gin and lime syrup to a mixing glass with ice, then stir until the glass feels very cold. Strain into a chilled coupe glass, top with a slice of lime and enjoy. FOUR PILLARS RARE DRY GIN MARTINI If you're looking to impress, the martini is having somewhat of a resurgence. Although its taste divides cocktail-lovers everywhere (some think it's perfection, some know it's too strong), it's the hero on many a cocktail list. Well, the secret to a good martini is in the quality and temperature of your gin: you want something special, and you want it ice cold. Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin is the bottle for you. It's classic, herbaceous and citrus-forward — and it's Aussie made. Just quietly, a nip or two of Hendrick's would do nicely too. Ingredients Serves one 60ml Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin 15ml dry vermouth 2 dashes orange bitters Lemon peel to garnish Method Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice, stir and then strain into a chilled martini glass. Top with a twist of lemon peel and enjoy. Whether you're a seasoned gin lover that's looking for a hot new way to enjoy your pour this winter, or you're a newbie looking to take a delicious dive in, these three recipes will sort you out. Celebrating World Gin Day on Saturday, June 10 will be that much more exciting with a group of friends, some gin chilling in the freezer and a trio of recipes that are easy to nail. To begin with gin, head to your local The Bottle-O and take your pick. The Bottle-O is the independent store slinging your favourite boozy sips all over Australia — and a standout spot to nab the gin for your cocktail of choice this World Gin Day. Ready to dive in? Head to the website. Imagery: Declan Blackall.
