Among Brisbane's must-do experiences for locals and attractions for tourists, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is one of the most famous. While the Fig Tree Pocket wildlife facility that dates back to 1927 isn't just home to koalas, but also fellow wildlife such as owls, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, turtles, birds of prey and snakes, it's long been known as the spot in the Sunshine State capital to cuddle a koala. Since Monday, July 1, that's no longer the case, however. The site has announced that it has ended its koala holds "in response to increasingly strong visitor feedback", and will replace it with a new koala close-up experience from Sunday, September 1, 2024. "To address increasing public demand and a concerted effort to embrace more-immersive and educational experiences, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary will be ceasing koala hold experiences," said the site in a statement. Visitor feedback indicated that folks are "wishing to spend longer with the sanctuary's koalas and their passionate wildlife care team, without necessarily holding them," the announcement continued. "We love that there is a shift among both local and international guests to experience Australian wildlife up close, but not necessarily personal, just doing what they do best — eating, sleeping and relaxing within their own space," said Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary's General Manager Lyndon Discombe in the same statement. "We have absolutely seen an increase in demand for educational programs and guided experiences, focusing on the ability to witness the natural behaviours of koalas. Once you see them up close and in their wonderful natural state, we hope our guests love and respect them even more." "With the development of koala close-up and the expansion of the sanctuary's existing daily koala encounters (koala moments), Lone Pine will be offering guests increased opportunity to be in the presence of our adorable marsupials and learn about their behaviours, ecology and daily care, as well their unique quirks and personalities." [caption id="attachment_964209" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Christopher Neugebauer via Flickr[/caption] When spring arrives, the new koala close-up give patrons extra time in the koalas' presence, with each session running for 15 minutes for groups of up six people. It does include feeling a koala's fur, but not holding it or getting a complementary photo with it. Lone Pine's koala moments experience covers touching a koala, while the 60-minute koala discovery tour gets you spending one-on-one time with a koala, entering the koala exhibit and seeing behind the scenes at the leaf-sorting area. Still on the adorable marsupials, the venue's platinum tour also weaves in the koala moments experience. [caption id="attachment_964210" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Christopher Neugebauer via Flickr[/caption] The latest change to the Brisbane locale comes after the wildlife sanctuary expanded in 2023 with a new nocturnal precinct. At the night-focused addition, visitors can see koalas, rufus bettons, tree kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, bare-nosed wombats, potoroos, pademelons, bandicoots, bettongs, southern hairy-nosed wombats and echidnas after dark while taking a one-kilometre stroll through a eucalypt planation. "It's an Australian native animal treasure hunt, with the prize being able to see these amazing creatures up close and personal," said Frank Mikula, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Curator, when the nocturnal precinct opened. Patrons get peering using portable thermal imaging cameras, with the experience designed around not disrupting the critters, and instead walking across a new elevated boardwalk that has been custom-designed for the site. [caption id="attachment_964208" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Andrew Thomas via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary at 708 Jesmond Road, Fig Tree Pocket, Brisbane stopped offering koala holds on Monday, July 1, 2024, and will start its new koala close-ups from Sunday, September 1, 2024. Head to the venue's website for more information and bookings. Top image: Christopher Neugebauer via Flickr.
Six businesses in Healesville — all on the same block — have joined forces to create the Healesville Makers Quarter. Whenever you fancy it, you can jump in your car, drive an hour from the city, and spend an afternoon tasting your way around their creations, from small-batch wines to award-winning gins. In the collection are Four Pillars Gin and Watts River Brewing, alongside four wineries: Jayden Ong, Payten & Jones, No. 7 Healesville and Giammarino. And, on top of teaming up, they've launched an event series called Sip & Stroll. The first happened on the Winter Solstice, and the second will take place on Saturday, September 13, to mark the coming of spring. Arrive anytime after midday for an afternoon of drinks, bites and stories. As you wander from venue to venue, you'll be treated to exceptional wines, limited-edition brews and experimental drops. In between sips, learn about the skill, experience and ideas that went into them — and kick back in the fresh air and rolling hills of the Yarra Valley. You're welcome to take your dog along with you.
"It's more like a doughnut-ice-cream-sundae tortilla hack," says chef Julian Cincotta. The cofounder of Butter in Sydney is usually found racing between restaurants, serving Butter's famed fried chicken and its sought-after cinnamon doughnuts. But, following a chat with Concrete Playground, Cincotta thought it was high time he joined TikTok to give that #TortillaHack a crack. "I've got quite a sweet tooth," he says. "I hadn't seen any sweet takes on the tortilla hack challenge, so this is my version. I think it's deliciously ugly — and pretty fucking tasty." Cincotta's remix isn't fine dining by any stretch of the imagination. It's exceptionally messy to eat, as you'll see from his pics, and supremely easy to make at home — "simplistic elegance at its best," he says. Cincotta's top tip is not to melt the ice cream too much: "make sure it's straight out of the freezer. It's all about that hot-cold sensation with a sweet-savoury bite." And, if you can't get your hands on a couple of Butter's cinnamon doughnuts, you can use any other doughnut, "but they won't be as good," he jokes. "Book an Airbnb and come to Sydney especially." Watch Cincotta's TikTok video to see just how OTT it is. Then, give it a go using the recipe below. [embed]https://vimeo.com/528663156[/embed] RECIPE 2 cinnamon doughnuts 2 scoops of Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream 2 Cadbury Creme Eggs 1 flour tortilla METHOD Lay a tortilla on a chopping board. Use a knife to slice the wrap from the centre to the outer edge. Place two doughnuts on the left-hand side of your tortilla wrap. Add two scoops of ice cream to the top right-hand side of the tortilla. Add two Creme Eggs to the final section. Smash the creme eggs with the palm of your hand. "You could use a spoon or knife, but it's best to get your hands messy," says Cincotta. Fold the tortilla quarters starting from the bottom right-hand corner working anticlockwise. Toast the tortilla in a sandwich press without melting the ice cream too much. Finish with whipped cream, sprinkles and/or chocolate sauce. MORE FOOD PORN Cincotta didn't stop at dessert tortillas. He also remixed the TikTok trend to create a charcoal chicken tortilla with shredded chicken, garlic sauce, lettuce, shoestring fries, gravy, cheese slices and mayo. See the video here. Or, watch how he takes a BLTC and adds fried chicken and thousand island dressing, here. As Cincotta says, "There are no rules. If you want to put a cheeseburger in a tortilla, put a cheeseburger in a tortilla. It's all about personal taste and creativity." Follow Butter on TikTok. Top image: Videohead/Raghav Rampal
The Adelphi Hotel's culinary offering, Om Nom, has switched gears this year. Shaking off its former identity as a dedicated dessert bar and reemerging as a wine and cocktail destination, the venue has reopened the doors following an extended pandemic-forced hiatus. It now boasts a new Head Chef in John Law (Entrecôte) and a broadened food offering championing local produce. Open Friday and Saturday nights, the reimagined Om Nom is a primo spot for snack-matched drinking sessions, especially if you're in the mood for some Victorian wine, and grazing boards loaded with the likes of Milawa Blue and free-range mortadella from Ballarat's Mr Cannubi. Small bites might include options like the chicken liver parfait ($16), cheese croquettes ($16) or a beef tartare ($16) while toasties feature fillings such as Six Farm triple cream brie with Quattro Stelle nduja ($25). Every Friday, Sydney rock oysters are going for just $2 a pop, from 4–7pm or until sold out. Signature cocktail favourites like the Salted Caramel Cracking Espresso and the Make The Call (served in a tiny red telephone booth) will return to star alongside a handful of new creations. [caption id="attachment_810364" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Om Nom's Salted Caramel Cracking Espresso[/caption] Of course, Om Nom hasn't surrendered the sweet stuff entirely — you'll now find a rotating offering of one fruit and one chocolate dessert dish on the regular menu. The renowned weekend high teas have also returned, hosted across two daytime sittings every Saturday and Sunday (12pm and 2.30pm).
Four decades back, and three as well, Clown in a Cornfield would've stood out on a video store's shelves. It would've proven an instant hot rental, in fact. The slasher film just has that kind of title. The immediately evocative name comes from the page, where this tale of a killer jester sparking bloody mayhem rather than big laughs in a rural Missouri community initially appeared courtesy of author Adam Cesare. Not just for its moniker, the book won the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel. Eli Craig, the director of Clown in a Cornfield as a film — and its and co-screenwriter with Carter Blanchard (G vs E) — is no stranger to terrific titles himself. He was initially interested in this as his third feature due to its name, because who wouldn't be? That tracks across his career, however; his first two movies also had marvellous monikers. Fifteen years ago, Craig's Tucker and Dale vs Evil started earning horror- and comedy-loving devotees, and now is deservedly considered a 21st-century classic. When Little Evil arrived in 2017, it also had a title that stood out. How much stock does Craig put in a great name for a movie? "I think a great title is what gets people's attention more than almost any marketing. And it's very fun to me to mashup a title in a way that feels provocative — like you say, and unique. And feels like it tells the story," he tells Concrete Playground. "But then when you go see the movie, it actually has a lot more depth and complexity than the title gives you. So for Tucker and Dale vs Evil, it seems kind of silly and goofy — and, of course, it is a very heightened comedy. But it also has these layers of things it's about, and that is much deeper than you would think." "And it's the same with Clown in a Cornfield," Craig continues. "I think once people see it, they'll be like 'oh, this is actually saying a lot of things. It's not just a goofy movie about a clown and a cornfield'." Clown in a Cornfield is definitely a flick about a clown and a cornfield. It makes good on that promise. It also pushes horror further to the fore than Craig's past features did. This is equally a slasher that uses that high-concept premise to dig into generational divides, economic uncertainty, and both capitalism and the American dream gone wrong, though. As it follows high schooler Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas, Ginny & Georgia) and her widower father (Aaron Abrams, Children Ruin Everything) to Kettle Springs, where the latter is about to be the new town doctor — and where the existing resident adults, such as Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso, George & Mandy's First Marriage) and Mayor Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), yearn for the locale's past, while teens such as Arthur's son Cole (Carson MacCormac, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) are looking forward instead — it has societal bite to go along with its blood and gore. In Clown in a Cornfield, the character that lives up to the movie's moniker is Frendo, the mascot for the local Baypen Factory, which once kept much of the town employed. Since the corn outfit closed down, its harlequin has become a symbol of happiness and prosperity corrupted, embodying everything that Kettle Springs has lost — and sparking that chasm between its authority figures and everyone of their age with the next generation. In both the picture's 90s-set opening and its present-day bulk, a slicing-and-dicing Frendo is hardly a pal, then. It's positively homicidal, with dispensing with Quinn and her peers its aim. Craig himself has a phobia of them — "I'm terrified of clowns," he shares — but these makeup-adorned figures have long been both jovial and creepy characters in pop culture. His isn't the first feature to play up their eerie side, of course, including in the last decade. IT and IT: Chapter Two became huge box-office hits in 2017 and 2019, and a TV prequel is on the way to HBO. The currently three-strong Terrifier franchise has been getting gruesome on-screen since 2018, with a fourth flick in development. Is making a movie about a murderous clown cathartic when you're already afraid of them? Our chat with Craig started there. Also covered: Clown in a Cornfield's clear love for other slasher and horror films, what goes into a great scary-flick kill, and how the gulf between the film's younger and older characters also provides inspiration for some of its humour, including a pitch-perfect moment with a rotary phone — plus why Douglas was the right choice for Quinn, and fleshing out Sasso and Durand's parts. What does the affection now held by horror-movie lovers for Tucker and Dale vs Evil 15 years on, even if it wasn't the success that Craig was expecting when it released, mean to him, too? That was part of our discussion as well. On Being Afraid of Clowns While Making a Movie About Murderous Jesters — and No, It Isn't Cathartic "I've always found them to be very duplicitous and very not-trustworthy. And I always thought it was kind of funny that clowns would go to kids' birthday parties. I find magicians kind of scary, too. And we once had a magician to my son's birthday, but we elected not to have a clown. But in my last film Little Evil, I had a scene with a clown that spontaneously combusted on fire, because the kid had superpowers — and I really was thinking 'I have to do more with these clowns because they are just naturally disconcerting'. You'd think that maybe I'd have less fear of clowns now, but it's actually the opposite. I think Frendo has surprised me at various publicity events already, where he sneaks up behind me — and I'm always the one that's like 'aah'. So I haven't gotten over my fear of clowns, but there is something quite magical and fun about them, too. So it's that mixture of fear and loathing." On Clown in a Cornfield's Societal Bite — aka Making a Killer Clown Flick About Generational Chasms, Capitalism Gone Wrong and Economic Uncertainty "That was in the book, and that's why I wanted to make the movie, because I was really surprised at what Adam Cesare was able to get at about this generational anger, I think — and this divide between a younger generation that's more progressive and maybe cares about the earth and cares about their future, and maybe an older generation that just feels like they're just harvesting the earth for their own greed. And I thought that frustration is just really apropos to our time. And also, I would say the thing that's so interesting about using a clown to tell that story is that originally clowns were like court jesters, and they were the only ones that were kind of allowed to tell truth to power and to tell the king what maybe was really up — but they had to do it with a sense of humour and satire. So this movie, in a way, it's fun because it has these layers of truth underneath it, and it's a clown telling that story to people. That isn't necessary to love the movie. You could love the movie and not really care about anything deeper. But I think through humour and entertainment is a lot of the ways we get some of our ideas that break through the walls to meet us. So that was quite fun to play with." On Balancing the Film's Evident Love for Slasher and Horror Greats That've Gone Before with Being Its Own Addition to the Genre "I just want to embrace all the movies I saw as a kid. I grew up in the 80s and early 90s, and watched everything from the Halloween movies, Friday the 13th, all of Freddy Krueger stuff — and I also loved the comedy-horror movies like Evil Dead 2. And so a lot of it, to me, just lives in like this bouillabaisse inside my brain, and I don't necessarily know when I'm picking a trope from this movie or that, but they kind of live there. And it's funny to watch other people pick them out and say 'oh, you did this here and this here'. I just kind of feel the tropes and I start writing them, and I don't necessarily pick them all out. The one thing is Jaws, I did play directly to Jaws in this movie, because that is probably my favourite horror movie that goes under the radar as not really being a horror movie — but it definitely is. It scared the pants off me." On What Makes a Memorable Slasher-Movie Kill for Craig — and How Easy or Difficult That Is to Achieve "Well, I think a lot about how to heighten it, how to make it just a little bit more than say — I always love the Scream movies, but I find that Ghostface with this knife gets a little repetitive, so I'm trying to come up with a new way for each kill to be just slightly different. And what are the tools this farmer-type Frendo the clown might use? And so you come up with pitchforks and chainsaws and axes and sledgehammers and all kinds of tools, and then you just try to heighten that and make it something people will grin at and laugh and cheer, and also be freaked out about, all at the same time." On Skewing More on the Horror Side of the Scale Than Comedy Compared to Craig's Previous Features "I did a real comedy-first horror with Tucker and Dale, and then I did almost just a comedy with horror elements with Little Evil. And I really wanted to dive back into horror and do kind of a hard-R, gritty in some ways, horror film — but with some levity because that's just the way I am. I'm not a really dark person — and I like humour in my stories. And I think there's just humour in the darkest parts of life." On Layering the Film with Comic Touches That Also Get to the Heart of Its Generational Clash "When you have the opportunity to nail a joke that also is just inherent in the theme, it really makes me smile. It makes me really excited when I'm sitting there writing and I go 'oh, oh, this is going to be really good' — because you're not breaking out of the story to make a joke. It's just very much within the context of the film. So it's really exciting when those present themselves. I don't feel like I'm making a joke. I feel like comes to me out of the ether. And it just presents itself to me, and then that's the opportunity to do it. There's a few points in this movie that grabbed the theme and make a joke out of it." On Knowing That Katie Douglas Was Clown in a Cornfield's Lead "You'd be surprised — I wanted to cast her before even auditioning her. I had watched a ton of her work. I saw that she had been working since she was about six years old, and she actually has a ton of work under her belt — and all of the stuff I saw from her from, like Ginny & Georgia and also this show called Pretty Hard Cases, and she did some Lifetime movies and she did some short films, and I literally went in and I watched them all. And I just always saw this sort of grounded, natural performance with the toughness and an edge to her, and sort of a sarcasm to her, that I felt just was Quinn. She auditioned for it, and completely nailed the audition. And I couldn't have been more blessed to have somebody that was so ready for being number one on the call sheet. She was so ready to lead this film. And she carried the film — and she does a fantastic job." On the Kind of Guidance That You Give Actors Like Will Sasso and Kevin Durand When They're Tasked with Fleshing Out Horror-Movie Characters That Could Be Cartoonish in Other Hands "I tell them kind of exactly what you just said. I wanted this character to be deeper, and we talk about what their motivations are. So usually they're not thinking about the characters being a villain — they're thinking about them being justified. So every good actor is always justifying their hatred or villainy for their character, and it make has to make sense to them. So anytime it doesn't make sense, we have to work on it. But those guys are so talented. They brought so much of themselves to the role. Will Sasso, as the sheriff, was just fantastic because he's threatening and creepy, but he's also just funny. He just brings a sense of humour and life to everything he does. And Kevin Durand, I don't think I could get an actor that could be this role without playing into something that we've seen before. He really created a new character. And that was really important that we weren't like the Joker or something. He was really, really his own — and very grounded and more gritty and real — character." On the Response to Tucker and Dale vs Evil 15 Years on — and What It Means for It to Be So Beloved as a Horror-Comedy Cult Classic "It actually means I'm not crazy. So when I first made that film, I just believed in it naively, like with all of my heart. And I thought 'well, this is just going to be the biggest hit since Evil Dead 2'. And it wasn't that way. It didn't come out as a big hit. I thought I was making the next Shaun of the Dead or Evil Dead 2 — and it went to some great film festivals, but then once we came out, it kind of disappeared for a while. And then over the years, people discovered it, and it truly became what I always believed it would be by now. And it's kind of validated my own feeling of art and my feeling of 'what entertains me should entertain other people'. Because I'm just ultimately trying to make a film that that I want to go see. And if people start telling me they don't like what I would want to go see, it becomes much harder to make a movie. And now I feel like 'wait a minute, maybe, maybe my sensibility is a sensibility a lot of other people share'. So that means a lot." Clown in a Cornfield released in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Traditionally, Albury hasn't made many a traveller's bucket list. Drivers tend to whizz past on their way to quainter spots, like the gold rush town of Beechworth or the alpine village of Bright. But, over the past couple of years, this 45,000-person city on the northern banks of the Murray River has transformed itself into a destination. There's a blockbuster-capacity gallery, a sculpture trail, a designer hotel, and a slew of new restaurants, bars and cafes. In between art-ing and eating, you'll find mountain biking and paddling adventures a-plenty. So, next time you're racing along the Hume, stop over for a night — or three. Albury lies 462 kilometres southwest of Sydney and 326 kilometres northwest of Melbourne. Let's get into all things Albury. STAY Stretch your legs after the easy drive and check in to one of Albury's best modern stays. With its oversized industrial light fittings, Scandi-inspired high stools, vintage-style bicycles and open plan, the Atura Hotel's foyer feels more like an inner-city warehouse than a hotel lobby you'd stumble across in Albury. And this is just what Atura, a brand belonging to the AHL Group (which also owns QT, Rydges and Art Series) is going for — more art and better design in regional places. The reception 'pod' flows into the bar, where guests crowd around a retro-inspired pool table. The bar morphs into the Roadhouse Grill, dishing up popcorn prawns, braised lamb shanks and local Gundowring ice cream sundaes by night, and buffet breakfasts from 6.30am. Through the glass back wall, black and white NEMO face chairs look over an arc-shaped pool. Keep an eye out for inflatable pink flamingos around the place and Friesian cattle, who drop by occasionally. [caption id="attachment_563142" align="alignnone" width="1279"] Supplied by Atura[/caption] For excellent views of Albury's motley skyline, ask for an east-facing room on the seventh floor. That said, each of the 140 rooms is decorated with the fun yet sophisticated aesthetic informing the entrance. You'll be napping in a king-sized bed, swinging a cat around in loads of space, cleaning up with Malin + Goetz toiletries in a mural-covered ensuite, sipping free coffee from your own machine and tapping into free wifi. To save some dosh, jump on one of Atura's packages, which top up your stay with gallery tickets, cocktails, movies and more. EAT AND DRINK Make your first stop the River Deck Cafe, open daily for breakfast and lunch, and Thursday to Saturday for dinner. You'll find it right on the Murray, among the leafy plane trees of idyllic Noreuil Park. For years, there was only a kiosk here, but in May 2015, Alex Smit, who's been proprietor since 2011, transformed it into a 120-seater restaurant, bringing in Mauritian-born Ludo Baulacky as head chef. Goat's cheese is turned into dollops of pannacotta, carefully arranged among pickled mushroom, baby beetroot, stonefruit and dukkah. For a light lunch, it's a good match with the herby quinoa salad, which comes with candied walnuts, honey dressing, tomatoes and olives. Among the share plates, there's a Milawa cheese platter and a salmon brushcetta with smoked salmon, crème fraiche and caperberries. If you're looking for a hearty main, try the seared barramundi with cauliflower and dill puree, pickle, clams, soy bean and chicken jus. A map in the menu shows you what produce comes from where — one of the River Deck's local mainstays is Rad Growers, a small farm in Bungowannah, twenty kilometres west of Albury. On the main drag, Green Zebra has been making housemade Italian food for 15 years. You can design your own dish by choosing from the pasta, sauce and ingredients menus. Do not stop yourself from ordering the lemon tart for dessert. On Townsend Street is The Proprietor, a friendly, pendant-lit, checkered-floored cafe, serving Padre coffee from Brunswick, and an all-day menu driven by local suppliers. Go for grilled haloumi and dukkah eggs with hummus, salty lemon, watercress and sourdough, or the mushroom toastie, with cheese spread, haloumi, garlic and green sauce. Another of Albury's outstanding new additions is Boom Boom. Tucked away in AMP Lane, this wine bar and eatery feels like a transplant directly from Melbourne. Owner Matthew Carrington has made sure that every element is on point — from the beautifully-curated, globe-spanning wine list to the impeccably-balanced cocktails to the in-house charcuterie and laidback soundtrack. The star share plate arrives crowded with wagyu bresaola, finocchiona-wrapped caperberries, pancetta, pickled grapes and oyster mushrooms. Unwilling to share? Go for a 'Big Thing', like the ling en papiotte with chilli, lemon, coriander and kipfler medallions, or the scotch fillet with potato rosti and tomato bourbon relish. You can relax in the laneway at a table for two, perch at the bar or take over a communal bench. Another dinner option is the long-standing Border Wine Room. If wine bottles could speak, this place could tell a tale or two — the walls are dotted with empty Grange vessels. The a la carte menu changes monthly, while the six-course tasting menu is revamped fortnightly. Keep an eye out for special events — from French wine tastings to chocolate degustations. DO In late 2015, after a $10.5 million makeover, the Albury Regional Gallery reopened as MAMA (Murray Art Museum Albury), with a 14-metre-high curved wall and a visionary director named Jacqui Hemsley, who's passionate about getting people excited and engaged. To that end, MAMA is currently hosting its first blockbuster: Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon, showing till May 8. Live circus is coming up on April 22 and 23, and, on May 21, the MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize, worth $50,000, will move in. The gallery also now has its own modern, casual eatery: Canvas. It's hidden away from the main street, overlooking a quiet, grassy square. Concertina windows allow natural light to stream into the high-ceilinged space, and the menu features luxurious twists on classics. Think coddled egg with truffled mushroom duxelle and brioche soldiers, and duck benedict with house-smoked duck ham, brioche, poached eggs, beurre noisette hollandaise and spinach. Canvas is open daily for brunch and lunch, and Wednesday-Saturday for dinner. Back alongside the Murray, you'll find the five-kilometreYindyamarra Sculpture Walk, stretching between Kremur Street and Wonga Wetlands. It's part of the Wagirra Trail, a work-in-progress that will ultimately consist of 70 kilometres of riverside shared paths. Every sculpture — from the giant-sized Maya Fish Trap by Uncle Tunny, Darren Wighton and Andom Rendell, to Reconciliation Shield by Tamara Murray — was created by local indigenous artists and is a response to the river. Whether you walk or cycle, take your mobile, to access augmented reality at each stop. Despite Albury's sizeable population, wild places are easy to access. To get on the river, hire a canoe from Murray River Canoe Hire, who'll drop you eight or 12 kilometres upstream for an easy one-two hour paddle back to town. Prepare to meet cheeky flocks of white cockatoos, cormorants and white ibises — 350 bird species live along the Murray, which, at 2,700 kilometres, is the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and the Nile. There's also some cracking mountain biking terrain. And, four years ago, elite biker Indi Boer, who's won 19 international and national titles, set up a coaching school named The Fastline Bikademy. If you're a beginner, sign up for a basic skills lesson and by the end of it, you'll be conquering scary dips and powering around corners. Experienced? She'll spend hours helping you to refine your skills, so you can take on tougher rides with more skill and strength. If you're looking for an excuse to head to Albury sooner rather than later, the annual Gold Cup is coming up on March 17 and 18. With more than 15,000 people expected to attend, it's the most popular country race in NSW — and an official public holiday for Albury residents. There'll be live music, craft beers and pop-up stalls peddling local produce. LET'S DO THIS; GIVE ME THE DETAILS By car: Albury is about six hours drive southwest of Sydney, and about three-and-a-half hours' drive northwest of Melbourne. By train: The XPT takes seven-and-a-half hours to reach Albury from Sydney, and three hours and twenty minutes from Melbourne. By plane: QANTAS, Virgin Australia and REX all fly the 80-minute route between Albury and Sydney. REX flies between Melbourne and Albury, taking about an hour. Jasmine Crittenden travelled as a guest of Destination NSW. Images: Peter Saw (unless otherwise specified).
Jane has a message to everyone who thinks print media is dead and buried. Jane who, you ask? jane. by the grey attic, a new high-end, independently produced, bi-annual fashion, photography and fine art publication, the first issue of which is now available for purchase. The brainchild of creative director, writer and stylist Annika Hein, and fashion and fine art photographer Dean Bell, who freelance in the Melbourne fashion scene under the name The Grey Attic, jane. features 320 pages of film-shot photographs, arts, poems and articles from contributors dotted in 21 cities around the world. Highlights from the first issue include a review of Helmut Newton: A Retrospective at the Foam photography museum in Amsterdam that includes original snaps by the famed photographer, and an interview with Marion Hume, international fashion editor at The Australian Financial Review. "Our aim was to revert back to slower processes that nurture and encourage the slow creation and consumption of art, something that celebrates undone beauty, effortlessness, authenticity, timelessness and unconventional thinking," said Hein and Bell in a joint statement. "The element of film photography and our preference to analogue processes also provides something different in today's digital market." You can find issue one of jane. in Melbourne at Fitzroy Newsagency and Readings, or online at www.janebythegreyattic.com where they ship internationally.
Tucked away in a row of beige Victorian houses is the teal kiosk now home to Monforte Viennoiserie. Inside, pastry chef Giorgia McAllister Forte spends her Tuesdays and Wednesdays rolling butter, whipping cream and laminating dough. She returns at 4am on Thursday for her first day of service. By 8am, a sizeable queue has already formed outside. Four and a half hours later (or earlier if everything sells out), service stops and she begins prepping for Friday. This all continues daily through the rest of the week, albeit with the doors opened at 8.30am on Saturdays and Sundays. Monforte only launched in August, but it's already built a loyal base of local customers who are keeping McAllister Forte's operation going, week in week out. Meanwhile, she's keeping them on their toes with an eclectic menu of ever-changing seasonal offerings. "The idea is that people don't always come back to the same stuff. I feel like that's a drawcard because they get to try something new," says Forte. She picked up this approach while working with Claire Ptak at Violet in Hackney, London. "She was really big on baking seasonally, so I learned to bake with the seasons there." As spring rolls into summer, expect to see plenty of berries and stone fruits on the menu, including blackberry and fig leaf tarts and apricot and buttermilk danishes. For something a little more savoury, Forte recommends the tropea onion, heirloom tomato and tarragon tart. "I feel like it's underappreciated. People who have had it think it's really delicious, but I feel like it's always shunned," she says, "and we're only at the very beginning of tomato season as well." McAllister Forte's only year-round menu item is the humble bakery staple: the croissant. Besides a classic plain offering, McAllister Forte is also serving up a leatherwood honey and sea salt variety. It's light, balanced and great to eat with the batch brew from Everyday Coffee also sold in store. McAllister Forte has big plans for the kiosk's future, from making jams in-house to sourcing more off-the-beaten-path produce like mulberries. But, for now, her focus is on expanding opening hours to include Sundays by December, and Thursdays as well in the new year. The pasticceria draws on McAllister Forte's decade of international training and experience. Besides Violet, she's worked at Oyster & Chop alongside Mark Hix and as a pâtissier at All Are Welcome in Melbourne. All this time however, Forte wanted a bakery of her own. "I've wanted to be a pastry chef since I was maybe 10 or 12 years old, and it was always my dream to have my own tiny neighbourhood shop. It's really a dream that's been going for 15 years, maybe more." Now that she has creative control in Monforte, her menu is exciting, experimental and ever-evolving, much to the delight of locals. Just make sure to get there early to beat the queue. Top image: Giorgia McAllister Forte
The good vibes will be off the charts when the next edition of Midsumma Festival arrives, with Victoria's premier LGBTQIA+ annual event serving up 22 days of bright and bold happenings. Running from Sunday, January 18–Monday, February 2, 2026, expect the full spectrum of rainbow-tinged creativity, with over 250 events and 500 artists and culture-makers ensuring this festival is better than ever. In 2026, Midsumma Festival's theme is 'Time & Place,' recognising the present as a pivotal moment where connection matters more than ever. As such, the sprawling program centres on community, with art exhibitions, inspiring conversations and free outdoor celebrations shaping an uplifting experience. Kicking off with the much-loved Midsumma Carnival at Alexandra Gardens, this iconic event sets the tone for the entire festival before an incredible variety of events unfold over the next three-plus weeks. On Saturday, January 24, catch Kiki House of Furia Presents: The Fantasy Ball at State Library Victoria. Combining ballroom and voguing culture amid the grand Queen's Hall, the night celebrates artistry and resilience, complete with multiple categories, judges and DJs. Then, on Sunday, January 25, The Timber Yard hosts Hot and Steamy — a beloved LGBTQIA+ party hailing from Far North Queensland. Think a transformative tropical paradise graced by infectious rhymes and headlined by Drag Race Global superstar Kween Kong. Looking ahead to Sunday, January 31, the Blankë POP Secret Garden Party takes over The Mission to Seafarers Courtyard in Docklands. Dress up, or down, as you dance the afternoon away to queer house music alongside performances by some of Melbourne's most talented artists. Then, following the Midsumma Pride March, Sunday Sizzle serves up a stellar afterparty at the Victorian Pride Centre on Sunday, February 1, lighting up the rooftop with fab performances, refreshing beverages and tasty snags fresh off the barbie. [caption id="attachment_883999" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nocturnal x Midsumma[/caption]
Fancy Hank's is getting in the mood for International Brisket Day — that's Wednesday, May 28 — with a hearty giveaway that might just make your month. Celebrating the occasion with a one-day-only special from 12pm, the Bourke Street HQ is serving up free takeaway brisket sandwiches until they're all gone. Up for grabs is Fancy Hank's signature 12-hour smoked 'Wanderer' brisket — a low- and-slow-cooked creation made to be super rich and tender. Stacked high on an American-style Martin's potato roll, this wallet-friendly deal is bound to put a little more flavour in your lunch break. "As far as we're concerned, there's no better way to honour Brisket Day than with the thing we do best! We've been continuously smoking brisket for 13 years next month and we're immensely proud of the craft we've perfected," says Fancy Hank's co-owner Mike Patrick. "From the time and care that goes into every cut to the unmistakable flavour from our custom-built, two-tonne smoker 'Puffing Billie' — it's what keeps people coming back." Making this bargain even better, each free brisket sandwich also comes with a complimentary drink voucher redeemable right next door at sister venue, Springrock Public Bar. Meanwhile, those feeling extra famished are invited to order a side of Fancy Hank's fries for $5, with a thick coat of chicken salt taking their deliciousness to greater heights. "Brisket takes time, but the reward is in the patience," adds Fancy Hank's Head Chef Jarrod Di Blasi. "The secret starts with selecting a quality cut, which we source from an incredible, local Victorian producer, to ensure it's full of flavour. We season our brisket generously and then smoke it low and slow over Aussie hardwood, delivering meat that is melt-in-your-mouth tender with rich, deep flavours straight from the pit." If you're keen to dine on more brisket — and who could blame you — Fancy Hank's have also announced a new Bottomless Barbecue dining experience, launching on Monday, June 2. Running every week from 5pm on Monday–Wednesday, guests can indulge in a premium barbecue platter with unlimited top-ups from $69 per person, featuring buffalo wings, pulled pork shoulder, free-range chicken thighs and loads more. Fancy Hank's is serving free brisket sandwiches from 12pm on Wednesday, May 28, until sold out at 1/79 Bourke St, Melbourne. Head to the website for more information.
UPDATE Monday, July 26: Along with its CBD sibling Di Stasio Citta, Cafe di Stasio is currently offering a special-edition menu of goodies for takeaway and delivery. Call or jump online to order dishes like the creamy oven-baked ricotta ($12), hearty serves of handmade crab pasta ($35) and a cracking old-school fish and chips ($32). For more details on Victoria's current restrictions, see the Department of Health and Human Services website. If we're talking about institutions, Cafe di Stasio is right at the top of the list. After more than three decades on Fitzroy Street, the restaurant and bar still exudes elegance, sophisticated service and decadent Italian food. Here the lunches are long, the wine is expensive and the atmosphere is right on point. There's a place for old-school, classy dining and this is it. The food here is the kind you'll want to linger over, the menu filled with carefully executed classics and seasonal ingredients in abundance. Start off with small plates like the delicate beef carpaccio ($23), cloud-like ricotta and spinach gnudi ($22), and scallops baked in a crust ($25). Top-notch pasta offerings might include the likes of paccheri bolognese ($32) or a tagliatelle spiked with guanciale and roast tomatoes ($28), while Italian-style mains run to a Milanese veal cotoletta ($34) and slow-cooked beef paired with polenta ($39). An expansive selection of vino sourced from near and far rounds out the fun, including a healthy offering of drops by the glass.
Between 2010–2017, Melbourne was ranked the most liveable city in the world. In 2023, it's the most liveable city in Australia — yet again. The Economist Intelligence Unit compiles an annual Global Liveability Index, with the Victorian capital coming in third in the latest list. In fourth place? Its usual homegrown rival Sydney. Cue battles across state lines about whether Melbourne or Sydney is the truly best place to live, plus international recognition for Australia's two biggest cities. And, for residing Down Under in general. Only Canada had more places in the top ten in 2023, with three, while Switzerland also scored two. When Melbourne was dethroned from top spot in 2018, Vienna in Austria emerged victorious, earning the honours from 2018–20, then again in 2022 and now once more in 2023. Getting the love in 2021? New Zealand's Auckland, which came equal tenth this year. The full top ten features Vienna at number one, Copenhagen in Denmark in second place, then Melbourne and Sydney in third and fourth, plus that big Canada and Switzerland block — Vancouver in fifth, Zurich in sixth, Calgary and Geneva sharing seventh, and Toronto in ninth place — then Auckland and Osaka, Japan both in tenth. Melbourne's placing sees it rise from tenth in 2022, while Sydney came in 13th last year. And if you're wondering about other Aussie cities, they all zoomed up the rankings, too. Perth and Adelaide now share 12th spot, up from 30th and 32nd respectively, while Brisbane sits 16th after coming in at 27th in 2022. Asia Pacific cities were big movers overall, which the report credits to "a shift towards normalcy after the pandemic". Also rising: Auckland, which went up by 25; fellow Aotearoa city Wellington, lifting 35 places to sit in 23rd; and Hanoi in Vietnam, which moved up 20 spots. Regarding Melbourne and Sydney's soaring fortunes again, which sees them take the spots that Frankfurt and Amsterdam enjoyed last year, the report notes that the Aussie cities "bounced up and down the rankings during the pandemic" but "have seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year, when they were still affected by COVID waves that stressed their healthcare systems". As for why Vienna came out on top once more, "the city continues to offer an unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education and healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment, with one of its few downsides being a relative lack of major sporting events," advised the report. "The same is true of Copenhagen, another frequent high performer that has kept its position in second place from last year." The annual index ranks cities on stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, culture and environment, giving each city a rating out of 100. Vienna achieved a score of 98.4 overall, with Melbourne receiving 97.7 and Sydney 97.4. At the other end of the list, Damascus in Syria scored 30.7, ranking in 173rd spot. To read the full Global 2023 Liveability Index, head to the Economist Intelligence Unit's website.
Wellington's inner heart beats with an amazing cultural offering all of its own. As New Zealand's capital, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the city is all political banter and suits. However, this microcosm of creatives is actually a place where artistry, quirkiness and creative risk taking are celebrated within one of the richest arts environs in the southern hemisphere. Best of all, you can walk anywhere in the inner city in around twenty minutes, tops. On any given night, you'll find something happening, whether it's a poetry reading, a new art showing, book launch, gig or interpretive theatre piece. If you're looking for entertaining sights during the day, you'll find Wellington's cultural identity woven along its beautiful waterfront, and tucked into its streets and laneways. Depending on the time of year, one of Wellington's many epic, internationally acclaimed arts festivals and shows might be lighting up its spaces — among them the Lit Crawl, Jazz Festival, Cubadupa, World of Wearable Arts or the New Zealand Festival (held in even years). The creatives of Wellington are wild, rigorous, obscure and genius all at once. They know how to make their own fun, and then take it to the world. Step into their home. CATCH A FLICK AT THE ICONIC EMBASSY THEATRE Wellington's Embassy Theatre is a jewel in the city's film history. The old bird has perched at the end of Courtenay Place, at the base of Mt Vic since 1924. And there's no better place to view a film in the city, whether it's a blockbuster or an arthouse piece. Maintained to the grandeur of old film theatres of yesteryear, the Embassy has hosted each world premier of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. Each year, the picture palace also hosts the New Zealand International Film Festival. Before or after your film, pay a visit to the old orchestra pit, which is now home to the Shelley Indyk-designed cocktail bar, The Black Sparrow. With its cocktail menu full of litterati and film references, the bar is the perfect spot for a tipple while you wait for your film upstairs to start, or a post-picture nightcap. [caption id="attachment_636658" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Te Papa.[/caption] BROWSE THE LATEST EXHIBITION AT TE PAPA Should you run into inclement weather during your Wellington stay, look to Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand. An excellent spot to sink a few hours, its floors of world-standard exhibitions and history are truly fascinating. Learn a bit about New Zealand itself in the permanent exhibitions, and venture to Nga Toi on level five for a revolving glimpse into Te Papa's extensive art collections — you could see anything from an early Picasso sketch to a Venice Biennale entrant. When it comes to exhibitions, the large spaces in the museum have hosted everything from gargantuan bugs to Monets and Warhols, making it a true lucky dip experience. [caption id="attachment_636607" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Stars Are Underground via Flickr[/caption] SEE A GIG AT ONE OF THE CITY'S MANY MUSIC VENUES If ever there was a place where you can find consistently good acts from Wellington and beyond, it's in the underground gig venues of the city — well not really underground, they're pretty well signposted. They're the home turf of a whole heap of great local bands — Fazerdaze, Mermaidens and Flight of the Conchords, for example — and they've all started out with Friday and Saturday gigs at either Meow, San Fran or MOON. This is where set lists are refined, live performances honed and fans made, all in intimate settings, and all with beers in hand and forgiving audiences who come out looking for a musical treat. Join them in the search for sonic gold, and you'll be rewarded. [caption id="attachment_636441" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Enjoy Public Art Gallery[/caption] VISIT THE CUBA ART QUARTER Wellington's Cuba Street is known far and wide for its offbeat inhabitants and kooky spirit. A street that was once considered shady in the '80s has come into its own with an eclectic blend of art, vintage and antiques. The best street style can be found here, while the block around Cuba and Ghuznee has some of the best art and dealers in the country. The iconic Peter McLeavey Gallery has been selling art from Cuba Street since 1968, and its neighbour, the kookier Enjoy Gallery, is famed for its non-commercial artist-run initiative MO (as well as its annual art sale). Hamish McKay, Bartley & Company and Suite Gallery up the street round out a robust, artful offering in the heart of the city. [caption id="attachment_636598" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Tony via Flickr[/caption] TAKE A STROLL ALONG WELLINGTON WRITERS WALK Opened in 2002 during the NZ International Festival of the Arts (New Zealand Festival's previous moniker), the Wellington Writers Walk is a project of the New Zealand Society of Authors. It's a beautiful route, mapped along the waters of the Wellington Harbour, that consists of 19 text sculptures. Each work features a quotation about the city from a piece of prose or poetry, penned not only by some of the world's best writers, but by scribes who made Wellington their home at some point in their lives. Writers featured on the walk include luminaries such as Katherine Mansfield, James K. Baxter, Lauris Edmond, Fiona Kidman, Patricia Grace and Maurice Gee. Art, literature and bracing beautiful sea air — it doesn't get much more Wellington than that. You can pick up a map of the walk from the Wellington i-SITE. Maybe you've been to Auckland, maybe you've gone to the snow in Queensland, but now it's time to set your sights on Wellington. The harbourside city may be compact, but that only makes for excellent walkability from its excellent restaurants, cafes and bars to its cultural hot spots and around the great outdoors. Use our planning guide to book your trip, then sort out your Wellington hit list with our food and drink, culture and outdoor guides.
There are plenty of ways to enjoy a blast from the past, but stepping inside a museum is one of the most reliable. Head to the Australian Museum in Sydney right now and a trip back to Peru more than 3000 years ago awaits. For its big summer exhibition for 2024–25, the venue is hosting the Aussie-exclusive season of Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, displaying 134 priceless artefacts including the most-opulent collection of Andean gold that's ever left the South American nation. Move over Egypt: after the Harbour City institution dedicated the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 to Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs, it's now time to wrap up one year and kick off another with a different journey backwards. Featuring jewels, masks and other treasures, some of which were found in royal tombs, this historical showcase hails from Peru's Museo Larco and Museo de Sito Manuel Chavez Ballon. To make the exhibition's six-month stay even more immersive, a virtual-reality tour of Machu Picchu is also part of the experience (albeit at an extra fee). Six cultures are in the spotlight: Chavín, Moche, Chimú, Nazca, Lambayeque and Inca. The array of items is also organised into six themes, taking attendees through ancient Peruvian societies' beginnings, religious beliefs and traditions, and the power wielded by royalty. Trade, agriculture, and Spanish conquistadors forcing their decline: they're covered as well. Sometimes, visitors will peer at gleaming body ornaments. Sometimes, rare ceramics await. From textiles to ceremonial tools, plus bowls to statuettes, the collection is wide-ranging — including in pairing earthy pottery tones with shining gems and metals (as well as gold, silver and gilded copper also feature). As for the VR, this highlight of the program is the first-ever virtual-reality 'fly-through' of the famous site, which won Best Use of VR at the Lumiere Awards. The experience will get you feeling as if you've been transported both back in time and to the other side of the world — not just via VR, but also 360-degree motion chairs and drone footage. The vision featured was recorded at the World Heritage-listed site when Machu Picchu was closed to visitors during the early days of the pandemic. Sydney is just the fourth place in the world to welcome Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, after the exhibition's stops in Boca Raton in the US, Paris in France and Milan in Italy. "Full of mystery and culture dating back over 14,000 years, Peru is a stunning land of deserts etched with ancient geoglyphs shown in the Nazca Lines, soaring peaks harbouring secret cities like Machu Picchu and awe-inspiring landscapes" said Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay, opening Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru. "We invite visitors to uncover the extraordinary legacy of ancient Peru, by visiting Machu Picchu and The Golden Empires of Peru exclusively here in Sydney. It is a cultural experience right at the top of everyone's travel bucket list." Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru opened at the Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney on Saturday, November 23, 2024 — head to the exhibition website for further details and tickets. Images: Cain Cooper.
Vegans tired of being excluded from affordable mainstream menus or, at best, treated as an after-thought, got some cheerful news earlier this month when Domino's Pizza announced it would trial vegan cheese on its pizzas. If you were one of those people that rushed out to order some cheap vegan pizza, we have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that, due to such a huge response, Domino's is quickly running out of the plant-based mozzarella. But the good news is very good: when it's back in stock, it will be on the menu forever more. With the cheese on the menu permanently, you'll be able to turn any pizza on the menu into an animal-free one by asking for vegan mozzarella and parting with an extra $2.95 (which is quite reasonable, really). At the moment Domino's has three all-vegan pizzas on the menu: the vegan avocado veg, the vegan spicy trio and the vegan margherita. "We knew the response was going to be big after the demand we saw for the product on social media but we had no idea it was going to be this big," said Nick Knight, CEO of Domino's Australia and New Zealand. "We're excited that customers love this product as much as we do and that we have been able to source a cheese alternative that vegan customers have given their tick of approval on." The decision to introduce vegan cheese came about as a result of a survey that Domino's conducted via its Facebook page in late 2017. Domino's created the cheese — which is also free of gluten, soy and cholesterol — in its LuvLab, aiming to mimic the taste, texture and melting power of dairy-based cheese. Obviously our fair city has plenty of pizza options that we'd recommend over Domino's, but, nonetheless, a cheap vegan pizza option is a huge win (and convenience) for those who eat a vegan diet. If you're planning on ordering a pizza this week, best to check if your local joint has any vegan cheese left before you get too excited. But, according to Domino's, when it comes back in stock, it'll be on the menu permanently.
Immerse yourself in experimental and experiential art, as some of the most exciting creatives the country has to offer descend on Melbourne this March. Returning for its third year, the biennial Festival of Live Art is the largest event of its kind in Australia, dedicated to showcasing bold, intriguing participatory work across every conceivable discipline. Running from March 13–25 at venues around town, the festival's 2018 program is packed with highlights. Tanya Lee's Landing asks festival-goers to take part in a relay at the Melbourne City Baths, with participants collectively swimming the distance between Australia and Manus. Meanwhile, Cigdem Aydemir's The New National Sport will see the artist return the serve of a machine that ejects a tennis ball anytime anyone tweets the word 'terror' — something that happens about once about every 15 seconds. If you're looking for something a little less intense, Adele Varcoe's Wowzzzeee aims to bring audiences together through the sewing and wearing of onesies. Or you can take part in Caroline Garcia's one-on-one twerking workshop that doubles as a history lesson of the artform (yes, we called it an artform). Image: Twerkshop courtesy of Proximity Festival 2014, shot by Peter Cheng.
Vegetables are the undisputed heroes at the southside's newest casual eatery, which is located right on the edge of South Melbourne Market. Marko is kicking it slow, embracing an old-school food philosophy and dishing up a vibrant offering that's entirely plant-based. The brainchild of food industry veteran Dehne Bingham (former CEO of Belles Hot Chicken and 100 Burgers Group), the restaurant is set on getting back to basics, focusing on serving food that's better for the community, the planet and the people eating it. In the kitchen, Head Chef Nabin Shrestha (Rumi, Vegie Bar) is plating a daytime menu of vegan and vegetarian dishes, curated by long-time champion of plant-based dining, chef Charley Snadden-Wilson (Ramblr, Etta, Embla). There's a strong emphasis on sourcing ingredients as locally as possible, working with the seasons and, of course, snubbing any preservatives or other nasties. But Marko isn't afraid to have some fun, too, with a colourful lineup of eats that shows plenty of creativity. Diners can choose from the list of burgers ranging from $12-15, all available with gluten-free alternatives — from the signature Marko cheeseburger layered with coconut cheese and a plant-based patty to the spicy cauliflower number with jalapenos and chipotle mayo. Fluffy pitas ($13-14) from Brunswick's Alasya Bakery are also on the menu, and come stuffed with the likes of green pea falafel or roasted mushrooms with quinoa tabbouleh and tahini sauce. Marko also serves up a range of vibrant veggie bowls ($13-15), along with sides like chilli-topped corn ribs ($8) and crispy chips finished with your choice of house seasoning. And, you can make a meal of it with one of three 'feed me' options, matching a burger or pita with chips, dip and a Capi soda ($23-26). To drink, expect to find a rotation of craft brews, natural wines, and cocktails both boozy and non-alcoholic, along with caffeinated options shuttled down from nearby coffee window Clement. As a bonus feel-good factor, there's also an environmental conscience that extends beyond the meat-free menu. Marko is using all recyclable packaging, has implemented a special system for recycling food waste and powers its kitchen partly by renewables. Top Images: Bold and Italic Media
If you like music and skiing, Snow Machine has served up a winning combination of the two since 2020. It takes place in chilly climes. It enlists a heap of top-notch talent to provide the tunes. And, as it soundtracks a snow-filled week, it plays out like a massive frosty party. For Australians, it also boasts another huge drawcard: getting you to take an overseas alpine holiday. When Snow Machine first debuted its savvy mix, it did so in Japan. Then came an expansion to Queenstown in New Zealand in 2022, where it's still going strong and will return come September 2024. Thinking ahead to the colder weather in the northern hemisphere in 2025, the fest has not only locked in its plans for Hakuba, its OG home, but is expanding to Niseko as well. Snow Machine has also unveiled the lineup for its two next Japanese dates, with Hakuba first up from Tuesday, March 4–Sunday, March 9, then Niseko from Monday, March 10–Saturday, March 15. Chase & Status leads the bill in both locations, with Action Bronson, Hot Chip doing a DJ set, Melanie C, A-Trak and Ken Ishii among the other names. Attendees will catch a club set from Bob Moses as well, plus DJ sets from each of Jungle and Sbtrkt. The roster of talent keeps going from there with Claptone, Cyril, Dillon Francis, DJ Kentaro, DJ Nobu & Wata Igarashi, Horse Meat Disco, Jimi the Kween, Monorochrome and Riton — plus Vintage Culture in Niseko only. Snow Machine Japan might next return when autumn will be kicking off Down Under, but it's one helluva excuse for a getaway during Japan's snow season. No matter where it's taking place, this is the hottest festival for the colder months, treating festivalgoers to action-packed days on the slopes, après ski events and its hefty lineup of international acts against an idyllic backdrop. And, because this is Japan, onsen trips, sake aplenty and yakitori bites are usually also on offer. Other than the wintry setting, one of the things that sets Snow Machine apart from other music fests is being able to book your entire getaway with your ticket. Packages span five or seven nights of accommodation, and include a festival ticket across the entire event, plus a four-day lift pass for Goryu & Hakuba 47, Tsugaike, Iwatake, Happo, Norikura and Cortina in Hakuba — and Niseko United in Niseko. A word of warning: unsurprisingly, the packages are popular. Although the Snow Machine Japan 2025 lineup has only just been announced, packages are already 70-percent sold out. If you're keen to take care of your own place to slumber and just nab a festival ticket, that's an option as well — via both day and four-day passes. Snow Machine Japan 2025 Locations and Dates: Tuesday, March 4–Sunday, March 9 — Hakuba Monday, March 10–Saturday, March 15 — Niseko Snow Machine Japan 2025 Lineup: Chase & Status A-Trak Action Bronson Bob Moses (club set) Claptone Cyril Dillon Francis DJ Kentaro DJ Nobu & Wata Igarashi Horse Meat Disco Hot Chip (DJ set) Jimi the Kween Jungle (DJ set) Ken Ishii Melanie C Monorochrome Riton Sbtrkt (DJ set) Vintage Culture (Niseko only) Snow Machine Japan 2025 will be held across Tuesday, March 4–Sunday, March 9 in Hakuba and Monday, March 10–Saturday, March 15 in Niseko. For more information and tickets, visit the festival's website. Images: Pat Stevenson. 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.
Victoria's closest thing to a European summer escape is making its return. After drawing more than 15,000 visitors last year, the Carlsberg Beach Club will take over Frankston Pier once again from Friday, December 19 to Sunday, March 29, bringing live music and Mediterranean holiday vibes to the summery ocean sunsets just 45 minutes from Melbourne's CBD. Created by the team behind So Frenchy So Chic, the pop-up is Victoria's only true European-style beach club. Think daybeds in the sand, lobster rolls in hand and Carlsberg beers served a few metres from the shoreline. The event has also been nominated for a 2025 Best Brand Event award, further solidifying its growing reputation as one of the state's most unique summer experiences. This season, the beach club is dialling up the entertainment. Every Sunday from 5pm, visitors can catch free live concerts featuring acts such as Nadeah and Cookin' On 3 Burners, making it an ideal spot to settle in for sunset sessions, family hangs or a post-beach afternoon that turns into an evening. Alongside the music program, the venue promises its signature European coastal vibe: casual dining, cocktails, cold beers, relaxed seating, and a front-row view of Port Phillip Bay's golden-hour glow. If you're dreaming of a balmy seaside getaway without booking a flight, the Carlsberg Beach Club might be the most convenient escape you'll get this summer. Images: Supplied
Wake up, Melbourne. To celebrate the launch of its new Sparkling Raspberry Peach flavour, energy drink brand CELSIUS is teaming up with 7-Eleven for Australia's first-ever convenience store rave. From 9am to 1pm on Saturday, January 17, 2026, CELSIUS Session is taking over 7-Eleven's Brunswick store (located on the corner of Sydney and Brunswick Road). You can expect a high-energy DJ lineup including Ben Silver, YA GIRL PARTY B, Brown Suga Princess, and a performance from Australian DJ, CYRIL (who has garnered over 900 million streams in the past year). The one-morning rave combines slushie machines and sound systems to give you a kickstart to the day. CELSIUS Sparkling Raspberry Peach is also taking centre stage, of course. The new drop (which you can try on the day) is refreshing, delicious and designed to keep Aussies moving, making it the drink for summer adventures—like a morning rave. Intrigued? Tickets are just $7.11 per person. So, if you're keen to start your Saturday dancing with your mates, this is one to lock into your summer calendar now. Grab tickets from 3pm on Monday, 12 January here. Image credit: Getty Images
What do killer Squid Game dolls, Stranger Things rifts, Jurassic World raptors and very nice Borat statues all have in common? They've all brought pop-culture hits not just to Sydney but to Bondi, albeit temporarily. On the morning of Thursday, December 19, 2024, a towering toy loomed over Bondi Icebergs, accompanied by plenty of red and green outfits — and yes, as part of the latest pop-up celebrating the upcoming return of the South Korean Netflix smash for season two, a game of Red Light, Green Light took place. Ever since the world initially watched Squid Game in 2021, the streaming platform has been obsessed with bringing everyone's favourite South Korean streaming series into real life. First came pop-up stunts. Then arrived reality competition show Squid Game: The Challenge, obviously without a body count. Experiences that let everyone play the show's games without appearing on TV also keep proving part of the IRL fun. As the show's second season approaches, dropping on Boxing Day 2024, Australia has welcomed three Squid Game activations — starting in St Kilda, where 200 pink guards relaxed on the Melbourne suburb's beach to kick things off; then cruising through Sydney harbour; and now at the pool so famous that it recently earned the documentary treatment. The Harbour City is no stranger to Squid Game stunts, or to Young-hee. Three years back, the Red Light, Green Light doll first made its eerie presence known in Sydney. When it took to the water this time around, it did so by ferry with 300 pink guards as an escort to get to Luna Park Sydney for Squid Game: The Experience. And now it has visited another iconic location. At Bondi Icebergs, 50 Squid Game guards were also in attendance, while ten players tried their hand at avoiding Young-hee. And the winner? Steve Bradbury, chalking up another claim to fame.. Come Thursday, December 26, Squid Game will unveil its second batch of episodes — and fans' second-last opportunity to press play. The show will return in 2025, too, with its third season; however, that will be the end of the series. More Squid Game: The Challenge is on the way, however. Squid Game season two streams via Netflix from Thursday, December 26, 2024. Season three will arrive in 2025 — we'll update you when an exact release date for it is announced. Squid Game: The Experience is now on at Luna Park Sydney, 1 Olympic Drive, Milsons Point. Head to the venue's website for more information and to buy tickets.
It's almost time to tick over into another trip around the sun. But before our current rotation is complete, we have to give this year a massive send-off that celebrates the ups and, hopefully, helps us forget the downs. Fortunately, this New Year's Eve in Melbourne is stacked, with these dining encounters, late-night parties and luxe galas making for a memorable final night on the town. Cosmic Discoteca at Johnny's Green Room Bring your dancing shoes and send it intergalactic style, as Johnny's Green Room rings in NYE with the all-inclusive Cosmic Discoteca. Priced at $300 per ticket, this rooftop shindig kicks off with champagne on arrival, before guests indulge in a once-off menu created by chef Karen Martini. Then, catch sweeping city views of the fireworks and free-flowing drinks until 1am. Find out more here. New Year's Eve at The Royce's Showroom Bar NYE is a glamorous affair at The Royce — a former Rolls-Royce showroom turned coveted hotel and dining destination. Ease into the evening at the Showroom Bar, where guests can sip Taittinger champagne, knock back a negroni and snack on signature nibbles, like hibachi-flamed ocean trout. Open for walk-ins throughout the afternoon and evening, this spot is ideal for late planners. Find out more here. Midnight Merchants' Ball at Mill Place Merchants Look ahead from a throwback speakeasy, as Mill Place Merchants celebrate NYE with the Midnight Merchants' Ball. Ticketed from $358 per person, guests dressed in their best 'trades of the past' outfit score unlimited cocktails, canapes and live entertainment, including a three-piece jazz band. With prizes awarded for best costume, don your suspenders or feather boas and get immersed in this Prohibition-era party for the ages. Find out more here. [caption id="attachment_845602" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kristoffer Paulsen[/caption] New Year's Eve Dinner at Luci See out 2025 with a touch of elegance, as Luci offers a four-course NYE dinner brimming with old-world romance for $135 per person. Seated in the restaurant's heritage-listed dining hall, guests receive a selection of snacks — sourdough focaccia, taleggio arancini and more — before choosing an enticing entree, main and dessert. Plus, you're welcome to add a half-dozen oysters on arrival or a 2.5-hour bottomless drinks package. Find out more here. Baby Oliv B2B Cabu at Mr Mills Rounding out Mr Mills' Summer Music Series, presented in collaboration with Untitled Group, this happening subterranean spot is ending the year on a high note. With tickets available for $49, including a cocktail on arrival, guests can party late as Baby Oliv serves up a b2b set with Cabu, combining electronic, house and baile funk tunes. Pair with the Festive Set Menu upstairs at Marmelo for extra NYE indulgence. Find out more here. NYE Masquerade Party at VIVA Melbourne Looking for an event you'll still be talking about in a year's time? That might be VIVA Melbourne's NYE Masquerade Party. Ticketed at $155, this eclectic cabaret venue invites guests to wander its transformed spaces, with each brought to life with roaming musicians, comedic performers and immersive theatre moments. Building to a high-energy dance party, masquerade or formal attire is required, elevating the experience even further. Find out more here. Italian Dinner Party at Marameo Sometimes the best New Year's Eve party is the least complicated one. CBD Italian diner Marameo is keeping the formula simple: loads of delicious food. With two sittings available — early birds from 5.30pm or 8.30pm 'til midnight for those counting down — expect a stack of starters, blue swimmer crab linguine, braised lamb shoulder and a boozy tiramisu that's perfect for closing out the year. Find out more here. Archie Rose NYE Martini Menu at Commune Group Venues Love an Archie Rose cocktail? This New Year's Eve, Commune Group is elevating its six bustling Melbourne restaurants with the limited-edition Archie Rose NYE Martini Menu. So, shake and stir your way into Studio Amaro, Tokyo Tina, Firebird, Moonhouse, New Quarter and Hanoi Hannah Vol. II, to sip back five concoctions, like the Signature Martini, featuring Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin, Voir Cherry Blossom and lychee liqueur. Find out more here. New Year's Eve at The Waterside Hotel Eight years in the making, The Waterside Hotel has arrived just in time for its inaugural New Year's celebration. The crew has gone all out, with all four levels of this CBD pub resonating with luxe ticketed experiences. The main event is happening on the first two levels, featuring DJs until 3am and an all-inclusive package of roving canapes and drinks. Upstairs, indulge in a lavish banquet or party with prime views of the city's fireworks. Find out more here. New Year's Eve Feast at Hawker Hall You won't start 2026 hungry, as Hawker Hall hosts a jam-packed feast stacked with Singaporean and Malaysian hawker fare alongside crowd-pleasing DJs. Keep it simple with the $66 per person Feed Me Banquet, or step up the celebratory mood with the $99 NYE Yum Cha Feast, combining a massive dim sum spread with 90 minutes of bottomless Chandon Blanc de Blancs. Find out more here. Sunset Sitting and Midnight Soiree at Beverly Catch the final sunset of 2025 from the ideal vantage point — Beverly's 24th-floor rooftop. For $160 per person, you'll savour a Chef's Selection menu and take in the views. Then, from 8pm, the Midnight Soiree takes over, offering a Met Gala-esque experience, complete with a $250 set menu featuring lobster cannoli, MB4+ dry-aged T-bone and tiramisu lollipops. Meanwhile, you'll get first-class views of the fireworks from high above Chapel Street. Find out more here.
What do you get when you cross a wine bar with a pub and slot it into a cosy shopfront on Johnston Street? Well, for Chris Wright and Jonathan Reisacher the result looks a lot like their new Collingwood venture, Gum — a glam 70s-themed boozer heroing hot pies, tap brews and vintage cocktails. It's the first foray into hospitality for these two best mates, though, as music industry veterans, they're confident they've frequented enough bars in their time to know what works. Here, the winning formula involves a nostalgic 70s rock-chic fit-out by Brunswick designer Bianca Sciuto, imagined with the help of retro wallpaper prints, orange laminate table tops and plenty of curves. Yet more Aussie nostalgia shines through the food offering, which runs to a simple lineup of pies from Footscray's Pie Thief — expect varieties like the Big Mac pie and a vegan spaghetti bolognese number — plus sausage rolls and a classic vanilla slice. Eat them in, or grab a takeaway pack to-go. [caption id="attachment_790772" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rubin Utama[/caption] Meanwhile, the drinks list serves up a tight, but diverse array of sips, featuring mostly Aussie wines and a range of around 20 craft tins from favourites like Fixation, 3 Ravens, Kaiju and Stomping Ground. A cocktail offering is full of flashbacks — think, banana cream daiquiris and a riff on the mai tai — alongside new-school creations like the vodka-infused Grapple starring green tea and apple boba. And if summer's got you feeling extra thirsty, there's a trio of shared cocktail jugs for $45, including The Aperoyal with its blend of prosecco, Aperol and rosé apple cider. Gum is also keen to help pack out your activities calendar, with local DJs now playing every Thursday to Saturday night, and regular trivia sessions, games nights and Sunday barbecue parties also in the works. Find Gum at 173 Johnston Street, Collingwood. It's open 4–10pm Wednesday–Thursday, 12pm–1am Friday–Saturday, and 12–10pm Sunday. Images: Rubin Utama
Do you need to be acrobatic to enjoy circus arts? Do you need to be especially athletic, have incredible strength or be particularly coordinated to have a good time? The answer is no. How do I know this? I went to the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) for its Come & Try Circus Day as a graceless, confused beginner and absolutely loved it. If you want to know more, read on to find out exactly how my first day at circus school went down. THE SCHOOL In addition to being the only institution in Australia that offers a Circus Arts degree, NICA also runs term classes and holds public open days four times a year — which is where I dipped my toe in the circus-school pool. The classes were led by expert trainers and explored a broad range of skills, apparatus and fitness activities for newbies and advanced practitioners alike. To be honest, I was terrified walking in, and fully prepared for a day of failure and falling over. But, once I met the instructors and shared a few smiles with my classmates, the first-day nerves disappeared. There was a range of abilities and ages at the adult open day, all checking out the venue and teaching style on offer. With enthusiastic beginners taking part alongside more advanced attendees, I am testament to the fact that you can approach circus arts as an absolute novice and still have a great time. THE SESSIONS There were three sessions on offer, with each featuring multiple circus skills for you to try. On offer was everything from trapeze and rope to tumbling, trampolining, juggling, hand balancing and more. Each session started with a quick warm-up activity and some stretching to get the group and your body ready for action. First up for me was aerial hoop. I wasn't perfect, but everyone in the class was supportive, which made me feel like I could give it a red-hot go without embarrassment. We started with exercises to prepare the shoulders for taking our body weight, followed by mounting and dismounting. To finish, we executed a few different shapes including mermaid, DreamWorks and pixie. Shockingly, I was able to do them all. It was the confidence boost I needed to carry me through juggling — at which I was, in fact, terrible. Despite not being able to nail a single 'cascade' juggle, I enjoyed learning about timing, how to arc my throws and the art of letting the balls fall without trying to catch them on impulse. Turns out it was pretty difficult for me to let things go (is this a metaphor for my life?). Regardless, I redeemed myself on the hula hoop by managing a few quick tricks. After lunch it was handstand time. I thought I had chosen something pretty basic and, even though I had never done a handstand in my life, was fairly confident I had the upper body and core strength to manage it. I did not. I did, however, get closer than ever before. Turns out it's important to spread your hands, look down and do your best to fight that fear of falling. Don't want to follow the advice of a writer who couldn't manage a single free-standing handstand the entire session? Go and learn from an expert at NICA instead. I'm told it takes a while to build up from nothing, but as a beginner, this was still an enjoyable and entirely embarrassment-free experience. THE VERDICT If the gym doesn't spark joy, or you want to diversify your physical activity, NICA's term time classes are a brilliant way to get your body moving in interesting and challenging ways. There are prerequisites for certain levels of the term time classes, so make sure to check the website or chat with the staff before enrolling. Then get prepped to unlock skills and talents you never knew you had. As for me, I've just signed up to the Aerial Preparation term course. The sky's the limit. Keen to turn your world upside down in the best way possible? The National Institute of Circus Arts run term time classes and open days throughout the year. The next Come & Try Circus Day will take place on Saturday, September 24. For more information and to find a class that suits, visit the website. Images: Julia Sansone.
It's been eight years since Trevor and Steve Simmons launched their first Industry Beans coffee roastery and cafe in the backstreets of Fitzroy. It would quickly become a landmark of Australia's coffee scene, growing to encompass a seven-strong stable of venues across Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. In 2021, the brand embraced one of its biggest changes yet, moving from its OG northside digs to a grander space just around the corner, accessed via Westgarth Street. The current site boasts extra room to house an expanded offering — complete with a larger dining space, onsite coffee roastery and dedicated retail area. Guests are greeted with a fitout that fuses familiar Industry Beans elements with some new, modern twists. Similarly, the ever-innovative coffee menu features a mix of signature favourites like the Fitzroy Street blend alongside new seasonal creations to enjoy with the roaster's top-notch rotation of caffeinated delights. There are also variations of iced drinks on offer, including the bubble coffee range — which features coffee-soaked tapioca pearls. Or, you can take your pick from a range of teas and juices. For a bite to eat, you can opt to pair something light with the sip of your choice — the honeyseed slice and peanut butter brownie are house-baked Fitzroy specials, and the winter sponge combines the limited-edition coffee blend with dessert for a seasonally-inspired sweet treat. For a heftier selection, peruse the all-day dining menu. Think house-made golden granola with rosewater-compressed watermelon, a pandan bubble waffle with blueberry gelato or the chilli barramundi folded eggs paired with coffee togarashi. Or, for a more experimental lunch, try the coffee-rubbed wagyu burger. You can also opt for the evergreen omelette, buckwheat and broccolini bowl or the basil and truffle gnocchi for more familiar dishes. Pair your meal with a side of polenta chips or an heirloom tomato salad and you've secured yourself a delicious meal. Plus, you can head home with an Industry Beans blend of your own or coffee equipment for your home brewing if you're ready to splash some extra cash at the end of your visit. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Coffee in Melbourne
We all know that video piracy is a crime and that we should pay for the music we are listening, too, but just how far we have come from 20th-century entertainment is not always present in our minds. Enter photographer Julia Solis and her new book Stages of Decay — a feat that took her across Europe and the US over a period of years to document over 100 disused and dilapidated theatres that once housed The Who, witnessed the cinematic events of their eras and were symbols of popular culture, cultural hubs and signifiers of Western affluence. The images tiptoe along that enticing line between nostalgia, beauty, decay — actually it is all very Tintern Abbey — and all those butterfly feelings that come up when we dream of days long gone. Solis sees the images as more experiential, as she told Flavorwire: "You want a one-on-one encounter with it, to open secret closets and fondle plaster and play with rusted machinery without your parents' interference. In a society that's increasingly controlled, monitored and publicised, a wild space like that can't help but have an incredible allure." Be sure to note the cars parked underneath the ornate ceiling of the old Michigan Theatre, and for the trivia buffs, it is now the parking lot for the new cinema. Circle of life?
After eight years in business, Footscray's Hop Nation Brewing Co is giving its taproom a major makeover. The new space, which opens on Thursday, September 28, will feature a spacious open-plan brewhouse, room for events with up to 50 people and a new purpose-built kitchen helmed by ex-Figlia Pizzeria chef Alex Addams Williams. Called Good Pizza, the kitchen will focus on woodfired pizzas using a long-ferment dough process, with both thin and thick crust options available. Addams Williams and Hop Nation encourage you to get creative with your order, as they reckon that everyone has their own idea of a "good pizza" — so loading up with wild ingredients isn't frowned upon, but actually encouraged (just please leave the pineapple on pizza debate in 2012 where it belongs). Hop Nation closed its doors on Sunday, August 27 to allow for the renovation — but fans of the Hop needn't fret, as it is still around for takeaways in the interim. The revamp itself is being handled by Studio Y, with "Brooklyn warehouse-meets-Melbourne brewery" the ultimate vision. The made-over taproom will have 17 beers on tap, including seasonal brews such as Grapefruit West Coast IPA and Guava, Dragon Fruit & Toasted Coconut sour, as well as a few hard seltzers. Punters can also enjoy the newly released Footscray Draft, created to pay image to the brewery's home suburb. And of course, the full Hop Nation core range will also be available. Hop Nation's revamped taproom will also host a number of events, including a party on the AFL Grand Final (which falls nicely on opening weekend). Footy fans needn't worry about a subpar viewing experience either, as the game will be projected onto the walls. Other events to look forward to include a Oktoberfest-style shindig that will feature three European-style beers, such as a limited release Kellerbier and Czech pilsner. Regular events span new limited-release beers on tap every fortnight and "Hoppy Hour" drinks every Thursday and Friday from 3–6pm. "We can't wait to welcome our neighbours, beer lovers and pizza aficionados to the newly renovated Hop Nation Taproom for some good pizza, good times and obviously some damn good Hop Nation beer," says co-founder Sam Hambour. Hop Nation was founded by two former winemakers, Duncan Gibson and the aforementioned Hambour, with the pair releasing their first beer in 2015. When the brand took over a brewing site in Mornington in 2020, too, it created more room for renovations to occur in the Footscray taproom. Find Hop Nation Brewing Co at Unit 6/107–109 Whitehall Street, Footscray. It will reopen on Thursday, September 28, operating 3–9.30pm Thursday–Sunday
UPDATE Tuesday, July 20: Yarra Valley visits are off the cards for now, but you can get a taste of the region delivered to your door with Rochford Wines' lineup of covetable hampers. There are booze packs, cheese-and-charcuterie kits, and at-home feasting options galore — including a three-course dinner starring hickory-smoked beef ribs and a bottle of Rochford wine. Melbourne deliveries will arrive within two business days of placing your order, which you can do here. For more details on Victoria's current restrictions, see the Department of Health and Human Services website. Arguably one of the Yarra Valley's best-known wineries, Rochford boasts a stunning lakeside cellar door, restaurant and some seriously great pizza. The rolling green expanse of the property is pretty much heaven for greenery-seeking humans and their pups (the winery is dog friendly). If you visit earlier in the year during the harvest, you can go on a guided tour of the vineyard, sampling the as-yet unharvested grapes straight from the vines or head straight to final produce at the cellar door where you can sample the vintages before settling on your take-home bottle or, for a more relaxed experience, set yourself up with a tasting flight at the on-site Isabella's Restaurant. Opt for some charcuterie including nduja, fennel and garlic salami or the terrine with rhubarb jam to pair, or if hunger has truly set in, go for one of the medium, large or 'enormous' dishes, each offered with the sommelier's wine recommendation. What's suggested? Can you really go past a 16-hour oyster blade of beef with the 2017 single vineyard 'Garrigue' Heathcote syrah or the saffron and orange-glazed chicken with the 2017 single vineyard 'Dans les Bois' chardonnay — both of which we're sure your pooch will enjoy a scrap or two from. If you'd prefer pizza though, head over to Il Vigneto, which is located on the Rochford property. Here, it's all about the dreamy, authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas and top-notch serves of pasta. A range of antipasto, sides, desserts and cocktails rounds out the fun.
If you spent a few days this winter attending a Twin Peaks-inspired ball and seeing a giant teddy bear with laser eyes — watching a stunning new take on Dante's classic examination of hell, purgatory and paradise, too — then you went to Dark Mofo's 2023 run. Organised by Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art, the winter arts festival fills Hobart with all manner of weird and wild surprises every year. In 2024, however, it's pausing its usual sprawling event to plan for the future. The fest's team has announced that it'll largely sit out next year, after celebrating its tenth year this year. Apart from its beloved Winter Feast and Nude Solstice Swim, Dark Mofo will take a break in 2024 in order to work out what the next decade looks like for the fest. "Dark Mofo has always been dedicated to enriching and transforming lives through ambitious art and ideas. We want to make sure that we have a festival that continues to deliver incredible art and artists, that continues to expand its artistic boundaries and remains a beacon of creativity, innovation and cultural significance," said Dark Mofo Artistic Director Chris Twite. "While this was a tough decision, it ensures we move forward in a viable manner. The fallow year will enable us to secure the future of Dark Mofo and its return at full force in 2025." The moves comes after a hit year that saw Dark Mofo smash it with attendances and at the box office — notching up record figures, in fact. Despite the most event's success, the crew behind it will now work towards "a more sustainable model for a full return in 2025, and set the foundation for the next ten years", taking rising costs and other changing elements into consideration. So, no full Dark Mofo is the not-so-great development for your winter 2024 plans. That the culinary-focused Winter Feast and the frosty Nude Solstice Swim will still take place next year even without the broader festival around it is better news. "We are excited that in June 2024 — amidst the rebirth and renewal of Dark Mofo — that Tasmanians and visitors alike will still be able to meet and commune around the fires of Winter Feast and cast off the weight of another year at the Nude Solstice Swim once more," said Twite. This year's Winter Feast was headlined by Chef's Table alum Ana Roš from two-Michelin-starred Hiša Franko, cooking up fare inspired by her homeland but made with Tasmania's top seasonal produce with help from The Agrarian Kitchen's Stephen Peak and Rodney Dunn. Exact details for the 2024 food-centric event, and for the next chance to bare all and brave the cold while taking a dip, are yet to be announced. Dark Mofo won't take place in 2024 — apart from the Winter Feast and Nude Solstice Swim — with plans to return in full from 2025 onwards in Hobart, Tasmania instead. Head to the festival's website for further details. Winter feast images: Jesse Hunniford, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023. Nude Solstice Swim images: Rémi Chauvin, 2023, courtesy of Dark Mofo 2023.
This August, Melbourne's iconic Fed Square is shaking up its usual offering to deliver a dazzling program packed full of installations, activities and one-off events as part of its first Anything But Square Festival. One of these will see guests embark on a futuristic bunker feasting adventure, dubbed Sensory Underground. This mysterious dinner is being hosted by modern Japanese favourite Tokyo Tina across a series of 90-minute sittings from July 31 to August 11. And it will be anything but normal. First, you'll enter the space through Platform 13 at Flinders Street Station and make your way through to an unforgettable subterranean space deep below Fed Square. There, you'll be served up a four-course dinner, with each future-leaning dish inspired by current food forecasts for the year 2045, crafted around sustainable food practices, minimal energy use and seasonal, local produce. Think casual dining crossed with Blade Runner. While you're tucking into your innovative feast, you'll also be treated to a program of multisensory experiences, from some of Melbourne's hottest creative talent no less. There'll be lighting installations by artist Kit Webster, virtual reality elements from PHORIA Studio's Trent Clews-de Castella and Joseph Purdam, and visual delights from the team at Studio SPGD. Tickets to the dinners clock in at $120, including food, a welcome drink and all that sensory fun. Sessions will run at 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and at 6pm, pm and 9.45pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Situated amid South Melbourne's renowned Coventry Street shopping precinct, Pomegranate by Mr Darcy is one of the most-loved stores on the strip and has been providing visitors with homewares and gifts since 1999. Close by the famous South Melbourne Market and surrounded by restaurants, Pomegranate hosts a wealth of charming products that reflect the store's vibrant sense of travel, excitement and hidden possibilities. Once you've checked out Pomegranate by Mr Darcy, head further along Coventry Street and you'll soon come across the ladies' clothing and accessories of Mr Darcy, while Little Darcy showcases the brand's range for children. Images: Tracey Ahkee.
If you indulge in a little dog-spotting when wandering the streets, it won't be long until a greyhound, aka the longest of long boys, crosses your gaze. That's in no small part due to the Greyhound Adoption Program's (GAP) enduring work, with the organisation now gearing up to celebrate its 30th birthday. Taking over the Abbotsford Convent from 8am on Monday, March 16, this major milestone honours all those who have adopted, fostered, volunteered or just followed the work of the Greyhound Adoption Program over the years. For those heading along to this free event, expect meet-and-greets with GAP greyhounds and the chance to mingle with fellow long boy lovers. Meanwhile, Nova 100's Street Team will be elevating the moment with live music and giveaways. Alongside coffee, treats and activities for the whole family, there's one more happening worth sticking around for. That'd be a much-loved Aussie TV personality adopting GAP's 20,000th greyhound — a fitting landmark as you navigate the many long noses and wagging tails in attendance.
In Love Lies Bleeding, a craggy ravine just outside a dusty New Mexico town beckons, ready to swallow sordid secrets in the dark of the desert's starry night. Tumbling into it, a car explodes in flames partway through the movie, exactly as the person pushing it in wants it to. There's the experience of watching Rose Glass' sophomore film emblazoned across the feature's very frames. After the expertly unsettling Saint Maud, the British writer/director returns with a second psychological horror, this time starring Kristen Stewart in the latest of her exceptionally chosen post-Twilight roles (see: Crimes of the Future, Spencer, Happiest Season, Lizzie, Personal Shopper, Certain Women and Clouds of Sils Maria). An 80s-set queer and sensual tale of love, lust, blood and violence, Love Lies Bleeding is as inkily alluring as the gorge that's pivotal to its plot, and as fiery as the inferno that swells from the canyon's depths. This neon-lit, synth-scored neo-noir thriller scorches, too — and burns so brightly that there's no escaping its glow. When the words "you have to see it to believe it" also grace Love Lies Bleeding — diving into gyms and in the bodybuilding world, it's no stranger to motivational statements such as "no pain no gain", "destiny is a decision" and "the body achieves what the mind believes" — they help sum up this wild cinematic ride as well. Glass co-scripts here with Weronika Tofilska (they each previously penned and helmed segments of 2015's A Moment in Horror), but her features feel like the result of specific, singular and searing visions that aren't afraid to swerve and veer boldly and committedly to weave their stories and leave an imprint. Accordingly, Love Lies Bleeding is indeed a romance, a crime flick and a revenge quest. It's about lovers on the run and intergenerational griminess. It rages against the machine. It's erotic, a road trip and unashamedly pulpy. It also takes the concept of strong female leads to a place that nothing else has, and you do need to witness it to fathom it. Stewart is Love Lies Bleeding's shaggy mullet-wearing heartthrob, a surly and oft-silent type who knows what she wants and doesn't. In the first category for the gym-managing Lou: a life free of abuse for her sister Beth (Jena Malone, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire), who has scuzzy and vicious husband JJ (Dave Franco, Day Shift) lurking about; nothing to do with the shooting range-owning, gun-running, insect-obsessed, ponytailed Lou Sr (the scene-stealing Ed Harris, Top Gun: Maverick); and, from when she first sets eyes on her, muscular and permed out-of-towner Jackie (Katy O'Brian, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). It's 1989, Lou is unwilling to be anyone but herself — iron-pumping patrons try and fail to insult her with "grade-a dyke" — and she's also introduced knowing how to clean up a mess and navigate amorous complications. Glass initially finds one of her protagonists with a hand deep in a backed-up toilet, and with local hang-about and past fling Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov, Dickinson) pleading for a date. More muck and more relationship chaos are in store for both Lou and for Love Lies Bleeding. Breezing in en route to a bodybuilding championship in Las Vegas, Jackie reciprocates her affections, then moves into her house — but the day before they meet, she's sleeping with JJ for a job at Lou Sr's. That's just some of the shit, metaphorical rather than literal, that Lou will have to get more than elbow-deep in. The FBI agents hovering around asking questions fall into the same camp. Alongside gleefully subverting the usual take on powerful women characters on-screen, Glass carves into idyllic perceptions of love. Love Lies Bleeding's central romance is urgent, instant, sweaty and horny, and also opportunistic, perilous and thorny. The idea that discovering your special someone is transformative also receives a stunning spin, and far beyond the fact that bulging biceps and doing everything on steroids — sometimes literally there — are rarely far from returning Saint Maud cinematographer Ben Fordesman's lens. It isn't merely Glass, Fordesman, editor Mark Towns (another Saint Maud alum), composer Clint Mansell (Sharper) and the meticulous team of sound designers who go all in on crafting Lou and Jackie's plight as an evocatively visceral and squelchy fever dream, heated sex scenes, an onslaught of gore and brutality, and an eagerness to get weird all included. Almost every time that she rolls out a new performance, Stewart is in never-better form again and again, which is true once more in this phenomenal portrayal. The anxiety, tension and vulnerability that's pulsating through Lou is evident in a look, a line reading and posture alone, as is determination, devotion, grit and complexity. Stewart masters something that's only matched by the electric O'Brian, as Glass demands: mesmerising viewers, and making them fall as head over heels for this chemistry-dripping pair and the movie they're in as they do with each other. For O'Brian, who also has The Mandalorian and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as Westworld and The Walking Dead on her resume, has studied martial arts since childhood, takes part in bodybuilding contests off-screen and was previously a cop, it's a star-making, can't-look-away turn. Add obsession to the forces pumping ravenously through Love Lies Bleeding, which befits its filmmaker; this isn't her first picture about transformation and connection. The links between Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding mirror Lou and Jackie, with the two duos as much kindred spirits as opposites. Glass relishes the magnetic clash, then revels in it. What it truly means to change, and why, and the motivations to try; attempting to abandon old and forge new habits; what a person can and can't find in another; where faith and trust kick in: they all throb through both flicks. But jumping from a claustrophobic British setting to the expansive American west, plus from ailing bodies to musclebound figures, is also Glass' journey. Contrasts abound within Love Lies Bleeding itself, which is intimate but sprawling, raw and tender, sweet and savage, gets love and sex butting heads with carnage and death, grim but blackly comedic, and also dark and distressing yet swoonworthy and romantic. In her two features so far — a helluva debut, then this astounding follow-up — Glass has also proven herself a builder, but not of the bodies that her second movie peers at with as female a gaze that cinema is capable of. There's no watching Love Lies Bleeding and not spying its influences, as was the case with Saint Maud. That said, that both take those inspirations as foundations to construct something else entirely is equally inescapable. These are no one's copies. True Romance, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, Thelma & Louise, Showgirls, Badlands, Paris, Texas, Raising Arizona, Bonnie & Clyde, Natural Born Killers: consider them all Love Lies Bleeding's siblings. So are Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon, as spied in the intoxicating hues that dance across the screen. Although it similarly only reached cinemas in 2024, Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls would make a glorious double with one of the standout movies of the year. For a burning, bulging, blistering and brilliant plunge into filmmaking at its most exhilarating, however, Love Lies Bleeding stands and shines fiercely atop its own cliff.
The Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance has been working hard to queer up the Australian Open ever since it ran its first Glam Slam tournament in 2019. The team works in partnership with Tennis Australia to bring in LGBTQIA+ tennis players from around the world — providing a safe space for them to compete in their own tournament while also throwing a three-day party. And this year is just as big as ever — with 260 players from around 30 countries participating in the 2025 Glam Slam, which runs from Friday, January 24–Sunday, January 26. Players of all gender identities are welcome to join and play against others with similar skill levels. Moreover, to increase women's participation, the Glam Slam also has a women's division that's open to anyone who identifies as a woman. The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tournament to run an event like this, which actively gives LGBTQIA+ tennis players a space to compete. Sport has traditionally been a space where queer people don't feel safe or included (and that is still the case in many sports), but this event is working hard to challenge that in the world of tennis — by creating a welcoming and inclusive event that's also a heap of fun to attend. Glam Slam Founder Rowen D'Souza commented, "Inclusion can go much further than just raising the pride flag. For an event to be truly inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community, it needs to have our community participate. The Glam Slam does this for the AO." To watch the Glam Slam games, punters simply need to purchase Australian Open ground passes and then find the matches on the outside courts. [caption id="attachment_986024" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Grey Goose Courtside Bar[/caption] But it's not just about the competition. There's also a heap of special entertainment running across the three days, which lines up with the AO Pride Day on Friday, January 24. You'll find drag queens and kings, face painting and glam stations, DJ sets, and plenty of rainbow flags around the grounds. From 2pm on Sunday, January 26, you can even drop by the Grey Goose Courtside Bar at Court 6 to watch the Glam Slam finals as well as a celebrity match featuring Luke and Sassy Scott and a bunch of professional players. This is usually a time of the Australian Open when the outside courts are empty — as most games in the final few days are played in the arenas. Letting the Glam Slam team take over these outer courts and the surrounding spaces is a damn great way to use the space and keep the festivities going. The 2025 Glam Slam is running from Friday, January 24–Sunday, January 26, and can be accessed by purchasing Australian Open ground passes. For more information, check out the tournament's website.
You could soon be the proud owner of your very own tram, thanks to the Andrews Government's new Retired Trams Strategy, revealed today. The plan's designed to give the city's old vehicles a new lease on life, allowing Victorians to apply to acquire their own tram for free. Expressions of interest will open on Monday, May 28, and run until July 6. They're not just giving them away to anyone, though — if you're keen to add one of the historic vehicles to your collection, you'll have to explain how you'll plan to restore, repurpose and maintain it, so it's preserved for future generations. Priority will be given to applicants who plan to keep the vehicles accessible to the public and of benefit to the community. The best part is that the trams will be completely free for Victorian community organisations, museums and not-for-profits. But those wanting to use the tram for commercial purposes (like accommodation or hospitality) will need to pay, as will interstate residents. There are 134 W-Class trams (the old rattly green and yellow ones) up for grabs, following a recent careful examination of the state's 237-strong retired fleet. Currently, they're sitting in storage at the Newport Railway Workshop. "Over the years, trams have transported millions of Victorians, connected our communities and are an integral part of our rich heritage," Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan explained. "If they're not going to be used on the network, we want to keep these trams accessible to the community." Expressions of interest can be made via the VicTrack website.
Drive two hours northwest of Melbourne and you'll arrive in the town of Lexton. Perched in Victoria's Pyrenees region, this tiny township is surrounded by outstanding wineries and outdoor adventures, ensuring a visit here will be jam-packed with unforgettable experiences that'll live long in the memory. Whether you prefer to roam grand pictorial gardens or scale the Pyrenees mountains, finding the experience you crave is almost guaranteed. To give you a head start, we've teamed up with Wild Turkey to highlight the activities that'll keep the good times flowing for you and your crew on your next out-of-town adventure. [caption id="attachment_846008" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Arianna Leggiero[/caption] STAY IN A CONVERTED CHURCH Considering the immense beauty of Victoria's Pyrenees, booking yourself into some suitably snug accommodation is the best way to spend the night. Arguably the top spot in the area is Grayling's Gift, an immaculate 19th century church rejuvenated with luxurious furnishings and amenities. Inside, the antique decor includes an elegant clawfoot bathtub, a vintage chesterfield lounge and a wood fireplace that elevates the cosiness factor to the extreme. While breakfast is provided during your stay, there's also a compact kitchen to use — we suggest using it to put together a grazing platter with local produce to enjoy during a star-gazing session in the expansive fields on your doorstep. [caption id="attachment_844023" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] TREK THROUGH THE RAINFOREST Situated on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, Lexton is home to mind-boggling natural beauty. To experience the variety of landscapes in one place, a 30-minute drive to Mount Buangor State Park is your best bet. With its 15 kilometres of interconnected trails, this is the place to explore mountain peaks or delve deeper into the valley floor. If you're looking for a low-intensity hike, the Waterfalls Nature Walk trail should be at the top of your to-do list. Taking just 45 minutes to complete, this return journey sees hikers wander through blue gum forests on their way past three waterfalls, including the stunning Ferntree Falls and the Cascade Falls. [caption id="attachment_844026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] EXPLORE WINE COUNTRY It might seem a little on the nose, but this part of Victoria does indeed get its name from the Pyrenees region stretching between France and Spain. Our Pyrenees wine region dates back to the 1960s, so expect your visit to this thriving food and wine country to be overflowing with delicious flavours. More than 40 cellar doors provide ample opportunity to sample the local varieties, and Blue Pyrenees Estate is considered one of the best. Head to this sprawling estate on the outskirts of Avoca for tasting tours and a refined cafe that overlooks the vineyard. In nearby Moonambel, Summerfield Wines offers an equally delectable experience, featuring world-class vino and woodfired pizzas. ROAM HISTORICAL GARDENS AND HARVEST FRESH PRODUCE Despite its location in the heart of the Goldfields region, Lexton didn't quite have the same luck as its neighbours when it came to buried treasure. However, that didn't stop several great estates from being established in the area. For example, the Mount Mitchell Homestead serves as a lasting symbol of Victoria's pre-federation history. Founded in 1838, this sprawling home offers ten acres of pristine gardens from which to admire the Pyrenees Mountains that rise to the west. Stop in to stroll through the beautiful gardens and working farm, where you can pick up fresh produce like eggs from the resident hens, catch yabbies and fish from the property's lake and pick your own fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs from the orchard and kitchen garden. [caption id="attachment_844028" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matt (Flickr)[/caption] HIT UP PARMA PALACE When you roll into any country town, a good pub meal is often one of the first things to seek out. Lexton's Pyrenees Family Hotel isn't afraid to put its reputation on the line, with the self-appointed nickname of the 'Parma Palace'. There are 12 plate-sized varieties of the pub classic to choose from here, with each one bound to leave you very satisfied. The pub also features the hallmarks of any classic country pub: there's a top-notch beer garden where you can enjoy a crisp lager beneath the shade of a mulberry tree, a pool room and jukebox. Plus, if you stop by on a Friday night you can even try your luck at winning a meat tray. [caption id="attachment_844031" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] TEST YOUR BUSHWALKING SKILLS There's stellar bushwalking to be found all over the Pyrenees region, but you can quickly access some of the best with a short drive to Beaufort. Here, you'll find the challenging Ben Nevis Walk – a 9.6-kilometre circuit that kicks off with a seriously steep climb up an old 4WD track. As the terrain levels out, you'll have the energy to admire the wildflowers and panoramic views that adorn this landscape. Although this adventure will definitely put even the fittest bushwalkers through their paces, the views from the peak make this journey supremely worthwhile. [caption id="attachment_844032" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Francesco Vicenzi (Flickr)[/caption] EXPERIENCE A NEXT-LEVEL BUSH DOOF Bush doofs don't come much bigger, or more colourful, than the annual Rainbow Serpent Festival. Launched in 1998 in the dusty fields surrounding Lexton, this hedonistic playground presents a global showcase of electronic music, ranging from psytrance to minimal techno. With the pandemic and bushfires quashing recent years, a return is on the cards for Easter 2023. Alongside the mind-melting tunes and sparkling outfits, the festival invites you to explore your spiritual side through immersive art installations, workshops and otherworldly experiences. If that sounds up your alley, get your pals together for a metaphysical reawakening. Just be sure to take a few days off to guarantee your recovery. Find out more about Wild Turkey's Discovery Series at the website. Top image: Elliot Kramer
If your New Year's resolution for 2026 is to travel more, your ideal excuse to stop wishing, dreaming and romanticising and to start planning, booking and doing is right here. If you're hankering for an adventure in Asia or an oceanic paradise, or even a luxe staycation here in Australia, IHG Hotels is offering the discount you need to turn inspiration into action. The 'Your Year of Travel' sale, which is on now until Wednesday, February 4, is offering a 20% discount on bookings made directly on IHG channels (and 25% for IHG One Members) for stays at more than 270 participating hotels until Monday, August 31. Said participating hotels include Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental, Vignette, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo, voco hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Garner hotels across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and the Pacific Islands. So, by the time autumn rolls around and brings its typical cold and wetter weather to Australia, you could be jetting off to chase the warmth by the sea in Fiji, Koh Samui or The Maldives, getting a cultural fix in Osaka or Japan's tropical Okinawa Islands, travelling with your tastebuds in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore — or just enjoying a luxurious stay in your home city if you can't quite afford the flights just yet. If you're not already an IHG One Member, this might be the ideal time to sign up. New members receive 500 points on registration, add that to the 25% discount on bookings during the sale period, and the math checks out for maximising the value on a maximum-relaxation holiday. IHG Hotels 'Your Year of Travel' sale runs from now until Wednesday, February 4, on bookings for select hotels and stays up until Monday, August 31. T&Cs apply, visit the website for more information. Images courtesy of IHG Hotels.
Victoria's newest luxury spa destination doesn't require a jaunt down the coast or a road trip all the way out to Daylesford. In fact, full-body bliss now awaits you just 10 kilometres from the CBD, at Ivanhoe's new urban retreat and spa Relinque. It's the brainchild of osteopaths Dr Michelle and Dr Adam Wilson, who set out to create a holistic wellness destination specialising in tailored experiences. The space itself is the kind of serene, soothing setting you'll happily escape to for a few hours of indulgence, decked out with modern interiors by Richmond's Studio Tate. Relinque's treatment offering is built on the founders' decades of osteo experience, carefully tuned to help refocus, rebalance and restore that pandemic-weary body. Guests can choose from four signature 'journeys' or treatment packages, sitting at between 80 and 170 minutes of pampering. In the mix, there are body scrubs, massages, hand and foot treatments, wraps and facial therapies, with individualised combinations also available. If you're seeking some additional rejuvenation, you can soak up the benefits of hot and cold contrast therapy here in Melbourne's only privately-owned steam and ice room. The gig involves alternating between a steamy 45-degrees and the frosty temperatures of an ice fountain, to take advantage of the practice's healing, regenerative properties. Products used at the retreat include the full line of organic, botanically-charged products from leading Aussie skincare brand LaGaia, whose experts have personally trained all Relinque staff. And if you'd like to make this your new one-stop wellness shop, there's also a calendar of regular yoga and pilates classes to come. Find Relinque Urban Retreat and Spa at 19 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe.
When your relationship kicks off with a flashed nipple and an injured dog, it clearly doesn't start smoothly. When Colin From Accounts returns for its second season, the romance between Ashley (Harriet Dyer, The Invisible Man) and Gordon (Patrick Brammall, Evil) is set to continue as it began. The titular canine is still a key part of their connection — and they're trying to get him back — but so is couple banter about each others' past, and just the general kind of chaos that rom-coms can bring. It was back in 2022 that Colin From Accounts won audiences over as quickly as a cute pooch, and became one of that year's best new TV shows. When it debuted, Colin From Accounts had everyone bingeing their way through a tale of an awkward but memorable meet-cute, which began when a medical student and a microbrewery owner crossed paths in Sydney, then went from strangers to pet co-owners almost instantly. The series starts dropping its second season from Thursday, May 30 — but this time, however, it will be releasing its episodes weekly on Binge instead of in one batch. If you're new to Colin From Accounts, which won Best Narrative Comedy Series at the 2024 AACTAs and a trio of Logies — Most Outstanding Comedy Program, Most Outstanding Actor and Most Outstanding Actress — in 2023, it's the latest collaboration between real-life couple and No Activity stars Dyer and Brammall. Story-wise, the first season of Colin From Accounts charted what happened after Gordon was distracted by Ashley one otherwise ordinary morning, then accidentally hit a stray dog with his car. The pair took the pooch to receive veterinary treatment, then committed to look after him — and, yes, named him Colin From Accounts — causing their lives to intertwine. In season two, Ashley and Gordon are now living together, which brings its own mess — including the quest to get Colin From Accounts back from his new owners. A heap of fresh faces are joining the series for its second date, such as Celeste Barber (Wellmania), Virginia Gay (Mother and Son), Justin Rosniak (Wolf Like Me), Lynne Porteous (Frayed), John Howard (Bump) and Aunty Donna's Broden Kelly (Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe). Check out the trailer for season two of Colin From Accounts below: Colin From Accounts season two will stream via Binge from Thursday, May 30, 2024. Read our review of season one. Images: Lisa Tomasetti.
When Disney+ made its way into the world back in 2019, it gave viewers — including folks in Australia and New Zealand — access to a huge range of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic movies and shows. What it didn't do is bring Hulu, which the Mouse House owns the majority stake in, to audiences Down Under. And, with Disney+ focused on family-friendly fare, it didn't deliver the kinds of series and films that Hulu screens, either. Hulu still isn't heading our way. But, come Tuesday, February 23, Disney+ is expanding to include a new section that's basically an international equivalent of Hulu. It's called Star and, when it was first announced late in 2020, film and TV fans were advised that it'd screen "an additional 1000 unique titles... in the first year". Wondering exactly what that'll include? Well, now Disney has revealed which series and flicks will be available when Star launches. Prepare to add 159 TV series and 447 movies to your streaming options — with four of those television shows falling into the 'Star Originals' category, meaning that they'll be brand new to viewers Down Under. Three of the four newbies are Hulu shows, too, so if you've been wanting to watch Love, Victor (the spinoff from 2018 movie Love, Simon), Helstrom (which forms part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) or Solar Opposites (an animated sitcom co-created by Rick and Morty's Justin Roiland), then you'll be able to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-IaEaEdE0 From Star's big list of classics, plenty of titles stand out. Among the film selection, you'll find the Alien, Planet of the Apes, Die Hard and Omen franchises, plus the Predator and Taken flicks as well. And, you can also pick between older movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Fly, Never Been Kissed, Office Space, Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge, or more recent fare such as Black Swan, Eddie the Eagle, Logan, The Favourite and Jojo Rabbit. A heap of Wes Anderson films, including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, are also featured. On the television front, you'll be able to binge your way through every episode of Angel, Alias, 24, Felicity, Firefly and Glee — or opt for New Girl, Prison Break, Scandal and The X-Files instead. The list goes on and, like the existing Disney+ range, you'll find a hefty focus on older shows over new titles. Star draws upon Disney's studios, such as Disney Television Studios, FX, 20th Century Studios, 20th Television and Touchstone. And it doesn't everything that Hulu does, because plenty of Hulu's series and films pop up elsewhere Down Under — like The Handmaid's Tale, for instance. That said, it's safe to expect that some of the rights deals that deliver Hulu content to other networks and streaming platforms in Australia and might change after Star's hits, moving where you can catch certain flicks and programs in the process. As you might've already guessed, Disney+'s expansion to include Star comes with a price increase. Australian subscriptions will go up to AU$11.99 per month or AU$119.99 per year, while New Zealand subscriptions will go up to NZ$12.99 per month and $129.99 per year. If you're already a subscriber, the new price won't kick in for six months, though — so whenever your next renewal hits after August 22. Star joins Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday, February 23, with Disney+ subscriptions costing AU$11.99 and NZ$12.99 per month or AU$119.99 and NZ$129.99 per year from that date.
If I were to present you with a map and ask you to direct me somewhere, you'd say something along the lines of "Huh? Where's the GPS on this piece of paper?" I am universally acknowledged as being useless when it comes to directions. I will frequently ask people to turn left, then yell "no! I meant the other left!" For this reason my friends forbid me to offer any form of direction on any means of transport and have been known to resort to violent swearing. I use Google Maps every day. But never have I been lost and resorted to an actual map. Google Maps rules the field of location and direction these days. People Finders connect you with others during times of disaster, Street Art View allows you to tag art from around the world, and with a new and improved view you can take a virtual stroll through the streets of Stockholm and Mexico City. An oversized and confusing piece of paper simply can't compete. Now, a series of collages entitled Map Works by American artist Matthew Cusick have taken what has essentially become a dead medium and turned those maps into beautiful and intricate collages. By rescuing them from the landfill and thrusting them into the retro-chic realm of cassette tapes and typewriters, it's work like this which will make us appreciate old-fashioned maps in years to come.
Tavi Gevinson, the precocious pixie editrix, is finally manifesting her person on our shores. As a hugely successful teen blogger and founder of Rookie magazine, her entrepreneurial chutzpah is something of a phenomenon. She'll be giving a keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival, as well as stopping by the Opera House in Sydney. She's an old hand at public speaking, too, having already given a TED talk. Awash as the internet is with kids promoting their #personalbrands, it's cool to see someone so young found a publication like Rookie, a surprisingly down-to-earth and intellectual voice in the teen zine scene. Launched in 2011, it's festooned with the Tavi aesthetic, which, since her solo blogging days as a 13-year-old, has channelled '90s pop-goth and pretty pastels, movies like Ghost World and all the quirkiest developments of the fashion world. But it's Tavi's self-awareness and feminism that make her a compelling fashion commentator: never glossing over the fact that this is an industry which fetishises youth, she's all for female empowerment. We're looking forward to hearing her speak on a local stage.
Some actors have a type. The films change, and the names of their characters as well, but it can feel as if they're always playing a variation of the same person. That sensation doesn't apply to Jackie van Beek's work. Many movie lovers discovered her on-screen as Jackie, the human familiar to a Wellington sharehouse-dwelling vampire in What We Do in the Shadows. In the decade since the hit comedy, she's helped end romances in The Breaker Upperers, which she also co-wrote and co-directed with Deadloch star Madeleine Sami — and then disrobed for Nude Tuesday, this time penning the script solo, alongside portraying a woman who attempts to reignite the spark in her marriage by heading to a couples' retreat where clothes are often optional. Now arrives Audrey, a delightfully dark Australian comedy from first-time feature director Natalie Bailey (Bay of Fires, Joe vs Carole, Run) and screenwriter Lou Sanz (The PM's Daughter, 6 Festivals) that enlists van Beek as a former star. Decades after her Logie-winning heyday, Ronnie Lipsick hasn't given up on her showbiz dreams. The world beckoned when she was at the top of the acting game, but then she had her first daughter and settled into married life; however, she still knows what she wants. Her focus after 18 years of being a mum: ensuring that the movie's eponymous figure (Josephine Blazier, Fires) makes it big as well, whether she likes it or not. Nothing is going to stop Ronnie in this quest — not even Audrey falling into a coma. There's regular second chances, and then there's Ronnie's path. When Audrey can't follow the route to fame and fortune that's been plotted out for her, Ronnie impersonates her instead. There's endeavouring to cope with tragedy, and then there's the Lipsick family's response to Audrey's plight as well — including on Ronnie's husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Force of Nature: The Dry 2) and younger daughter Norah's (Hannah Diviney, Latecomers) parts. As keeps proving the case across van Beek's filmography, no one will mistake Audrey for any other movie. After debuting at SXSW in Austin, the blackly and sharply hilarious feature now hits Australian cinemas in what's been a busy year for its lead. Off-camera in 2024, the New Zealand talent was one of the driving forces behind the Australian version of The Office, and also directed an episode of Time Bandits. Audrey appealed to van Beek's love of dark comedy, she tells Concrete Playground. Unsurprisingly, Ronnie stood out as the kind of character that isn't a standard fixture on-screen. When The Breaker Upperers released in 2018, she chatted with us, alongside Sami, about creating roles for the two that didn't exist otherwise. Now, van Beek advises that when she was reading Audrey's script, she thought "oh, she's delicious. She's so challenging to like. I thought as an actor, it'll be such a great kind of joy to try, and to try to pull her off with some degree of charm." "When I read Lou Sanz's script, Ronnie Lipsick is a morally ambiguous, very career-driven kind of obsessive mother, and I just thought 'what a delight'. Because you don't come across these characters — especially as a female — you just don't come across these characters very often. Well, I hadn't," van Beek notes. "I love dark comedy. I think I was probably told the premise, I imagine by Lou or the producer Michael Wrenn before I read the script. So as soon as I heard the premise, I was like 'ooh, this sounds perfectly dark for me'. I love comedy, but I do really like the edginess of this premise. I think someone who prioritises resurrecting her career over nursing her daughter back to health is a very interesting character to play." Also built into Audrey: recognition that being a mother shouldn't mean giving up on your own journey, an adult coming-of-age tale and a woman's quest, albeit by highly questionable means such as pretending to be her teenage offspring, to reclaim her own sense of self. We discussed all of the above with van Beek, too, alongside what she drew upon to play Ronnie, portraying such a tricky character in a heightened story, what gets her excited about a new project, what you learn making a movie like Audrey and more. On the Film's Ability Not Only to Rally Against Traditional Visions of Womanhood and Motherhood, But to Take That Idea to a Comedic Extreme "It was an interesting take, because I think we've seen a lot of films, dramas and comedies, about women who are struggling, as a lot of us do — women who are struggling with that work/life balance, being being pulled one way as a mother, being pulled another way by their career. And I think we're quite used to those stories. I think this film, obviously what I love, really pushes it to a comedic extreme. I mean, I find Ronnie kind of delusionally adorable, but also abhorrent. I hope that I'm a very different woman to her. But it was delightful to play, because pushing the idea that women aren't born simply to reproduce or mother, but are born to bring about your hopes and dreams, through a career or what have you, is fun. I did find Ronnie Lipsick to be quite mentally unhinged, and in need of some professional help, I would say. She's really spinning off the planet. She's such an egotist. She's so vain. And she's really lost sight of what's important in life. But I do love this idea, to the extreme in Lou's script, that she absolutely prioritises her career over her over her daughter's health." On Finding Inspiration to Play Ronnie — and Always Trying to Win the Audience Over "I'm a mother myself. I have three children, so obviously I was able to easily draw on my own life for the harried mum aspect of the character — organising the pickups, all the logistics with the husband, wanting them to do well. So I've drawn on a lot of that. In terms of her being dangerously delusional, I didn't have much to go on from my real life. So what I did was, I came up through theatre, I was in theatre for like 20 years before I got into TV and film, and a lot of my training was about trying to win the audience over. So whether or not you were a hero or a villain, you try to charm the audience so much that you can have them onside. I really thought that would be a fun game to play, just for myself, over the course of production, to see — by finding vulnerability or delusion or asking the audience to sympathise with me in any way — whether or not I could win the audience over to my side, so they would, I guess, forgive Ronnie for some of the choices she made." On Ensuring That Depth Shines Through When You're Playing Such a Tricky Character in a Heightened Story "It was hugely important for me to navigate a truth for the character throughout the story. And, in some scenes that was harder than harder than others, because it is a very heightened story, and a very heightened reality that we were playing within. Natalie Bailey, the director, was fantastic at helping me navigate that — as was Lou, the writer, who was on set the whole time, which was incredibly useful. But it was really important to me that I could feel truth in every single scene. And so some of the more heightened ones, I really had to lean into Ronnie's delusion, I guess — so that I thought if I, as Ronnie, can actually believe what I'm saying, even if it seems ridiculous to everybody else in the scene and in the audience, as long as I can believe it, it should feel like a real human being that's going on a journey. But some scenes are more tricky than others. That's a fun challenge. I love reading a role where I go 'ooh, this is going to be quite tricky'. And it was. It was such a fun challenge to take on that part." On Adult Coming-of-Age Stories Blossoming as a Genre — and Tales of Women Aiming to Reclaim Their Identities "I'm not sure why it's coming up more now. Maybe because more adults have access to therapy and so people are reflecting on these things? Definitely on my to-do list is to carve out time to go to see therapists. I haven't quite managed to do it yet. But I'm really enjoying the stories coming out at the moment, especially with female protagonists, about women around my age — I'm 48 — who have realised that they've lost a sense of self and they are really struggling to find a way to reclaim an identity. I think what interests me is a lot of people, they don't go deep enough, and try to just reclaim their youth through surgery or affairs or whatever. I'm really fascinated by that. I think all women that I know have just read Miranda July's All Fours, which I think is an incredible examination of that kind of reclaiming that sense of self. It's a fascinating subject." On Audrey, the Australian Version of The Office and Time Bandits All Reaching Screens Within Months of Each Other "The momentum of that is quite strange because, of course, these projects all happened at quite different times and it really is coincidence, I think, that everything lands in the same few months. It all depends on how long the post-production is or the distributor. But it's exciting to have things come out. I'm always someone who really itches to get a project in front of an audience to get that response. But I'm also someone who doesn't really dwell on the response, because I've always moved on to a million other things. But I love it — as I said before, I came up through theatre, so it was all about working as hard as you can and then opening night, the curtains open and you give the projects to an audience, you share that. So it's always a relief for me when something finally is out there and you're like 'oh good, okay, actually it's opening night, the curtains are parting, and people can actually now watch it and respond'. I think I do find it hard when you're in development for a number of things, and nothing's on-screen or you're not delivering anything to an audience. You just feel like you're working in this weird, insular bubble, and what's the point if nobody is able to see this thing you're working on and respond to it. And then, of course, with every response you learn so much about what we've created. And I then I take that onto my next projects. I'm very invested in learning, I guess." On What Gets van Beek Excited About a New Project at This Stage of Her Career "The most-exciting element for me with new projects is the team on it. There are so many people from all around the world, of all different levels of experience, that I'm just dying to work with. And so for my own projects, I of course seek these people out to collaborate with — actors, directors, writers. I think that is the driving force. Second to that, well, actually shooting location is quite important for me because I have three kids and my youngest is still only 12. So I am always trying to prioritise projects like Time Bandits that can be made here in New Zealand, so that I don't have to be away from the kids and my family for too long. And then, of course, the project itself — I'm very drawn, and always have been, to projects which will potentially polarise. I kind of find it thrilling to take on a project or be a part of a project that I think could go either way. The Office, for example, it did seem so silly to create the 13th version of The Office. But, of course, I leapt at the opportunity knowing it was going to be the first version with a female lead, and I knew that was quite high-risk because people are so besotted with the UK and the US versions. But it was that risk that really thrilled me. And the same with when I get involved in some local low-budget films here in New Zealand, sometimes it's the project that draws me, like it's something that I've never kind of seen before or they're taking a big risk on something. And I'm like 'ooh, I'd love to be a part of that because I like the thrill of it'. I'm not really drawn to something that feels quite kind of tried and true, I guess." On What van Beek Learned Starring in Audrey "It's interesting. I think when I'm acting in other people's films or projects, I learn a lot about writing and directing. And then I feel like when I'm writing and directing my own projects, I learn a lot about acting. I think I learn a lot from the other people that are surrounding me. And I really enjoy jumping between acting, writing and directing for that. So I'm constantly shifting roles and having these experiences from both sides. But I think with Audrey, I'm a real believer in 'if you say yes to a project, then you really are giving yourself over to that writer and especially to the director'. So once I say yes to something, I'm pretty much like 'what do you want me to do?' — like 'here I am, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything.'. I don't say yes to a project unless I unless I'm prepared to offer up everything." Audrey opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
Australia has lost an icon, with news of Olivia Newton-John's death sadly announced on Tuesday, August 9. Across more than half a century in the entertainment industry, the British Australian singer and actor helped give the world everything from Grease to Xanadu — and songs such as 'I Honestly Love You' and 'Physical', too. There are plenty of ways to pay tribute to Newton-John. Singing 'You're the One That I Want' and 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' all day counts. Rewatching Grease for the billionth time does as well. And, so does getting 'Xanadu' or 'Magic' stuck in your head. Or, you can truly take the star's advice and get physical at Retrosweat's tribute sessions. The aerobics outfit is dedicating two sessions this week — its regular classes at 7pm on Tuesday, August 9 and at the same time on Thursday, August 11 — to the Aussie legend. Each one runs for 60 minutes, and dressing like you're stepping out of Newton-John's 'Physical' clip (or even wearing anything Grease or Xanadu-themed that doubles as workout attire) is recommended. Sydneysiders can head along at 242 Young Street in Waterloo on Tuesday — and 525 Crown Street in Surry Hills on Thursday. Fancy joining in at home or from outside of Sydney? Retrosweat livestreams its classes, including these two, if you join its Retrosweat Home Video service. In preparation for the classes — and just to bask in Newton-John's 80s-era glory — you can revisit the 'Physical' music video below:
If you're planning to spend 12 days in the Harbour City's cinemas this winter, Sydney Film Festival's full 2025 slate of movies won't be revealed until early May, ahead of the annual big-screen celebration's Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 dates. A handful of flicks from the lineup will be named in April first, but Vivid Sydney's 2025 program announcement comes bearing gifts even earlier: a few SFF events that fall within the citywide arts, light, music, food and ideas celebration as well. A celebration of Warren Ellis was always going to be huge news. There's two parts to it: a screening of Justin Kurzel (Nitram)-directed documentary Ellis Park, about the iconic musician establishing an animal sanctuary to protect endangered species in Sumatra, then An Evening with Warren Ellis at City Recital Hall. At the first, at the State Theatre, audiences will obviously see the film. Afterwards, its subject — a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds collaborator and Dirty Three founder, as well as a pivotal force in movie scores, including on The Proposition, The Road, Far From Men, Mustang, Hell or High Water, The Velvet Queen, The New Boy, Back to Black, Kid Snow and newly minted Oscar-winner I'm Still Here — will chat about the doco, and also put on a short musical performance. SFF and Vivid are teaming up on a second event, too: Planet City: Live. Courtesy of designer and director Liam Young, the speculative fiction experience takes attendees to a different future — one where humanity has responded to the environmental destruction of the planet in a decisive fashion. Young's film is set at a time where there's just one city, which is where everyone on earth resides, with the rest of the globe left to rewild. At SFF, Young will provide live narration for the film, while Forest Swords will play its score live as Planet City screens. "Sydney Film Festival has always been a place for bold and innovative storytelling, and we are delighted to join forces with Vivid Sydney to present these two unique cinematic experiences. These events push the limits of film, sound and imagination, offering audiences something truly unforgettable," said SFF Festival Director Nashen Moodley, announcing the fest's collaboration with Vivid 2025. "The partnership between Vivid Sydney and Sydney Film Festival represents a powerful fusion of artistic vision that embodies the spirit of creative innovation we champion and allows us to connect with audiences in meaningful new ways. These immersive film events perfectly amplify our 2025 theme of 'dream' by inviting audiences to explore alternative realities through the intersection of cinema, music and live performance," added Vivid Sydney Festival Director Gill Minervini. Sydney Film Festival x Vivid Sydney 2025 Events Sunday, June 8 — Ellis Park screening at the State Theatre and Ellis Park: An Evening with Warren Ellis at City Recital Hall Tuesday, June 10 — Planet City: Live at City Recital Hall Sydney Film Festival 2025 runs from Wednesday, June 4–Sunday, June 15 at cinemas across Sydney. Hit up the festival website for further information and tickets — and check back in with Concrete Playground in April for more films from the program, and on Wednesday, May 7 for the full lineup. Vivid Sydney 2025 runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14 across Sydney. Head to the festival website for further information.
Keen for an escape? The Kittawa Lodge strikes the ideal combination of rugged, remote bliss and immense luxury. Set on 96 pristine acres amid King Island – perched in the choppy waters between Tasmania and the Victorian mainland – this dramatic retreat offers a premium stay amongst the windswept dunes, perfect for when you need to add some more tranquility to your life. This lavish off-grid accommodation is stepping things up throughout winter with the return of its acclaimed Guest Chef Series. Making the trip to King Island are renowned culinary talents, Rosheen Kaul (Etta) and Stephen Nairn (Omnia, Yugen Dining, Yugen Tea Bar). Expect a three-night foodie retreat, as these experiences blend luxury, adventure and world-class dining in the heart of Tasmania's wild beauty. With a maximum of eight guests taking part at a time, this is your chance to indulge in ultra-exclusive dining in absolute peace. Featuring a menu designed by Kaul and Nairn, breakfasts, gourmet picnics and intimate dinners will spotlight local produce alongside Tasmanian wine pairings, signature snacks and curated cocktails. As the former Head Chef of Etta, not to mention an award-winning writer and food personality, Kaul has long been an influential name on the Australian culinary scene. Celebrating her Asian heritage through Australia's seasonal produce, her first cookbook, Chinese-ish, took home a prestigious James Beard Media Award. Meanwhile, Scottish-born Nairn is the current CEO and Culinary Director of LK Hospitality, where he plies his experience gathered in respected European kitchens and New York City's three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park. The return of the Guest Chef Series arrives on the back of a new launch – the Kittawa Retreat – representing a significant expansion to the Lodge's accommodation offering. Designed for shared trips without compromising privacy, this new two-bedroom stay is ideal for families, friend groups or even couples that want a little more space to spread out. Luxe inside and out, amenities include an open-air hot tub with panoramic ocean views and a private cellar stocked with top-quality tipples. Guests can also book bespoke experiences, from guided yoga to private four-course dinners. "Our vision for Kittawa Retreat was to create an experience that feels both deeply personal and uniquely Tasmanian. Every detail, from the curated artwork to the plush, layered interiors, has been designed to immerse guests in comfort, beauty, and the raw natural splendour of King Island," says Kittawa Lodge owners Aaron Suine and Nick Stead. If you decide to make the trip to King Island, there's no shortage of optional extras, like 60-minute in-lodge treatments and guided meditation sessions. If it's more adventure you seek, you can book in for a guided expedition to the south of the island or even rent an AWD vehicle to curate your own remote escape. The Kittawa Lodge Guest Chef Series runs across various dates from Wednesday, May 28–Tuesday, August 5. Head to the website for more information. Images: Oscar Sloane / Gareth Sobey.
With almost every new Kristen Stewart-starring movie that has reached screens since her Twilight days, a distinctive feeling radiates. It was true with Clouds of Sils Maria, Certain Women and Personal Shopper, and then with Happiest Season, her Oscar-nominated role in Spencer and also Crimes of the Future as well: each of these films are exactly the types of flicks that one of the most-fascinating actors working today should be making. Then arrived Love Lies Bleeding, which partly sprang from that very idea and couldn't perfect it better. This revenge-driven, blood-splattered, 80s-set romantic thriller about a gym manager and a bodybuilder who fall in love, then into a whirlwind of sex, vengeance and violence, was written with Stewart in mind. As Saint Maud writer/director Rose Glass must've imagined while putting pen to paper, she's stunning in it. Love Lies Bleeding casts KStew as Lou, whose days overseeing the local iron-pumping haven — well, unclogging its toilets and scowling at meathead customers from beneath her shaggy mullet — are shaken up when female bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O'Brian, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) enters her remote New Mexico hometown. This is a girl-meets-girl tale, but it's also about the chaos of finding the person who best understands you, dealing with a lifetime's worth of baggage and trying to start anew. Here, amid neon hues and synth tunes, that means navigating Lou's gun-running dad (Ed Harris, Top Gun: Maverick) and abusive brother-in-law (Dave Franco, Day Shift), trying to protect her sister Beth (Jena Malone, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire), chasing Jackie's competitive dreams and attempting to leave complicated pasts in the rearview mirror. Co-writing with Weronika Tofilska (a director on His Dark Materials and Hanna), Glass didn't just conjure up Lou with Stewart as her ideal lead; she also leapt into a helluva sophomore project that follows quite the experience with Saint Maud. The 2019 movie, Glass' feature directorial debut, marked her as one of the next exciting filmmakers out of Britain. But little about getting the psychological thriller to audiences, and to adoring acclaim, was straightforward. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival as all very well and good. So was A24 coming onboard afterwards. The timing of Saint Maud's original April 2020 US release date says everything, though. The early days of the pandemic might've derailed getting the picture to viewers, but it didn't stop it becoming one of the standouts of the past five years. "The release was very odd, because we went down well at festivals, and then 24 picked us up," Glass tells Concrete Playground. "And they'd been planning on doing this whole wide cinematic release in America, and everyone kept saying to me 'oh my god, this never happens with a debut, this is incredible'. And I said, 'oh wow, okay, amazing'. It didn't quite feel real anyway, and then we're literally days away from getting on a plane to come out to America to do a whole fancy press tour, which felt so surreal in and of itself, and then lockdown. Obviously, we all know what happened next." "I'd been nervous about bringing the film out into the world, and people's reactions, but I think a global pandemic certainly helps put things in perspective. It certainly helped to not take it too seriously, I think," Glass continues. Before that, writing Saint Maud was "very stressful and got very unpleasant, because you're plagued by so much uncertainty about whether it's actually going to happen," she shares. Then, "making it was wonderful and just very collaborative — it was just a massive relief that it was actually happening". Consider Glass' Saint Maud journey fuel for Love Lies Bleeding; the filmmaker herself does. The latter veers in an array of vastly different directions from its predecessor; compare Saint Maud's claustrophobic focus on a highly religious carer who becomes obsessed with saving her latest patient's soul versus Love Lies Bleeding's frantic lovers-on-the-run antics. And yet, as much as Love Lies Bleeding can play like a heel-turn response to Saint Maud, they also boast more than a few things in common, such as a fascination with transformation, a deep willingness to push boundaries and, of course, an uncompromising vision. We chatted with Glass about being motivated to make Love Lies Bleeding after her Saint Maud experience, how the idea for her second feature came about, the difference between writing a part for KStew and getting her to actually play it, finding IRL bodybuilder and former cop-turned- The Mandalorian and Westworld actor O'Brian as Jackie, the film's wild ride and more. [caption id="attachment_804112" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Saint Maud[/caption] On Glass' Approach to Love Lies Bleeding After the Response to (and Chaotic Release for) Saint Maud "I'm sure it lights a fire under the arse, or whatever the expression is. I mean, it's wonderful. It definitely exceeded anything any of us were expecting or hoping to happen on the film, so that was very cool. And I think maybe because also it happened during lockdown, so I was getting a sense that people were responding to it well, and it was going down well, but because it was all basically just through [online] — I wasn't used to doing everything over Zoom at that point — it all felt very removed. I was just in my house with my flatmates in lockdown like everyone else, so it sort of felt like it wasn't happening. [caption id="attachment_804111" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Saint Maud[/caption] But, in a way, because we didn't get to do the proper release then with the film, it did mean there was a pent-up frustration, which probably spilled over into making this next one, I think. It definitely gives you a confidence and a fearlessness, which I hadn't really felt before. And definitely there's this feeling of 'oh, wow, I get to make another one — I don't know if I'll get to do another one again after that', so you treat it as if it's the last one. I think maybe also Saint Maud's kind of uptight, obviously, and quite insular and claustrophobic — so I think maybe that combined with lockdown, probably this when I was like 'let's do something bombastic and a bit more extroverted, and try something risky and irresponsible and see what we can get away with'." On Coming Up with the Idea and Story for Love Lies Bleeding "Initially, it was just wanting to do something about a a female bodybuilder. That seemed psychologically and visually exciting territory. And I guess I feel like I'm probably the polar opposite of a bodybuilder — and the obsessive level of discipline is something I can only be fascinated by and aspire to myself, but never quite achieve. So maybe, maybe that's how it became a two-hander between a bodybuilder and a woman who's basically just 'oh, my god, you're amazing'. But I decided that I wanted to try co-writing. I had this initial germ of an idea about a bodybuilder who kind of loses her mind while she's training for a competition. And then I teamed up with my co-writer Weronika Tofilska, who I've been friends with for years. Then, so the rest of the story, all the twisty-turny rest of it, we basically came up with together just bouncing back and forth." On Having Kristen Stewart in Mind While Writing "She's just, I think, a very natural fit for the character. I guess it was just a quite instinctual thing. I like the idea of her playing a moody heartthrob in loose, boyish way — like she's playing someone who's kind of an asshole but you kind of really like her as well. Kristen, she's actually, in person, she's very twinkly and energetic and stuff, but there's I think a more famous version of her which is much more held back and a bit aloof, all this kind of thing, which I think is really what the character needs. She's kind of an enigma, like a mystery — she keeps a lot held back, and then hopefully throughout the film you pick her apart a bit. I just thought she'd be a really hot, moody heartthrob." On Getting Kristen Stewart Onboard as Lou "I couldn't believe it. I met her for the first time — we had an awkward blind date kind of thing, and it was the morning after they'd released Spencer in the UK, I think, so she'd had a late night. I was basically suddenly very starstruck and quite nervous, and just as far as I saw it, I just waffled at her incoherently for an hour, and she went 'mmmm'. But then, luckily, afterwards she sent me a really lovely message, and then I sent her the script. It's weird and awkward having a meeting where you don't actually have something specific — because I hadn't shared the script with her then, it was this awkward thing where I was told that I wasn't actually allowed to, even though I wanted to offer the her the role outright. It was more of like a temperature check. So it's much nicer to have a conversation when you're actually talking about a specific script, and she's agreed, and there's none of this weird awkwardness. Anyways, she basically said she really likes Saint Maud. She's said in interviews since then that she was up for doing whatever I wanted to do next — which is very obviously a very lovely feeling and takes the pressure off a little bit, because I thought I did a really bad job of pitching it to her. But anyway, she was all in." On Finding Katy O'Brian to Play Love Lies Bleeding's Pivotal Female Bodybuilder "Katy's just — I think both her and Kristen, just on a basic level, they're just incredibly charismatic and incredible to look at. They're two people that I'm like 'I would love to watch these two people falling in love with each other'. A lot of the film just has to play on you being like 'oh, these people are amazing'. But with Katy specifically, it's the duality. On the surface, she's obviously got this incredible physicality and a very imposing physical presence, or can be. And so this more steely action-hero stuff comes very easily to her. But actually naturally, in terms of how she is and as a person, you scratch just underneath that and she's incredibly warm and soft. She's described herself as like a snuggle bear. And also, her character goes on a pretty tumultuous up and down, and does some pretty terrible things, but ultimately is still the innocent of the film. There's a naivety to her. Katy is just so incredibly empathetic, I think, which the character needs — because otherwise she'd just lose her and it'd just be 'oh, it's just this crazy woman doing crazy things'. But Katy just makes you so care for her so much. Given it was her first big lead dramatic performance — she's acted before, but more as supporting roles, normally previously in roles which have mostly been requiring her just to do the physical kind of stuff — she jumped into this. We cast like two weeks before we started shooting, and then a few weeks later she's doing all these quite tricky scenes with Kristen. I immediately would just completely forget that it's the first time she's doing a role like this." On Making a Film That Feels Like It Can Go Anywhere and Everywhere, Even While Building in Familiar Elements "In terms of the surrealism, and some of the weird combinations of things, I think it's what comes naturally. Me and Weronika, when we were writing it, we were playing with a lot narrative and character tropes. There's quite a few formulaic elements in the story, which probably are quite familiar to people, which hopefully we then take off course into somewhere a bit more surprising. There's definitely a framework in this. I think there's a lot of elements in the film which are very recognisable and which will probably feel familiar in some way. So hopefully it's setting up an expectation of something to happen — and then, because you know what the expectation is, it's easy to go 'let's go the other way'." On Taking Love Lies Bleeding in the Opposite Direction to Saint Maud in So Many Ways, But Still Finding Connections Between Them "It's kind of intentional. I mean, I think there are quite a lot of things which do connect the films. But each film, you spend a few years of your life just obsessively thinking about that — so I think after several years of just thinking about one particular tone and style of story, it's definitely, I think, a natural instinct to want to mix things up a bit. So yeah, the idea of wanting to do something which was more extroverted and bombastic than Saint Maud was definitely a deliberate, instinctual kind of thing. And I guess also Saint Maud was kind of about loneliness, so in a way this one was like 'oh, if you think being lonely is hard, try being in a relationship'." Love Lies Bleeding released in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 14, 2024, and opens in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Read our review. Images: Anna Kooris.
Ivan Pavlov was a Nobel Prize winning Russian physiologist who studied the digestion of dogs in the 1800s. The name Pavlov's Duck, however, is completely random — Pavlov never owned a duck. Randomness aside, the name is intriguing enough to attract customers inside this Smith Street cafe. And Pavlov's Duck is set to put casual Sri Lankan fusion meals on the Melbourne map. From the moment you walk through the monster glass door, the establishment's eclecticism is thrust upon you. Exposed brick walls surround sporadically placed wooden ducks. The cafe has tossed out boring sugar caddies and serves sugar out of wooden coconuts — another subtle way of paying homage to Sri Lanka. Its coffee however is not from Sri Lanka, as the beans come from Padre Coffee (Daddy's Girl blend). What separates Pavlov's Duck from other brunch spots is its impressive integration of South-Asian ingredients and spices. But be prepared — the food is hefty. Chillies and poached plums give a rich twist to what would be ordinary dishes. The cafe has managed to twist a regular croissant into what is called the 'Lankan Frenchy': a croissant filled with coconut, chilli, parsley and a boiled egg ($11). For those who go out for breakfast but secretly feel like lunch, the 'Pol' roti ($16) is perfect, with homemade coconut roti, spiced red lentils, onion relish and a boiled egg. Nothing screams innovation louder than the specials. The blueberry French toast with bacon crumb mascarpone, lychees and chocolate three ways ($17) gives a new name to the timeworn classic. And yes, it works. If it's diversity you're after, the pumpkin and chia seed pancakes with lentil salad, coconut sambol (a relish made of desiccated coconut and chillies), chorizo and pickled chilli ($18) may be the one for you. After a year of trading, the cafe have extended their hours into the evening; on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, they're serving up a tight menu of Sri Lankan snacks and meal. Head in after 4pm and you'll find traditional thosai (dosa) with sambar and green sambol ($15.50), roti and hoppers, which are bowl-shaped crepes filled with egg and dahl and other delicious things ($15.50). Pavlov's Duck also has desserts lined up for post-meal sugar craving. Raw white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake ($7) and a salted caramel slice ($6.50) are two sweethearts on the menu. Parents, the chocolate crackles ($3.80) made with buckinis (activated buckwheat) are a healthy dessert option for the kids. The best part? All of these are gluten-free, sugar-free and organic. So you can be cheeky at Pavlov's — but not too cheeky.
