The Six Most Insane Installations from the Last Decade of Secret Garden Festival
From kissing booths to a drag hotel to a 24-hour disco saucer, these interactive installations are as important to the forest festival as the music.
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Every February, Secret Garden Festival takes over a forest just outside Sydney with a 48-hour extravaganza of music, live performance, costumes, food and art. Central to the colour, action and frivolity is a collection of epic purpose-built installations, which, over the years, have ranged from a suspended stage inspired by a flying saucer to a kissing booth created with a chainsaw.
Now, we can't tell you what to expect for the festival's upcoming 11th year — as is custom, the lineup won't be announced until tickets sell out and most of the other details remain a secret until the moment you arrive. But to show you why people turn up to this mysterious two-night disco each year, we're rewinding the clock to take a look at the wackiest of Secret Garden's installations over the last decade. See you at the kissing booth.
THE KISSING BOOTH (2015)
One thing's for sure: gardeners dig kissing. Set up at the 2015 shindig in an empty forest, the Kissing Booth attracted a constant and enthusiastic queue. Kissers could order items from a dedicated menu — such as a main of pash with a side of squeeze — on entering. The installation's popularity showed that gardeners were just as keen on participating as spectating, thereby paving the way for more interactive programming. The Kissing Booth was the creation of Max Downes, brother of Secret Garden founder Clare Downes, who agreed to build it on the condition he could use a chainsaw.
HUMAN FOOSBALL (2016)
Yep, this was as nuts as its name suggests. Using bamboo, Ned Long and the Bamboo Crew constructed foosball of human proportions in 2016. True to the game, all participants were tied to beams, which allowed only limited horizontal movement. Teams had to register in the lead-up to the festival and were part of an actual competition, which culminated in a grand final, trophies and dramatic thank you speeches. Whenever a match was in progress, powerful stadium lights provided illumination, making sure spectators didn't miss a second.
APPLAUSE THEATRE (2016)
Also part of 2016's celebrations was the Applause Theatre, which turned every single secret gardener into an unwitting performer. Placed at the festival's entrance, it was filled with, well, anyone and everyone who cheered, clapped and whooped as ticket holders arrived. Yep, it's a pretty simple idea, but an effective one — and stacks of fun. The theatre was designed and built by Fresh Prince Studio, a design company based in Sydney, whose recent projects include a tiny house for Unyoked and a hanging shade garden for The Squires Landing at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
CAMP QUEEN MOTEL (2017)
If you're a die-hard secret gardener, you'll be familiar with Camp Queen. This stage, devoted to drag queens, has been at the heart of shenanigans for yonks. Last year, head honcho Joel De Sa decided to take things to the next level with Camp Queen Motel. This involved turned the stage into an installation that looked like accommodation. DJs spun tunes at a central reception desk, and, on checking into one of two rooms, guests discovered drag shows in full flight.
HOUSEPARTY (2017 + 2018)
For the last two years, Secret Garden has extended from the forest into four solid walls with Houseparty. This installation was set up exactly like your favourite neighbour's home, complete with a stereo that let you play your own music. As with all Secret Garden festivities, watching people immerse themselves to the point where reality and festival become blurred is half the fun. At one point, a gardener became the home owner's offspring and jumped atop a table: "My parents are going to freak when they come home!" Before long, a couple of equally immersed gardeners turned up at the door step in police uniforms and tried to shut the party down.
COSMOTEQUE (2018)
You might've experienced some wild dance floors in your short time on Earth, but none like Cosmoteque. Inspired by a flying saucer, this otherworldly structure was suspended from a tree during Secret Garden 2018, in the deep, deep dark of an old, old forest. Its total dedication to soul and disco had revellers dancing non-stop throughout the festival's 48-hour marathon. Cosmoteque was the creation of Olivia Luella and Six Finger Society.
Secret Garden Festival 2019 is happening over the weekend of February 22–24. You can snap up tickets here.
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