There's plenty of food at Bondi Feast, but it's not the main course. The Rock Surfers Theatre Company's annual festival serves up offbeat performances, comedy and writerly projects from some of our favourite creative Sydneysiders, all backed up by a rotating cast of food vendors in the Bondi Pavilion's Festival Bar. With tickets to shows starting at $10, consider it a tapas of ideas, hilarity, provocation and feels. The shows here have fronted up ready to compete for our very limited attention spans on title alone. There's My Struggle: The Life and Times of an Individ (in a World Full of Hipsters), This Is My Box, Awkward Conversations with Animals I've Fucked, Jack Kerouac's Rules for Spontaneous Prose, Destroyer of Worlds and Josipa Draisma is Jean Claude Van Damme. The synopsis for (Melbourne Fringe Festival and Green Room Award winner) Tim Spencer's Sweet Sweet Merch reads simply, "Shock hot super cool amazing unbelievable award winning prizes escalation fireworks blow by blow action responsive titivating nudity live girls progressive mind bending altering adulterating celebrity scandal high quality mindfulness organic all natural beatific excellence quality service customer care highlights moisturising elevating prosthetic cyborg money back guarantee*". What more could you ask for? But there's a lot of substance to these dishes. With acts pulled together by festival director and regular indie theatre conduit Phil Spencer, Bondi Feast is a showcase of the east coast's best fringe or up-and-coming performers and writers. "Bondi Feast 2014 is packed full of action with guided meditations, dance classes, open auditions, 24 hour playwright parties, scratch nights, hot soup and bags of new works,” says Spencer. Included on the bill is Eddie Sharp (Erotic Fan Fiction), Genevieve Fricker (TV's The Roast), Vanessa Bates (Every Second), Jessica Bellamy (Shabbat Dinner), Caleb Lewis (Death in Bownegabbie), Daniel Townes and Hannah Malarski (Bushpig). For the duration of the fest, the Bondi Pav will kitted out as a North American roadside diner, featuring designer Gemma O'Nions' "bespoke truckie cab shrines". A different food truck or local business takes over the kitchen each night (in previous years that's included the Bucket List, Veggie Patch, Misschu, Bondi Harvest and the Beach Burrito Co), while Batlow's hot spiced apple cider provides the support you need to step out onto that blustery balcony with the killer beach views.
Taking over Kogarah's Belgrave Street from Friday, June 27–Sunday, June 29, the Uncontained Arts Festival returns to South Sydney with another massive program. Now entering its fifth edition, expect a sprawling open-air gallery featuring three days of immersive installations, interactive art, live music, delicious food and more. Free to attend, this family-friendly event has become a popular creative showcase in recent years, attracting over 25,000 people ready to get absorbed by a series of bold creative experiences. Think silent discos, live mural-making, neon paint life-drawing and an LED tunnel — each more kaleidoscopic than the last. "I encourage everyone to visit Kogarah during Uncontained for some free winter fun," says Georges River Council Mayor Elise Borg. "Since our first festival in 2021, Uncontained has grown to become a landmark event in our community." While much of the program is yet to be revealed, a handful of sneak peeks are bound to excite. Artists Samuel Kim and Lawrence Liang will present their ANINA installation — a vibrant zen cat inspired by Tibetan Buddhism that responds to nearby sound, movement and rhythm. Meanwhile, Anastasia Parmson's I Drew a Line and Called it Home invites guests into an intimate space consisting entirely of three-dimensional black-and-white drawings. Alongside drawing workshops powered by UV lights and vinyl DJ soundtracks, the program also features tasty bites and brews, like Drippin Desserts' crispy doughnut fries and the Mediterranean street-food flavours of Teta's Pitas. Plus, on the opening night, the bar will be adorned with an impressive Uncontained ice sculpture. Don't worry, there's plenty of heating and seating so you can still cosy up on a cool evening. "It is more than just a festival — it's a vibrant celebration of artistic expression, imagination, and connection," Borg describes. "With something for everyone, it invites people of all ages and backgrounds to explore, create, and be inspired together." Uncontained Arts Festival runs from Friday, June 27–Sunday, June 29 at Kogarah Town Square, Belgrave Street, Kogarah. Head to the website for more information.
It's been 13 years since Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio decided to fill a Melbourne alleyway with tunes in 2005. Thankfully, Laneway Festival has just confirmed it will be heading back to its collection of unconventional venues for another year, revealing it's 2018 dates and first two headliners. Returning to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle, Auckland and Singapore next January and February, Laneway will raise a plastic cup to the middle of summer with what looks to be one heck of a lineup. Following on from the announcement of two of 2018's headliners — California's inimitable Anderson .Paak with his live band The Free Nationals, and Canada's Mac DeMarco — the festival has dropped the full lineup. On it is a slew of exclusive sets, which will see you get down to BABADNOTGOOD, Odesza, The Internet, and sway along to The War on Drugs and Father John Misty. The full lineup was initially slated to be announced tomorrow, but has been brought forward after it was leaked online this morning. Visa pre-sale tickets go on-sale this Thursday, September 14 and the rest of the tickets going on sale at 9am on September 18. But, enough chit-chat — here's the full 2018 lineup. LANEWAY 2018 LINEUP Aldous Harding Alex Cameron Amy Shark Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals BABADNOTGOOD (exclusive to Laneway) Billie Eilish Bonobo (exclusive to Laneway) Cable Ties City Calm Down Dream Wife Father John Misty KLLO** Loyle Carner Mac DeMarco Miss Blanks Moses Sumney ODESZA (exclusive to Laneway) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (Sandy) Alex G Shame Slowdive Sylvan Esso The Babe Rainbow The Internet (exclusive to Laneway) The War On Drugs TOKiMONSTA Wolf Alice (exclusive to Laneway) Image: Andy Fraser.
Will and Garrett Huxley, Melbourne-based performance and visual artists, are showcasing their new absurdist digital work The Asset at the Oxford House hotel in Paddington until February 16. Every evening, just after the sun goes down, the Oxford House team will play the short surreal video full of colour and glitter down by the pool. [caption id="attachment_880970" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ladies of Absinthe, The Huxleys[/caption] The film includes the Huxleys swimming about in bright, sparkling costumes — basically having a whole lot of fun underwater as they bring total absurdism into our lives. And let's be honest, with the world as it is now, we could all do with some of this. [caption id="attachment_880968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fantastic Party, The Huxleys[/caption] Coming to prominence with works in Mona and Dark Mofo in the early 2010s, The Huxleys have spent the past 15 years making art — with their works being displayed at major galleries in London, Berlin, Moscow and Hong Kong. [caption id="attachment_880969" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Golden Years, The Huxleys[/caption] Head down to Oxford House after dark to catch Will and Garrett Huxley's latest work, The Asset, which plays every night until February 16. Find more info on the website. Top image: Under Pressure by The Huxleys
For a country surrounded by stunning coastlines, Australia hasn't been pulling its weight in the beach club department. Sure, we have waterside bars, but truly relaxing on the sand with a beer in your hand isn't something you can do legally in most of the country. The Gold Coast toyed with the idea, but it didn't come to fruition. And when Fremantle's Bathers Beach House opened up, it scored the nation's first liquor license for alfresco beach dining and drinking. The Gold Coast also played around with the beach club concept — aka European-style lounging, sipping and relaxing by the shore — however Adelaide has beaten it to the punch. If you're down South Australia way from mid-January, make a beeline to the beachside hotspot of Glenelg, and specifically the new Moseley Beach Club. An extension of the existing Moseley Bar & Kitchen, the club will boast eight premium sunbeds and 48 sun lounges on the Glenelg foreshore, which will be available for eager beachgoers seven days a week. Unsurprisingly, you'll need to book ahead to nab a comfy berth — but, once you're there, you'll also find a bar and casual dining area, with the entire space catering for a total of 350 people. The Moseley will also offer live acoustic music on weeknights and DJs on weekends. If you're wondering why the SA venue was able to achieve something nowhere else in the country has, it's simple: tourism. The local council, the City of Holdfast Bay, is acting upon independent research that found visitors would come to Glenelg more often if there was a licensed pop-up bar on the beach. For now, the Moseley Beach Club will run for 75 days until April, opening from noon to 9pm from Monday to Thursday, noon until 11pm on Fridays, 10am to 11pm on Saturdays and 10am to either 9pm on 11pm (if the next day is a public holiday) on Sundays. Entry is free before 5pm and $5 afterwards, while catching some rays on a lounge will set you back $50, which is redeemable on food and beverages and includes a free beach towel hire. Premium sunbeds are $100.
For a moment, inside Cadence, I feel I’ve landed in Call of Duty, one of those teenage, first-person shooter games. Then I’m inside a type of war-themed dancehall, then a Yun-Fat Chow movie of black ops and modern warfare. Camouflaged soldiers from Australia, the US and Afghanistan are ripping and bending across desert and tarmac. Every move leaves an imprint, which tracks itself symmetrically across the screen to form thick and fast tribal medallions. This new four-panel video work is Cadence by Baden Pailthorpe, the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. He’s a different kind of war artist, concerned less with conflict and experience of war than its aesthetics and technology. Pailthorpe stamps out the gritty brashness of battle, replacing it with a subtle meditative quality and a super coolness: war in saturated HD, video art at its most stylish. Wherever I am, this is a weirdly sexy and bloodless war game. I’m not sure what that says politically, but it’s a seductive piece of media. This is the art of now — glossy and sleek with an undercurrent of zooming ADHD action. You can get a sense from this vimeo preview that Pailthorpe’s work is design meets simulated gaming meets contemporary video art. "Cadence" is the perfect name. Dance rhythms replace gunfire and a steady-pulsing kinetic energy make it all softly hypnotic, and slowly addictive. Cadence shows new media art is, at its best, as conceptually developed and skillfully executed as traditional disciplines. What you can’t get from the online preview is a sense of the lush, Twin Peaks-ish soundtrack. Beautifully crafted and elegantly choreographed, Cadence’s video-art cousin could be Daniel Crooks' Static No.12 (remember it from the 17th Biennale of Sydney?), just as appropriately subtitled “seek stillness in movement”. The military body in action has never seemed so lovely.
Despite the rapid change we experience in our cities, there are some things that stay the same. And just like clockwork, Melbourne has been named the world's most liveable city in the world The Economic Intelligence Unit's Liveability Index ranks 140 cities on stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, culture and environment. This marks Melbourne's seventh consecutive year at the top of the charts, and the Victorian Government could barely contain its glee. "Melbourne pipped Vienna for the top ranking, and finished well above Sydney, which did not make the top ten," read the incredibly smug press release issued by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' office earlier today. "This is a win for all Victorians, who contribute so much to making Melbourne the best place to live in the world," said Andrews. "Every Melburnian knows that they're living in the world's greatest city – and this proves it yet again," added Tourism and Major Events Minister John Eren. Rounding out the top five were Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, which tied with Adelaide in fifth place. Sydney came in at number 11 — which, for what it's worth Melbourne, is only just outside the top ten.
In Time offers up one of the most fascinating and original movie premises in recent memory: It chronicles a future in which human beings no longer mature physically beyond the age of 25 years, their bodies forever frozen in time while their minds continue to develop. The promise of eternal youth, however, is far from assured, since the moment you come of age your life is governed by time, marked for death, as it were, by a glowing, neon-green countdown tattooed onto your forearm. Time has, quite literally, become the new currency of this future: it's earned, spent, stolen, donated or — for the lucky few — inherited. Those with bountiful stores effectively become immortal, while the poor simply hope to survive from one day to the next. If you're thinking it all sounds like a brutally inequitable system ripe for an Occupy Time Street kind of uprising, then you've cleverly spotted the subtle message director Andrew Niccol has attempted to slam into your brain with a sledgehammer. As far as Niccol's concerned: the financial system (sorry, time system) is unfair and in need of an overhaul. The majority of people, let's call them 'the 99%', have next to nothing, while the wealthy have more than they could ever need. It's all so cruel and unnecessary. Somebody really should do something — isn't that right, actor Justin Timberlake? Arise our hero: factory worker and all-round nice guy Will Salas (Timberlake). When fate drops a century of time into his otherwise empty hands, Salas seizes upon the opportunity to escape the desperation of the ghettos and live the high life amongst the time-wealthy elite of New Greenwich — an exclusive district separated by numerous 'time zones' for which the toll to cross is more time than the poor could ever afford. Once there he quickly catches the eye of epoch-heiress Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) and all seems well until 'Timekeeper' police officers (led by Cillian Murphy) spoil the show and take Salas into custody under the misapprehension he stole the time that was gifted him. From that moment forth In Time feels like one long, extended chase sequence separated by awkward flirting as Will and Sylvia embark upon a Bonnie and Clyde-meets-Robin Hood crime spree to redistribute the wealth to the people. The heavy-handed nature of both plot and script comes as a huge surprise to fans of Niccol, whose previous works, like Gattaca and S1mOne, were subtle and captivating philosophical musings on the increasing role science plays in our lives. Perhaps most frustrating of all is the manner by which In Time consistently glosses over or even entirely ignores the more fascinating elements of the world it's created. Who discovered the means by which humans could cheat death? Why was everyone subjected to it and why on Earth did they think neon-green digits glowing unceasingly in our arms would be anything short of maddening? The film, of course, is not without its redeeming features. The concept alone makes it almost worthwhile, and Niccol teases us with some wonderfully poignant moments, compelling characters and unsettling abstractions. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw
When four Frenchmen came to Australia for the beautiful weather and friendly people, they missed their daily fill of French-style mouth-watering crepes and galettes, so they decided to make their own. Four Frogs Creperie plates up authentic savoury galettes made with buckwheat flour and topped with ham and cheese or garlicky snails, and sweet crepes that range from traditional butter, sugar and lemon to the Grand Marnier crepe, which is set on fire before being delivered straight to your table. You can eat in at the licensed cafe, and the staff loves to celebrate a birthday with messages written in Nutella.
The Beach Road Hotel's annual celebration of guitar licks and skateboard tricks is back in Bondi for a third year. Punters will let loose over the king's birthday long weekend as The Beachy plays host to a stacked lineup of free live music performances, street-style skating comps and punk-powered parties. A mix of top breakout acts and emerging talent will be revving up the crowd over the fest, including indie five-piece The Terrys, on Thursday, June 6, and triple j Unearthed artists Crocodylus alongside punk-rock outfit Total Tommy on Friday, June 7. There will also be sets by local artists including psych-rockers Lahgo, Dead Routes, Tallulah and Chambers. Throughout the weekend, skaters will be showing off their skills on The Beachy's custom-built skate ramp. Bondi's own Concrete Skate Supply will helm the activities on Saturday, June 8, hosting board-decorating and learn-to-skate sessions for curious newcomers in the morning. Later in the day, seasoned skaters will test their mettle on the halfpipe during the over-18s street skate trick comp and ramp jam. With $2500 worth of prize money up for grabs, as well as a heap of giveaways, the competition will rage into the evening as skate talent from across the country battle it out to be crowned the Concrete Beach Champion for 2024. On Sunday, June 9, the festival closes out with an homage to two of the OGs of the skate-punk genre: Green Day and blink-182. Expect local tribute bands performing covers of the 90s anthems that inspired a generation of skaters — and some seriously gnarly mosh pits.
On the fairly unassuming Hallenstein Street in picturesque Queenstown sits one of the most luxurious new offerings in New Zealand's hotel portfolio, offering a personalised accommodation experience worth travelling for. The Carlin is the brainchild of US-born hotelier Kevin Carlin, a property developer with a special connection to the region after buying up large swaths of land here decades ago in a move he says people claimed was "nuts". But unlike other hotels in the area, his newest venture and namesake does not sit on the crowded shores of Lake Wakatipu. Instead, it's found quietly up Queenstown Hill and therefore boasts jaw-dropping views of the lake and CBD. For those after a luxurious hotel experience, The Carlin is fairly unmatched. If you're looking for a typical five-star experience look elsewhere – this hotel modelled on the luxury hotels of Europe offers a range of spacious suites with 88 to 500 square metres of indoor and outdoor living space, and boasts a ''beyond five-star' experience. The "beyond five-star" features include (but are not limited to) private butlers, private chefs, private massage, a separate private entrance and access to a private jet and luxury vehicles — you can take a Bentley for a quick shopping sojourn into town and save your legs from the hike back up the hill afterwards. While most hotel balconies are an afterthought, that's not the case here – instead, your outdoor space has been maximised to make the most of those views. You'll find a spa, a fireplace and a full-sized dining table for entertaining. Want to host a dinner party? Your suite has a fully stocked kitchen — although you'll probably want to leave cooking preparations to your private chef. Our experience: Our arrival at the Carlin for a recent stay was marked by an extensive tour by the man himself. While clutching our welcome cocktails (dirty gin martini for me, spaced rum old-fashioned for my partner) we were taken around the various one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom suits – including a peek at the penthouse. More resembling a full-scale apartment, The Carlin Skyhome is the largest penthouse suite in Australasia. It has seven bedrooms spanning three floors, and a separate quiet entrance "for when Tom Cruise comes to stay", according to Carlin. If you want to book in hoping to spot celebs or royalty you'll probably be out of luck as discretion is the name of the game here. The hotel only accommodates a maximum of 50 guests at one time and can even be booked out by single groups – Carlin told us he has a family taking over the whole hotel for a week in December. Once you've settled into your suite and noticed the unique touches luxuriously appointed in gold and marble, showered with the Molten Brown toiletries and tried out the wildly exciting modes on the toilet (turn it into a heated bidet if you're so inclined), it's time to head downstairs for dinner. Oro (meaning 'gold' in Italian and Spanish) is the hotel's single restaurant, and hospitality brains will notice the clever separate hot and cold pass system designed by Kevin Carlin himself. This eatery offers a further elevated experience and one not reserved solely for hotel guests – you'll spot a mix of Queenstown locals taking the opportunity for a special occasion meal. The menu has a local lean, making the most of suppliers from the region. Standouts include the grilled ora king salmon, South Island venison, line-caught seafood and lamb rack from Royalburn Station — a name that will stand out for fans of Nadia Lim's television series Nadia's Farm. We opted for steaks, and upon learning my partner was a scotch man, the wonderfully attentive front of house brought out various examples on offer on a board so he could choose the most appealing cut. It's that attention to detail that most stands out at the Carlin — nothing is a bother. And while you're drinking, dining and chatting you'll realise the tinkling piano playing while you dine isn't a Spotify playlist, but the work of the hotel owner himself, taking a quick 10 minutes to entertain guests with a virtuoso performance in the corner. Attention to detail, indeed.
There are many ways that you can show love for your pet pooch, especially in these extremely dog-friendly times. Want to take Fido to a music festival? Head to a pub with Coco? Let Rex loose at a Halloween party for canines? Yes, you can do just that — and have your four-legged bestie's cute face plastered across your swimmers, too, because the list really does go on. Only one adorable pupper can get immortalised in Lego, however. We're not talking about just sticking a few bricks together at home, either. Inspired by International Dog Day, Melbourne's Legoland Discovery Centre will build a life-size replica of one lucky doggo. The celebratory date was actually this past Monday, but the competition runs until 11.59pm on Friday, September 2o. If you're already clearing a spot for your new Lego addition to the family — and wondering how your fluffball will react to their own likeness — you'll need to submit a photo of your pooch on the Legoland Discovery Centre's Facebook page, specifically to its competition post. You'll also need to explain why your dachshund or dalmatian should get the Lego treatment, which shouldn't be hard. Serve up the best answer, and a master builder (yes, that's a real thing) will recreate your dog with in tiny plastic bricks. While the contest terms and conditions don't require entrants to live in Melbourne, the winner will be unveiled there in November — and you'll need to head by in person to pick up your prize. You'll also need to like the Legoland Discovery Centre's Facebook page to enter, and include your pet's name, age, breed and one crazy fact about them with your submission. If your canine can walk on its hind legs or bark to a tune, don't keep that detail to yourself. To enter the Lego Dog Competition, visit the Legoland Discovery Centre Facebook page before 11.59pm on Friday, September 2o.
If you’re a Grand Designs fanatic, you'll know all about the Surry Hills Small House. Back in Season One, the impossibly compact yet beautifully designed dwelling was an audience hit. And now, it could be yours. On October 18, the Small House is going under the hammer. The only catch — the starting price is a cheeky $1.875 million. Back in 2010, architect Domenic Alvaro and partner Sue bought a non-descript carpark, squashed between an industrial building and a classic Sydney terrace on Belmore Lane. Unable to expand outwards, they decided to go up. The Small House is a rectangular prism, six metres wide, seven metres long and five storeys high. Inspired by architects from Tokyo, the structure incorporates three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as living, kitchen and dining areas, a lock-up garage and a rooftop garden. An internal staircase allows plenty of natural light to stream in. In 2011, the Small House was named World House of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona. ''Perhaps this is where Sydney needs to go,'' Alvaro told the SMH in 2009. ''As this city becomes less affordable to live in and more crowded, we have to start thinking about better ways of using space that allow people to have a reasonable quality of life and still have something to live in.'' If the price tag puts the Small House out of your reach, enjoy this pint-sized bunch of more affordable yet inspired teeny-tiny homes. Via Daily Telegraph.
Throughout October, Greece is the word in Australian cinemas. That's right, Hellenic-loving cinephiles — it's Greek Film Festival time. Now in its 24th year, the annual showcase of the European country's film output is set to do the rounds once again, highlighting the best contemporary efforts being made across the Aegean Sea. Accordingly, prepare for the kind of backdrops that'll make you want to book your next holiday, probing insights into the nation's migration situation, and for a few strange and wonderful confusions — they don't call their current spate of movies "the Greek Weird Wave" for nothing, after all. If you're after more, prepare for a snapshot of not only features and documentaries being made in Greece, but a showcase of talent and tales that have spread around the world. To help you whittle down your viewing list, we've picked five must-sees from this year's lineup. https://vimeo.com/192731022#at=0 DOGS OF DEMOCRACY Anything cats can do, dogs can do too, right? If you've ever had both feline and canine four-legged BFFs, you'll know that the latter frequently wants to follow in the former's footsteps. In Dogs of Democracy, that's just what's happening — as anyone who saw and fell in love with Turkish cat doco Kedi will recognise. This time around, it's playful pooches on the streets of Athens that are in the spotlight, in an effort by Greek-Australian philosopher and filmmaker Mary Zournazi. What can the city's strays teach us about tumultuous everyday life? You'd be barking mad not to watch and find out. Dogs of Democracy screens in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=CQFdGfwChtw THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER Ever the master of exposing humanity's true nature in unexpected, unnerving and bleakly amusing ways, and of serving up clinical visuals and a commanding tone in the process, Yorgos Lanthimos is up to his usual tricks in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Of course, where the Dogtooth, Alps and The Lobster writer/director is concerned, there's no such thing as usual. Here, in his second successive feature to star a career-best Colin Farrell, he steps inside the struggles of a doctor whose family is forced to cross paths with the son of one of his patients. Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and Dunkirk's Barry Keoghan round out the cast — the latter in an astonishing performance — as Lanthimos serves up a savagely accurate exploration of self-interest, sacrifice and the horrors of everyday life. The Killing of a Sacred Deer screens in Sydney and Melbourne. https://vimeo.com/211444789 ROZA OF SMYRNA There's a reason that filmmakers keep coming back to Romeo and Juliet, or R+J-like stories. Conflict, love, tragedy, heartbreak — even if real life often has a happier ending, the Bard's story of a star-crossed but ill-fated romance captures its ups and downs. Add Roza of Smyrna to the pile following in its footsteps, in a Greco-Turkish tale that blends its amorous affairs with a portrait of relations between the two country. Greek veteran Leda Protopsalti stars as the titular character, a formidable family matriarch whose youthful exploits drive the movie. Roza of Smyrna screens in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=goJzKqpAdEk AMERIKA SQUARE After making a splash in Chevalier, Greek actor Makis Papadimitriou stars in Amerika Square — and gets immersed in a different kind of battle. Here, he's playing a Greek nationalist in a country still tussling with immigration and refugees, and his character has strong feelings about it. An African singer looking to escape with her tattoo artist boyfriend and a Syrian doctor trying to leave with his daughter also form part of the film's narrative. Exploring the current state of the nation, the powerful drama is Greece's submission for the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars. Amerika Square screens in Sydney and Melbourne. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L98Lc1F7UtA KISSING? Mumblecore, the American low-budget indie movement that gave us Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg, Mark Duplass and more, is going Greek. You won't find any of them in Kissing?, sorry, but you will find a raw, candid effort about the ordinary existence of almost thirtysomethings trying to get by. Yes, Danny (Thanassis Petropoulos) and Stella (Iro Bezou) are navigating the maze of life and love tahat you'd expect; however filmmaker Yannis Korres' feature is made all the more resonant due to his country's economic turmoil. Kissing? screens in Brisbane. The Greek Film Festival runs from October 10 to 22 at Palace Norton Street in Sydney, October 11 to 22 at Palace Como and The Astor Theatre in Melbourne, and October 12 to 15 at Palace Barracks in Brisbane. Head to the festival website for further details.
For Australian and Canadian artists, it's difficult to escape the influence of isolation — along with the sense of natural abundance that comes from being part of a tiny population inhabiting a massive land area. Both Ben Frost, who was born here but now lives in Reykjavík, and Canadian Tim Hecker, whose calls Montreal home, create electronic music of epic proportions and striking contrasts. Where Frost combines classical minimalism with punk and metal, Hecker explores the crossroads of dissonance, melody and noise. Their getting together may well produce earthquakes. Ben Frost and Tim Hecker is one of our top ten picks of the Sydney Festival. Check out our other favourite events over here.
It might sound like some sort of lunar identity crisis, but the rare super blue blood moon proved a pretty spectacular addition to last night's skies. Stargazers across Australia had prime position to view the celestial phenomenon, which hasn't occurred anywhere in the world in over 35 years. The event combined the first total lunar eclipse since 2015, with a blue moon, or the second full moon of the calendar month. Clouds might have made for sketchy viewing in some parts of the country, though, as always, social media is chock full of impressive snaps from folks lucky enough to catch the astronomical treat. Here are some of the best shots of 2018's blue blood moon from around the planet. A post shared by Ken Perkes Photography (@perkesken) on Jan 31, 2018 at 11:44am PST A post shared by Jenny Herron (@jenniferherronn) on Jan 31, 2018 at 9:15am PST A post shared by Justin DeLand (@aperture_of_the_soul) on Jan 31, 2018 at 1:15pm PST A post shared by +15⚓🌴🍀🌊 (@cristian_perrone) on Jan 31, 2018 at 1:24pm PST A post shared by Jeff Morris (@itwasthelight) on Jan 31, 2018 at 8:33am PST A post shared by Landscapes-Astro-Cityscapes (@bay.photography) on Jan 31, 2018 at 9:58am PST A post shared by Senai Senna (@sennarelax) on Jan 31, 2018 at 1:13pm PST A post shared by Carlos Sanchez (@officialcarlossanchez) on Jan 31, 2018 at 7:14am PST A post shared by Maria Heni (@henimaria) on Jan 31, 2018 at 5:38am PST A post shared by @harsha_taurus on Jan 31, 2018 at 2:41pm PST
If your ideal night out involves mates, harbour views and maybe a cheeky game of darts between rounds of drinks, King Street Wharf has just welcomed back an old favourite — and it's bigger and brighter than ever. The Sporting Globe has officially reopened its doors following a slick new renovation, bringing even more screens, games and good times to the waterfront precinct. Now open seven days a week, the revamped venue now boasts more than 50 high-definition screens, two massive jumbotrons and two augmented reality Game On dart lanes with multiple game modes. It's all part of a full-venue refresh that blends classic pub energy with thoroughly modern amenities, including touchscreen TVs in the booths that ensure you don't miss a second of the action. Plus, the venue now boasts a late-night licence that'll see the action roll on until 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. While you can head to The Sporting Globe to catch every second of the NRL, AFL, EPL and NBA (among other codes) throughout the week, the venue isn't exclusively geared towards sports fans. It's part of a growing number of after-dark venues popping up throughout Sydney that give you a space to do more than just sink beers — whether you're ducking in for post-work happy hour, settling in for a long Saturday session, or even looking for a buzzing spot to soak up those impressive harbour views. With capacity for 700 punters and three separate bars across its two expansive levels, the space is primed for both big group hangs and casual drop-ins. So whether you're there to catch your team in action or just want to kick back with a beer in hand and a round of wings, you'll have plenty of room to spread out. The Sporting Globe King Street Wharf is part of a growing national stable of venues that go big on sports and community, with the brand supporting more than 250 grassroots sports clubs Australia-wide. With this polished new fit-out, the venue is looking to claim the title of one of Sydney's top spots for laidback hangs, big game nights and everything in between. "The Sporting Globe King Street Wharf has always been a fan favourite," says CEO of Signature Hospitality Group, James Sinclair. "We're thrilled to welcome Sydneysiders and visitors back to enjoy world-class sport in a world-class location." The Sporting Globe King Street Wharf is now open at King Street Wharf, 22 The Promenade, Sydney. It's open 11am–10pm Sunday–Wednesday, 11–12am Thursday and 11–3am Friday–Saturday. For more info, head to the venue's website.
The Freshwater Butcher's free-range beef and lamb is grass-fed with no grains, hormones or chemicals. Pork comes from an ethical farm located just outside of Ulladulla on the South Coast, while organic chickens are also from free-to-roam farms. In winter, you'll find golden-crusted, house-baked, family-sized pies, and the butchers also stocks essentials like bread and milk. It also does regular specials, be it a French-style pork fillet roast stuffed with cranberries and chestnuts, wrapped in bacon with prunes on top, or a rolled lamb loin packed with a fig and pistachio stuffing. No time to pop into the butcher? Locals can also make use of the free home delivery service. [caption id="attachment_776628" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Leigh Griffiths[/caption]
Still sad because you missed The Avalanches much hyped comeback show at Splendour? Well, start saving your pennies because they're back for the Falls Music & Arts Festival. They're just one of the artists on the 2016 lineup, alongside Childish Gambino, London Grammar, Grouplove, Broods, Jamie T, Parquet Courts and heaps, heaps more. As always, Falls will be heading to Byron Bay for three nights over New Year's Eve. The NSW festival will run simultaneously with legs in Marion Bay and Lorne. Falls will also be setting up shop in Fremantle for the first time with Falls Downtown, a two-day city festival slated to take place over the weekend of January 7-8. Anyway, this is what you're after — here's the full lineup. FALLS FESTIVAL 2016 LINEUP Childish Gambino (No Sideshows) London Grammar (No Sideshows) The Avalanches Violent Soho Matt Corby Alison Wonderland* Catfish and the Bottlemen* Fat Freddy's Drop* Ta-ku The Rubens* The Jezabels Ball Park Music Grouplove Bernard Fanning* Jamie T Broods Tkay Maidza Grandmaster Flash Illy MØ Hot Dub Time Machine DMA's AlunaGeorge Booka Shade Client Liaison Vallis Alps Parquet Courts City Calm Down LDRU* Modern Baseball Tired Lion* Remi* RY X Marlon Williams* Lemaitre Shura *Not Playing Fremantle
Imogen Heap is embarking upon her inaugural Australian tour in promotion of her latest offering, Ellipse. Released last year, four years after the Grammy Award–nominated Speak for Yourself, the new album is a self-produced collection of dreamy and bittersweet odes. Without ever straying too far from the characteristic electronic-minimalist formula she has built her career upon, the synthetic universe of Ellipse inspires comparisons to contemporaries Sarah McLachlan, French chanteuse Camille, and even a more pop-tinged Laurie Anderson. The former voice of Frou Frou, Imogen Heap's public exposure has gone into overdrive in recent years thanks to contributions to the soundtracks of The OC, The Chronicles of Narnia films, Heroes, Six Feet Under, as well as an array of US late night talk show appearances, and Ellipse is proving to be her most successfully charting release to date. Tickets for the second show are on sale now. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yXj0dF7LAyE
If you've never indulged in a deep-fried feast, $10 pub meal or messy night at The Abercrombie but wish you had, procrastinate no longer. You have precisely one week to do so before the pub calls last drinks (ever!) on Thursday, January 9. The imminent closure was made public just before Christmas, with manager Dane Gorrel citing the Central Park Development as the cause. “We’re shutting down due to the development going ahead around Central Park,” he told Pulse Radio. “They’re going to be building a big commercial shopping mall around and above us.” As you’d expect, the farewell party is no shy affair. Six nights of entertainment have been announced. A music fest is promised for Saturday, January 4, with Thomas Bullock, Cos Mes, Chida and others. Sunday, of course, will see the final Abercrombie incarnation of cult dance party S.A.S.H. The organisers have expressed sadness at leaving their “home” but have promised to take up residence elsewhere: “Abercrombie may soon be gone, but S.A.S.H. will never die,” a Facebook post reads. “Keep your eyes and ears peeled as we’ll be announcing S.A.S.H. new home (sic) very soon!” The beginning of the week will take the form of a multi-evening Last Supper, with $10 steaks from 6pm on Monday, $10 schnitzels on Tuesday and $3 tacos on Wednesday. Finally, Thursday, January 9, will be the last day of trading, with 'One Last Party' on the program, headlined by DJ Koze. For updates and more information, visit The Abercrombie’s Facebook page.
Think your old rusty bicycles belong in the dumpster? Think again. Yes, that old bike can indeed be reincarnated if it falls in the right hands. Carolina Fontoura Alzaga's hands to be exact. Alzaga transforms bicycle chains into beautifully rustic looking chandeliers. Her passion is repurposing castoff materials, and she does it well. Since medieval times, chandeliers have been used as elaborate decorations associated with wealth and power. Alzaga shatters this concept with her warm and elegant designs. Using aspects of her cultural past from Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S., she is able to create unique and appealing artwork. She aims to combine the idea of discarded and forgotten items with the power and influence associated with chandeliers. Using her creativity and visions of a healthier planet, she gives 'trash' a second chance. Below is a video that describes Alzaga's mission to preserve our world. You can order your own chandelier here. Alzaga handcrafts each one upon order. Take a look at these pieces from her ongoing series titled CONNECT.
When IT floated onto the big screen in 2017, inspiring plenty of coulrophobia in the process, it only told half of the story. Adapting Stephen King's bestseller into a film, the horror hit jumped back to 1988–89, visited the author's usual setting of Derry, Maine, and followed a group of teenagers who came face to face with their worst clown-filled nightmares. But, as fans of the book or the 1990 TV series know, that's literally just the beginning. Cue IT: Chapter Two, another excuse to unleash the white-faced, flame-haired Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) upon the world, rustle up more than a few creepy scares and make a mint at the box office, all by charting the novel's other timeline. Set 27 years later — because that's how often the sadistic, shapeshifting demon pops up — it revisits the kids known as the Losers Club. They're all grown up, with Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader leading the cast, but they're not done with red balloon-wielding evil just yet. Or, to be more accurate, Pennywise isn't done with them. If you're already afraid of clowns, IT: Chapter Two clearly won't be for you. If you'd like to discover just what it takes to make you tremble at the sight of circus performers, this sequel will definitely help. So will its just-released first trailer, which introduces the adult gang, reminds everyone not to chase toy sailboats into storm drains and — of course — lets its sinister villain do his worst again. Original director Andy Muschietti (Mama) is back at the helm, so expect a hefty dose of unnervingly effective and all-round unsettling horror imagery once more. And, while this eagerly anticipated follow-up has plenty of star power, the first flick's Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard and company all return as the younger versions of the Losers Club as well. Take a peek at the first trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUopiAYdRg IT: Chapter Two releases in Australian cinemas on September 5, 2019.
Among the latest list of temporarily shuttered venues to drop a revamped online offering for the sanity of us isolated locals, are the Museums Victoria stable of cultural institutions: Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum and Scienceworks. The three sites can now be experienced from any screen, whenever you fancy, thanks to newly launched virtual programming Museums at Home. Museums Victoria's digital channels will now play host to a suite of videos, live streams, online events and other experiences, to keep you connected and indulging that curiosity while cooped up at home. You can take a virtual tour of Melbourne Museum, hitting exhibitions like Phar Lap: A True Legend, Dinosaur Walk, and brain-focused collection The Mind, seeing and learning plenty along the way. There'll be regular Q&A videos with the museum experts, too, where you can jump online and ask your own burning question about something that's got you stumped. Meanwhile, Scienceworks' new online offering is sure to inspire a few at-home scientists, packed with virtual tours of its own exhibitions, research videos and links to loads of fascinating science stories. You can journey to Pluto with NASA's Alice Bowman and watch a hilarious video of 'things you shouldn't put in a microwave'. Don't try and recreate at home, folks. And the Immigration Museum will have you embracing Victoria's multicultural roots, exploring personal stories and historic photos on a virtual tour of the current exhibitions. Identity: yours, mine, ours questions what it means to belong in Australia, while video footage captures award-winning First Nations artist and choreographer Amrita Hepi taking over the Immigration Museum's Long Room for a special performance last year. Or, you take a peek at much of the Museum's extensive Migration and Cultural Diversity collection, while reading up about the colourful history of migration in Australia. Check out the full Museums at Home offering at the website and each of the museums' social channels. Top image: Scienceworks, 'Beyond Perception' exhibition courtesy of Museums Victoria. Photo by Benjamin Heally.
Sydneysiders can get a closeup look at the world's largest animals this summer at the Australian Museum. Its latest exhibition, Whales | Tohorā, lets you walk through a life-sized heart of the blue whale, explore the 18-metre skeleton of a bull sperm whale and examine other whale bones — the most extensive collection of whale skeletons ever displayed, apparently — be serenaded by whale song and watch live ocean footage — all created using the latest research on whales. The interactive exhibition was created by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and will be on display until April 28, open from 9.30am–5pm daily. The installation specifically honours the whale's cultural and historical significance within the South Pacific Islander communities, with stories and traditions of the Māori People highlighted throughout the exhibition. Image: Humpback whales by Jeremy Cresswell.
Eco-warrior Joost Bakker (Greenhouse by Joost, Brothl) is at it again, acting as creative consultant for what may become the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Teaming up with Frasers Property Australia, Bakker will design a 2000-square-metre rooftop farm and restaurant at the heart of the new Burwood Brickworks development — set to begin construction in mid 2018, just 15 kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD. The rooftop's massive agricultural hub will sit within the complex's 12,700-square-metres of retail and hospitality space, with the urban farm split between greenhouse, external planter box and landscaped growing areas. Some of the sustainable elements Bakker plans to implement include a closed-loop water system, composting capability, and minimal transportation of food and waste. It has yet to be decided which restaurateur will run the space, with Frasers currently seeking expression of interest from established food and drink providores. The rooftop is already sounding like an inner-city gem and we are eager to see which tenant takes this massive project on. "There is such a hunger for this kind of development throughout the world," says Bakker. It really fills a gap in the market to feed and nurture conscious consumers... [that] want to shop, eat and relax in environments that truly support a sustainable world." The design of the wider mixed-use development will also focus on sustainability, using a large solar PV system and an embedded electricity network to target a minimum five-star green rating, with the aim of becoming Australia's first six-star Green Star Design — and to achieve Living Building Challenge accreditation. This accreditation is seriously hard to obtain and means the building must have a net zero carbon footprint, produce more electricity than it consumes, grow agriculture on 20 percent of the site, and prove net water and waste positive. It must also be constructed using non-toxic and recycled materials, and have other social benefits like access to natural daylight and indoor air quality. Once completed in October 2019, the Burwood Brickworks development will join the challenge to determine if they meet the criteria to be considered the world's most sustainable shopping centre. Here's hoping Frasers puts their money where their mouth is.
When it comes to staying cool this summer, forget the aircon — you've gotta make a splash. Sydney is a swimmer's paradise so, with a bit of planning and the right know-how, you can stay refreshed and rejuvenated. In partnership with M.A.C Cosmetics, we've pulled together this hit list of swimming holes, pools, beaches and natural water wonders that'll keep you busy. On the next sweltering day, all you have to do is grab your swimming essentials (including M.A.C Fix+) and make tracks to one of these stunning spots for a dip. The cult hydrating face mist will not only keep your skin refreshed and hydrated on the way there, but it'll help your makeup stay in place while you splash about — so you can go straight from the beach to the bar, if you so wish. Some of the swimming spots on this list are not patrolled by lifeguards. To ensure you stay safe, head here for tips on water safety.
Sydneysiders need no longer hypothesise about taking all their cans to South Australia, you'll be able to nab a tiny return right here. In a new initiative by the City of Sydney (modelled on successful overseas ventures), a series of vending machines will reward recyclers for throwing in their empty plastic bottles or cans. Sure, the rewards might be food truck vouchers. But it's something. Still in the trial stages, the machines are ready for feeding on Dixon Street Mall, Haymarket and Alfred St and Circular Quay. These chomping vendors can hold up to 2000 bottles and cans each before reaching capacity. Feeding one of the machines isn't rewarding recyclers in cash money yet, instead you'll nab little freebies — two-for-one food truck vouchers, ten cent donations to charity or entry into the draw for New Year's Eve Dawes Point tickets. A prevalent and well-established project in the U.S, Norway and Germany, these 'reverse vending machines' have been proven to achieve colossal recycling rates — South Australia's rose up to 90 percent (double the rate of NSW). City of Sydney reported that 15,000 bottles and cans are currently chucked into landfill every minute Australia-wide. That's a crapload of Coke cans. Contrary to our smug, uppity recycling faces, just over 40 percent of bottles and cans are recycled annually in NSW. People are still throwing their Mount Franklins in with their banana peels. "In 2013 beverage containers and their associated rubbish made up 41 per cent of the total rubbish and 59 per cent of the top ten rubbish items reported by volunteers in NSW," said Clean-Up Australia founder and chairman, Ian Kiernan AO. "This is a serious problem. We need better ways to capture these containers, turning them from rubbish into a resource. The cleanest and most accessible solution we have seen is the reverse vending model." While we're not sure if a few raffle tickets will be enough incentive for Sydneysiders to recycle their Passiona cans, it's certainly a start. Recycle your cans in the Sydney CBD on Dixon Street Mall, Haymarket and Alfred St and Circular Quay.
Things just got a whole lot easier for cyclists. At long last, you can now carry your two-wheelers on peak hour trains and long-haul flights without enraging fellow commuters, paying excess baggage fees and (most importantly) compromising on dimensions. A 30-year-old Italian designer by the name of Gianluca Sada has come up with a bicycle that folds down to the size of an umbrella yet boasts full-size 26-inch hubless, spokeless wheels. So, not only does it go faster than your average foldable, it’s also more stable. And it looks significantly sexier. Sada has been cooking up the eponymous bike for six years. He registered the patent on March 5, 2010 and by December 2011 had developed an aluminum alloy prototype with the help of precision engineering company Palmec SNC. Right now, he’s looking for investors. "The project may pave the way for a new system of mobility outside the classical schemes, widely accessible and easily transportable," he says. "Personal style and extreme versatility give dynamism to the traditional bicycle... increasingly required in this environmentally friendly age." Sada studied at the Politecnico di Torino, completing a degree in Automotive Engineering in 2010. His thesis, which focused on the development of the foldable bicycle, was awarded First Prize in IDEA-TO’s “most innovative thesis of 2010”, conducted by the Order of Engineers of Turin. In November 2010, Italian Minister for Youth, Giorgia Meloni, listed Sada among the "200 Top Talents of Italy". Via Gizmag.
Go buy a 3D printer right now, and show us what you can invent. Every industry is getting cooler thanks to this democratising technology, which is in the process of bringing us 3D-printed organs, 3D-printed cities, and 3D-printed sex toys (including a vibrator modelled on Justin Bieber's head). And what can it do for broken bones? One Victoria University of Wellington graduate has cleverly used 3D printing to reinvent the clunky, sweaty arm cast we all had to wear in primary school after a violent game of handball. Called the 'Cortex', Jake Evill's invention is breathable, eco-friendly and washable. Its polyamide can also be reused. Unlike the oh-so-analogue plaster casts of yore, the Cortex's structure has the potential to be digitally tailored to the injury. Computer software can receive x-rays and measurements of the limb, and via an algorithm, the printer produces (within a slightly lengthy 3 hours) a lightweight cast which protects and supports in all the right places. And excitingly, it can be worn under a long-sleeve shirt. While some would mourn the hallowed tradition of messy cast graffiti, it's our surmise that 3D printing culture will quickly come up with an upgrade for that, too. Via Gizmodo. Image from http://jakevilldesign.dunked.com.
Pho Pasteur in Parramatta isn't just a Vietnamese restaurant. It's the realisation of a dream. Owners Mr and Mrs Pham fled their native Tay Ninh province to Australia in the 1970s, as refugees of the Vietnam War, and after working tirelessly to save up some money, they opened this old-school eatery in 1992. Their hope? To share the recipes of their home province with their newfound neighbourhood. They chose Parramatta for its central location and multicultural population, and they haven't looked back since. And foodies throughout Sydney are grateful for their hard work and determination. First off, we recommend you arrive at Pho Pasteur hungry for the dishes are mighty generous. And fair warning, you'll struggle to go past the beef pho, a heartwarming noodle soup containing the works — rare beef, brisket, meatballs, tendon and tripe. There are options to add carrots, potatoes or seafood as well. Other soups include a wonton short soup and a spicy laksa with chicken, beef or seafood. Noodle dishes include grilled pork chops with dry noodles in a sweet and savoury sauce or crispy chicken with egg noodles. There are vermicelli salad bowls too, include wok tossed beef with lemongrass or grilled pork with spring rolls. For vegetarians there are a whole two pages of menu to pick from, but the vegetarian hot pot with tofu and steamed rice or the mock duck salad are especially delicious. Options abound here. If you're up for sharing, order a bunch of dishes and feast on some of the best Vietnamese food in the city. But it's not just about the food. Pho Pasteur's drinks list is fun and traditional, with highlights including the extra sweet Vietnamese style coffee with condescend milk as well as a homemade lemonade. For dessert, try the deep-fried banana fritters with berry vanilla ice cream. We highly recommend saving room for this bad boy. Images: Kitti Gould.
Three world-renowned artists. Two galleries. One big summer of art — and one city bursting with things to see. When Sydney International Art Series returns for 2023–24, it'll do so with a trio of blockbuster Australian-exclusive exhibitions showcasing some of the biggest names to ever unleash their creative talents: Wassily Kandinsky, Louise Bourgeois and Tacita Dean. The newly revamped Art Gallery of NSW will host both Kandinsky and Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day?, both from November 2023. The former will offer a comprehensive overview of the Moscow-born artist's career and work, as drawn from the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation's holdings. And the latter will be the first monographic exhibition to be presented in the Art Gallery's new SANAA-designed building, complete with more than 150 works, marking the largest survey of Bourgeois' work ever displayed in Australia. [caption id="attachment_889026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912, oil on canvas, 112.6 × 162.5 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By Gift 37.239. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.[/caption] Fans of Kandinsky's abstract art can look forward to a thorough examination of the European modernist's experimental, influential style, including tracking his beginnings in Munich in the early 1900s, his time back in Moscow during World War I, his role as an instructor at Germany's famed Bauhaus school, and his late years in Paris. The exhibition comes to SIAS after running at the Guggenheim Museum New York as Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle in 2021–2022, and will be paired with British medium Georgiana Houghton's 19th-century spirit paintings for its Sydney stint. The Bourgeois showcase will display 13 years after the Paris-born artist passed away in New York in 2010, and after she stamped her imprint upon the art of the 20th century. Visitors to Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day? will see her Personage sculptures from the 1940s, textile works of the 1990s and 2000s, and plenty in-between, with the exhibition playing up the duelling themes and ideas in her work by taking over AGNSW's major exhibition gallery and 'the Tank'. This exhibition is a collaboration with The Easton Foundation in New York, too, and ranks among the most extensive exhibitions dedicated to a female artist that Australia has ever seen. [caption id="attachment_889027" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Louise Bourgeois, The destruction of the father 1974-2017, archival polyurethane, resin, wood, fabric and red light, 237.8 x 362.3 x 248.6 cm. Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland. Photo: Ron Amstutz. © The Easton Foundation.[/caption] Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and equally impressive, exciting and a must-see, is a three-month focus on Berlin- and Los Angeles-based UK artist Tacita Dean that's the largest in-depth presentation of her work in the southern hemisphere. Spanning film, photos, installations, drawings, prints, collages and sounds, and highlighting the poetic vision lingering in her works, this showcase will go heavy on new art from the past five years — all pondering memory, history, time and chance. In the process, it'll display pieces that've never been exhibited in Australia, from recent films through to chalkboard drawings and collaborations with The Royal Ballet. SIAS' three big exhibitions are expected to bring around 28,000 people to Sydney to see them, New South Wales Minister for the Arts and Tourism Ben Franklin announced in a statement. "Securing these extraordinary, world-renowned artists for the Sydney International Art Series reaffirms Sydney as Australia's cultural capital and a global hub for the arts, where art and creativity are celebrated and nurtured." [caption id="attachment_889029" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tacita Dean, Paradise (still), 2021, 35mm colour anamorphic film, with music, Paradiso by Thomas Adès. Image courtesy the artist; Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery New York/Paris, © the artist.[/caption] 2023 is shaping up to be a huge year for art lovers Australia-wide, also including a world-first pop art exhibition on the Gold Coast featuring works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring; a separate Warhol exhibition in Adelaide that's all about his photography; a showcase dedicated to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican modernism, also in the South Australian capital; Brisbane's upcoming fairy tales exhibition; the currently displaying Alexander McQueen showcase in Melbourne; and the Victorian capital's world-premiere ode to women in film history. [caption id="attachment_889024" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wassily Kandinsky, Landscape with rain, January 1913, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 78.4 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.962. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.[/caption] SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES 2023–24: Saturday, November 4, 2023– Sunday, March 10, 2024 — Kandinsky at AGNSW Saturday, November 25, 2023–Sunday, April 28, 2024 — Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day? at AGNSW Friday, December 8, 2023—Sunday, March 3, 2024 — Tacita Dean at MCA Sydney International Art Series runs from November 2023 — head to the AGNSW and MCA websites for further details. Top image: excerpt from Wassily Kandinsky, Landscape with rain, January 1913, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 78.4 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.962. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Looking for one-of-a-kind and original gifts this festive season? You're in luck. Inner west art and design store Hypmotive are pulling together a bunch of local businesses for a makers market just in time for Christmas. Popping up at Marrickville Metro between Saturday, December 11 and Sunday, December 12, the Marrickville Makers Market will arrive just in time for you to get all your gift shopping done without the manic rush of a Christmas Eve trip to Kmart. There will be 20 different creative businesses setting up stalls at the markets selling everything from screen-printed tea towels to handmade ceramics and Christmas decorations. Nab posters and zines from Amy Blue Illustrations, artworks from Helen Nehill and native plant souvenirs from Outer Island. The market is free and will be open 9am–5.30pm on Saturday and 10am–4pm on the Sunday.
A big-time game deserves a big-time stage — and for the Australian women's cricket team, it doesn't get much bigger than facing the might of India under the lights of the SCG. The growing rivalry between these two powerhouses is one of modern cricket's most thrilling storylines, with both sides playing at the top of their game right now. While Australia has long dominated the women's game, India has emerged as its fiercest challenger. From the 2020 T20 World Cup final — when more than 86,000 fans packed the MCG to watch Australia lift its fifth trophy — to India's maiden ODI World Cup triumph in November, which saw them knock out the top-ranked Aussies along the way, encounters between the two sides have become must-watch cricket. With India now boasting a new generation of match-winners and Australia fielding a lineup stacked with experience and homegrown stars, the stage is set for another unmissable chapter in this ongoing saga. Expect electric energy and world-class talent as Alyssa Healy and her side look to reclaim bragging rights over the Women in Blue in front of a full-voiced home crowd in a primetime slot.
Writing a prescient tale is the science-fiction holy grail, and a feat that Philip K Dick firmly achieved. Making a movie that becomes the prevailing vision of what the future might look like in the entire world's minds? That's a stunning filmmaking feat, and one that Ridley Scott notched up as well. The reason for both? On the page, 1968's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. In cinemas, 1982's Blade Runner. And if you need reminding of how stunning a story that the iconic sci-fi author penned, or how spectacular a film that the legendary director then turned it into, look no further than Blade Runner's return to the big screen — with a live score. When Dick pondered the difference between humans and artificial intelligence more than half a century back, he peered forward with revelatory foresight. When Scott followed fresh from Alien, he did the same. Now, with the clash between the organic and the digital a daily part of our lives in this ChatGPT-heavy reality, of course it's time for Blade Runner to flicker again. Film lovers, get ready for another dream movie-and-music pairing. Get ready for synths, too. Vangelis' stunning score will echo as Scott's feature screens in at Sydney's Aware Super Theatre on Saturday, February 3, 2024 for Blade Runner Live — an event that premiered in London in 2019, made its way around the UK, then hit Japan earlier in 2023. This session will screen the Final Cut version of the movie. Wondering how it differs from the OG release, and also the House of Gucci, The Last Duel and Napoleon filmmaker's Director's Cut? First unveiled in 2007 for the feature's 25th anniversary, it's the only version that Scott truly had full artistic control over. Blade Runner's narrative, if you're new to the franchise — which also includes exceptional 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 and recent animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus, with a new Blade Runner TV series also on the way — focuses on the one and only Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) as cop Rick Deckard. His task: finding replicants, aka androids, which turns into quite the existential journey. It's almost impossible to name a movie or TV series in sci-fi that's popped up over the four decades since Blade Runner first arrived that hasn't owed Scott's film a massive debt — and any synthesiser-fuelled score that hasn't done the same with Vangelis.
Lorde is back. After five years away from music, the New Zealand pop sensation returned in 2021 with third studio album Solar Power. And, if you've been hanging out to hear it live, her delayed tour is finally heading our way in March. The Solar Power World Tour was meant to hit in 2022, but was postponed due to New Zealand's COVID-19 situation and border rules at the time. When it makes its way to Sydney's Aware Super Theatre on Monday, March 13–Tuesday, March 14, fans will still be in for a treat, of course — and three albums worth of Lorde tunes. [caption id="attachment_816623" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Come Up Show[/caption] On the Solar Power tour, expect to have plenty of company belting out all the words to 'Ribs' and 'Green Light'. The last time that Australia was treated to Lorde's live set was her headline set at Splendour in the Grass 2018, a full-circle moment for the singer as she returned to the stage of one of her first ever performances as a last-minute replacement for Frank Ocean back in 2013. A year prior, in 2017, Lorde also toured some of Australia's largest and most iconic outdoor venues including the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. Top image: Liliane Callegari via Wikimedia Commons.
Wilding isn't about the butterfly effect; however, those insects do indeed flap their wings in this thoughtful documentary, and the world changes as a result. In 2009, a high-pressure weather system brought a mass migration of painted lady butterflies from north Africa to Europe, and to Britain, in their millions. One of their destinations: Knepp, the 400-year-old West Sussex estate that Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell call home, and that's been in the latter's family for generations. The 3500-acre property had a creeping thistle problem, threatening not only the land but the couple's way of managing it via rewilding, and also their reputations. Enter tens of thousands of painted ladies, which did the trick through no intervention by Tree and Burrell at all. The butterflies laid their eggs on the creeping thistle, then the hatched caterpillars ate away the leaves, with just the plant's shredded stems remaining. At the turn of the 21st century, battling a £1.5-million debt on their farm, Tree and Burrell made a bold move: to stop toiling on the land and instead let nature reclaim the Knepp grounds whoever it saw fit. Refraining from acting and leaving the earth to its wildlife — plants and animals alike — shouldn't be such a radical idea, but it is now and definitely was then. Wilding works through how the pair's "don't just do something, stand there" philosophy has paid off well beyond their wildest dreams or most-ambitious expectations. The film, Tree's book that it's based on and the rewilding project at Knepp overall are each a testament to the power of nature to rebound; to endurance and perseverance; and to finding a way, including by stepping back and allowing the earth to function as it has long before humans walked upon it. The painted lady butterflies and their role in helping to ensure that Tree and Burrell's plans for a new rewilded landscape at Knepp — an initiative that had already garnered backlash before the threat of creeping thistle — didn't crumble comprise just one of the success stories charted in this inspirational documentary. Storks breeding in Britain again for the first time in 600 years, aiding turtle dove conservation efforts, bringing beavers back to the wild in Sussex after 400 years: they're among the others. A five-time Emmy-winner for National Geographic Explorer, Living with Bugs, Nature and The Serengeti Rules, director David Allen is responsible for chronicling Knepp's transformation here. His efforts have paid off, with the film becoming the highest-grossing UK documentary of 2024. "I can't watch it, seeing my huge face pontificating on the screen. It's very much outside my comfort zone," Tree tells Concrete Playground. "But they did a lovely job, particularly of the footage, I think — the wildlife footage." Tree is Wilding's on-screen guide, as she references — but this is a documentary that devotes as many of its frames to roving through the outcome of her and Burrell's life-changing decision as possible. To venture backwards, it also weaves in recreations with actors (such as Call the Midwife's Rhiannon Neads as Tree), where nature again remains the main star. The movie was made in lockdown and, equally from that period, Tree has penned the ultimate companion piece for those who watch along and want to do the same on whatever patch of earth they have: The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small. "We have this incredible mailbag from people who've come to Knepp, as you say, and they don't have thousands or hundreds of acres, but they're so motivated and excited to do something on their own. And so we have questions: 'can I rewild my garden, my window box, my churchyard, my orchard, the verges around my street?'. And of course you can," she tells us. [caption id="attachment_1006056" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Olivier Hess[/caption] "This book really has all that advice. It's about how you can think differently with the rewilding mindset in whatever patch of earth you have influence over. So it's going into your garden and thinking like a beaver when you're building a pond. It's thinking about a grazing pony when you're when cutting your rose bushes — thinking in terms of a free-roaming animal. And it's not less work in your garden. It's probably just as much work, but it is incredibly freeing if you think about the natural processes in the wider landscape and how can you relate them to your smaller space. 'How can you allow dead wood and piles of leaves? How can you create a garden that has perhaps got drier parts to it?'. I mean, we've dumped 400 tonnes of crushed brick and concrete onto our lawn and created these mounds and bumps, because nothing in nature is flat." "Just changing the topography of your garden can create all these little microclimates that benefit different plants. The variety, the mosaic of habitats, is what's important," Tree continues. "When you buy a bird box for your garden — lots of lovely nature-friendly gardeners will buy a bird box. Why are you buying a bird box? Shouldn't there be the habitat for them already in your garden? Because that habitat will also be providing insects and berries and the thing they want to eat, as well as protection from predators. So it's thinking about how you can use nature to provide for nature, for wildlife, in your garden. And get messy. Let's forget the leaf blower and the lawn mower, and use them as sparingly as possible." "We can have wonderful spaces for ourselves, of course, in our gardens. We want to have dinner out there. We want our children to play ball games. But just think about nature, too, and how we could share that space." Viewing Wilding, which opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 22, 2025, means marvelling at what Tree and Burrell have achieved, then often wanting to follow in their footsteps and take Tree's advice. It means seeing how the duo started by letting old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs do what they're driven to — and being well-aware of what a risk they were taking by turning their backs on the estate's farming heritage — then witnessing how, yes, nature is healing. Why is Tree and Burrell's approach considered so revolutionary? How much determination, fortitude and perseverance does it take to actively do nothing? How have some naysayers changed their minds about Knepp Wildland over the years? We discussed this terrain with Tree as well, alongside the pandemic's influence on reshaping how humans feel about nature and other topics, such as which of the project's triumphs means the most to her. On Why Humanity Has Become So Resistant to the Idea of Not Doing Anything and Instead Letting Nature Take Its Course "So that's such an interesting question, and I'm battling with it at the moment. I'm writing a book about the return of our white storks. I think it goes back to Plato, actually. It goes back to the ancient Greeks, that moment when we began to divide ourselves as human beings from nature. We saw nature as something that needed to be controlled, to be won over — that our soul and our intellect, our brains, were separate from nature. We were separate from all other living things. And when you look around the world at native peoples, even today, people who — communities, civilisations that have lived for thousands and thousands of years, successfully and sustainably, they never disassociate themselves from nature. Some cultures, there's no pronoun for the self because you are so much part of the living world. And so I think it all began, the rot began then, with the ancient Greeks — and I'm a classicist, so it's taken me a very long time to say that. But I think this mania with control and tidying up also was just exacerbated with science, and how we approach science as a completely different discipline. How we separate zoology from botany, as if plants and animals just don't coexist. It's the way we think in the western mind. And then, of course, we have the industrial revolution, which gives us fantastic machines that men in particular, may I say, love to use — like chainsaws and mowers and anything with an engine that can just get rid of nature as quickly as possible. So we became fantastically obsessive about tidying up, and that has been nature's downfall, I think — is our disassociation and our mania with tidiness. As well as agriculture, but I'm just thinking about our own personal space." On the Determination, Fortitude, Ambition and Perseverance That It Takes to Actively Commit to Doing Nothing "It's very difficult because it's a shift in mindset, I think, and we've got so many cultural prejudices about what we consider to be responsible or even beautiful. We're often nostalgically tied to these very controlled landscapes because we grew up with them as we were children. We have them in picture books as that's what nature looks like. And so to let go of all that is very, very difficult. And I think that's what we found here at Knepp, is that once we embarked on this experiment and it got very messy and very untidy very quickly, it was a challenge to us. I remember seeing a tree right in our sightline outside the windows that was dying — a huge oak tree that had just succumbed to the amount of chemicals that had been flowing down into that corner of the field over all the years that we've been intensively farming, and it just gave up the ghost. And we watched this tree die, and my husband was saying 'oh god, I know we've committed to not doing anything, but that is right in our sightline. Perhaps we could make an exception?'. And we decided we wouldn't. And that tree largely changed the way we thought, because living with it and watching it die slowly, and actually seeing the life that had attracted — the sparrowhawks that started nesting in it, the whole community of short-tailed voles that were living in its exposed roots, the fox that used to sit there waiting for the rabbits to come by, the perching places for herons — there was life and death. And suddenly we saw the point. That is fantastic habitat. And we learned to love it as a thing of life and beauty. And that skeletal thing became something we thought of as beautiful. So I think it's about changing your aesthetic, and that is a very tricky thing to do. But we had, in the early days, a letter from a woman who was furious and wrote us a kind of 'yours sincerely' disgusted tirade saying 'what you've done to your farmland is an abomination. You've turned something beautiful into a riot of ragwort and thistles. It's hideous. It's depressing'. And about five years ago, she wrote us another letter saying 'I walk at Knepp every week and I have to apologise for that letter I wrote to you back in the day. I now realise that Knepp is beautiful. It's just beautiful in a different way'." On How Knepp Has Changed Perceptions — and Whether Past Naysayers Reassessing Their Thoughts Is Common "Totally, because I think we're so unused to seeing this landscape. When people walk through it, it looks more like the African bush or even the Australian outback. It's scrubby, it's messy, there's animal tracks through it, and people think 'my god, this is just like Africa'. No, it's not. It's like Britain used to be. We just haven't got it anymore. And so, you quite often take someone on safari and they go 'aaah'. Or you take them into our rewilded garden and they kind of brace themselves. And slowly, they begin to relax into it. It's something that I think you have to feel through the heart. You can't just read about it or learn about it in a school classroom — you have to be out there in it and feel that birdsong vibrating in your lungs, literally echoing in your in your guts. And the surprise of turning a corner and finding a beaver or some piglets, then you suddenly have that 'aha!' moment. So that's the power, I think, of having places like Knepp, is that people actually come here and that transformation in their heads begins from their hearts." On If This Response — the Attention, the Books That Tree Has Written About Knepp and Now the UK's Highest-Grossing Documentary of 2024 — Was Ever Expected "Absolutely no idea. We couldn't believe it. We did something because we were forced to do it financially, because the farm was essentially bankrupt. It was one-and-a-half million pounds in debt. We were getting ourselves out of a terrible financial situation. We were doing the wrong thing on our land. And turning it over to nature appealed to us because we felt we could do it — and it would be a wonderful experiment to do. Both Charlie and I love nature. We travelled the ends of the earth to find wildlife, ironically, and never wondered why we didn't have it in our own backyard. So doing something for nature felt incredibly positive. We had no idea that it would — we thought 'if we could increase biodiversity just a little, if we could get just a little wildlife back on our land that had been chemically soaked for decades and decades, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?'. We never thought that we could have nightingales, turtle doves, purple emperor butterfly, some of the most endangered, critically endangered species in Britain, breeding here at Knepp, and increasing every year. We never expected the abundance of life. It's interesting because it's shifted the shifting baseline in the opposite direction. Ecologists come here and they now are really ambitious, more ambitious, for the kind of life they should be having in their nature reserves — if they just got a bit wilder and perhaps used free-roaming animals, and used some of the ideas of rewilding in their own space. Because you simply can't believe you could fit any more life in here, and yet it still comes. So I think we've been amazed. We've been certainly amazed by the attention, which we're not naturally sort of extrovert, table-thumping bandstanders. And so that's been a surprise. But we do feel passionate about communicating this message of hope, because the joy that it's given us. And the thrill of seeing how it galvanises and excites other people, who then go off and do their own amazing thing — we just can't stop. So we've become those kind of people, I suppose." On Whether the Urge to Connect with Nature Post-Lockdown Gives Wilding and Tree's Experiences a Greater Sense of Timeliness Since — and If People Are Having a Stronger Response as a Result "I think absolutely, definitely. I would even say it was a little bit before COVID, funnily enough. I think my book came out in the UK, Wilding, in 2018. And I always felt that if I'd written it six years earlier — I was busy with another book that was taking me far, far, far much longer than I thought, and I was longing to get to this book about Knepp, but I had to wait to finish the other one. Luckily, because I waited an extra six years, not only did that mean that we even more results and even more proof — we've always been very careful about the science, so we had the proof here that we have this amazing biodiversity uplift. But it also, I think, chimed with stuff that was happening at the time. Greta Thunberg was suddenly bursting onto the scene. We had Extinction Rebellion in the UK. David Attenborough was finally coming out and saying 'this is a massive problem'. His films were getting more radical. We had the plastics problem suddenly hitting the headlines. Suddenly it felt like the zeitgeist, that people were feeling eco-anxiety properly for the first time and not trusting governments to change, to take that worry seriously. And so I think that's why the book did well. And then I think that the film was actually filmed during lockdown, and so I think those audiences were definitely feeling that need for nature in a totally different way. We know how being in nature, now we really appreciate — the first thing we did when lockdown was released was find a patch of nature anywhere. And not just a kind of billiard-table lawn in the middle of a city, we needed something heaving with life that was going to connect us to our living selves again. And so I think definitely that appreciation has helped. Our busy daily lives take over, of course, and we forget. But I think that the reminder is: when we can, ourselves, do something. And if we can remind people that your garden, your window box, could be wilder. We can all rewild. And that is the most-powerful way not only to help the planet even in a tiny way — you can feel part of this movement — but it is also very reassuring and comforting to oneself to be able to plant a particular plant and attract a butterfly. It's magic." On Whether Tree Had Any Specific Aims for Wilding as a Documentary "I think we were really in the hands of Dave Allen, the director, who's wonderful and a friend. And so we trusted him. I have no idea how to make a film and what the arc needs to be, but he was amazing how closely he followed the book. I was really impressed and grateful for that. All we did know — we had so many film companies approach us to make a film about Knepp, and none of them, to our minds, apart from Passion Pictures, took the nature transformation seriously. They wanted it to be about us or about I don't know what, but they weren't interested really in the science. And what I so love about the film is how you see under the soil with the mycorrhizal fungi, that universe. You see the huge migration of painted lady butterflies. And bringing that to life, I think, is so wonderful because I think visuals can show a story in much shorter — it's shorthand, really, for what I was writing. And it's very, very powerful, I think. And when you can actually see on the screen the transformation of our land from farmland to this heaving exuberance of life, that's, I think, where the power is in film. So I always hoped it could do that, but I was absolutely amazed by how brilliantly Dave and Passion Pictures were able to do it." On the Highlights That Stand Out From Tree's Knepp Journey Over the Past Quarter Century "I think always that the bird that I find most moving is the turtle dove, because when I was growing up in the 1960s, we had 250,000 turtle doves in Britain — and we've lost them largely because of intensive agriculture. And also dirty water, we have polluted water everywhere now, and they need clean water. So now we have just a few thousand left in the southeast of England, and they are predicted to go extinct in the next decade or so by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. And so the fact that we have turtle doves here and you can still hear them — they are still increasing in numbers every year. We probably have about between 20 and 30 singing males every year. And on a lovely summer's evening, like tonight when I go out for a walk, if I'm lucky I will hear that gentle 'turr turr' that Shakespeare listened to and wrote about, that Chaucer wrote about. And it's a bittersweet sound, because it's such a melancholic sound and it's so soothing at the same time, and reassuring, and I don't know if we've done enough quick enough to turn around the fortunes of the turtle dove. Knepp might be the last place where you ever hear it in Britain. But, we have extended its stay and I'm forever grateful that my children have heard a turtle dove." Wilding released in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
Breathe in real deep — can you smell that? It's the unmistakable, shimmering scent of joy, pride and an inevitable hangover (but that's a problem for future you). That's right; it's Mardi Gras time. It's absolutely essential to attend the official Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade at least once in your lifetime, but if you've been there and done that, you might be looking to experience Mardi Gras in a totally different way. Or maybe you just need a nice party vibe to bookend your night, with some parade viewing in the middle. So, here's a list of bars, pubs and clubs in close proximity to Oxford Street that are having special Mardi Gras events that you can hit up before, during and after Sydney's most fabulous procession. [caption id="attachment_679716" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Katje Ford.[/caption] STONEWALL HOTEL Stonewall is an institution, no doubt about it, and on Mardi Gras night, this prestigious reputation is on display tenfold. There'll be drag hosts, dancing shirtless men, DJs over three floors and dancing till very, very late. The parade will be going right past the establishment. But, they'll have camera people roaming Oxford Street to stream the parade on screens around the venue, so you can keep dancing while being totally on top of what's happening outside. The Gold Class event is already sold out, but keep an eye on its Facebook event for people who double-booked themselves selling tickets at the last minute. Entry: $30 175 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst [caption id="attachment_652495" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitti Gould.[/caption] THE OXFORD HOTEL The benefit of the vibrant Oxford Hotel is its incredible location on Taylor Square, right at the point where the floats turn down Flinders Street. They're streaming a live feed of the parade from a camera that they've installed on the roof, so no matter if you're close to a window or not, you'll have a prime possie to see it all. Tickets to the event are $155, and you get a drink on arrival, plus canapés will be roaming about if you're peckish. If you're keen to kick on, there's also a ticketed afterparty from 11pm, where DJ Ray Isaac will be playing the only thing you want to dance to on Mardi Gras: the iconic pop divas. Entry: $155 134 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst GREEN PARK HOTEL If you'd prefer to put a few strides between you and the parade crowds, there's no better choice than the beloved LGBTQIA+ establishment, the Green Park. The party kicks off late-afternoon with DJs Dave, Acraig and Roski on the decks until 2am — so it's also a perfect joint to bookend your night. Have a tipple (or ten) before heading around the corner to see the floats turn down Flinders, then come back to dance into the wee hours. Best of all, the Greeny is free entry, so you can save your dollars for the boozy beverages fuelling your all-night dancing. Entry: free 360 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst UNIVERSAL SYDNEY Universal, is always, and will forever be, a whirlwind of fun on any given night, but it's promising to be a particularly wild experience this Mardi Gras. As well as offering a VIP experience to watch the parade with a not-to-be-missed view from 6–10pm, this cherished icon of a gay bar is also hosting some impressive musical acts for its post-parade party — Zoë Badwi, DJ Kate Monroe, DJ Alex Taylor, Beth Yen, James Alexandr and many more. Oh, and there'll be drag queens, dance acts, live art shows, fire performances and aerialists to boot. Plus, if you're the type to be in it for the long haul, this party doesn't end till 10am Sunday. Best to nab your tickets before the night of, because it means you'll get to jump the dreaded queue. Entry: $70 general entry; $140 VIP parade viewing 85–91 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst THE BERESFORD Visiting the icon that is The Bero during Mardi Gras is a must — its famous recovery parties in the laneway between Bourke and Flinders streets are almost as old as Mardi Gras itself. On the night, they're streaming the parade live in the airy courtyard, so you can watch all the colourful action while relaxing in comfort, drink in hand. Speaking of, there'll be a delightful watermelon-citrus Mardi Gras cocktail to sip — obviously titled the Yass Queen— with $2 from every one sold heading straight for Australia's longest-running HIV Charity, the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation. Entry: free 354 Bourke Street, Surry Hills THE TAPHOUSE The Taphouse is conveniently located at the end of Flinders Street, so if you've stationed yourself at the end of the parade route, it's just a hop, skip and jump to this fantastic craft beer and natural wine haven. Or if you'd prefer somewhere to sit while the crowds below you clamour to find milk crates to stand on, the parade is visible from every level. This includes its delightful rooftop, where Sundown DJs are spinning tunes from 12pm and bar staff are slinging rainbow cocktails all day and evening. Best of all, it's unticketed and zero dollars entry. Entry: free 122 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst [caption id="attachment_671514" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Letícia Almeida.[/caption] THE WINERY A few streets away from the action, you'll find The Winery. But don't be fooled into thinking you'll find peace and quiet — this energetic wine bar will be joining in on the Mardi Gras spirit with a live feed of the nearby parade in its lush courtyard. You'll feel like you're in the middle of it all, without the messy crowd-wrangling. Also on offer are $10 Aperol spritzes and a barbecue with chicken wings, prawn skewers, sliders, and a 'dress your own lettuce cup' station. There's no cover charge either — but we daresay tables will be snapped up quick. Entry: free 285A Crown Street, Surry Hills BURDEKIN HOTEL The Burdekin has the trump card of being the first venue on Oxford Street to be able to spot each float as it comes by, and they're taking full advantage of the fact. With several levels offering a range of different events and vibes, the Burdekin is a one-stop shop for all your Mardi Gras partying. In the main bar, you'll get your life dancing to party bangers; the dugout is techno of the 'filthy' variety; Viper offers emo tracks (just in case all the glitter is making you a little too happy); finally, the Mini Bar offers disco and house for your soul. On top of that (literally, top floor), a ticketed Bear Bar party is offering you second-to-none views of Sydney's best street party, and they're also showing the SBS broadcast of the parade on the big screen. Entry: $30 pre-sale or $35 at the door; $50 Bear Bar party 2 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst THE FORRESTERS If you simply cannot wait for the evening to begin (completely understandable), then start your Mardi Gras early at Sparklebutt Mardi Gras Costume Market, a special pop-up event at The Forresters. This buzzing Riley Street pub already offers great drinks and grub, but the pop-up means you'll also be able to get (eco)glittered and costumed up for Sydney's most vivacious event. Starting from midday, designers such as Sparklebutt, A Beautiful Weirdo Glitter Bar, Trash Vintage, Holosexual Wear and many more will be raring to get you Mardi Gras-ready, cocktails in hand all the while. Entry: free 336 Riley Street, Surry Hills THE FLINDERS HOTEL The renaissance period of The Flinders is well and truly underway, and the Mardi Gras offering will be another glittering example of it. This revamped pub has a very limited run of tickets for a small parade viewing party, but if you've missed out on that, they're holding a two-level banger of an afterparty, with Rotarydisco DJs keeping your Mardi Gras spirits high from 10pm till god-knows-when. Tickets are available at the door, if you've been indecisive with your plans. Entry: $100 private viewing party; $20 at the door for the afterparty 63 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst Looking for even more Mardi Gras events? Here are nine more ways to celebrate that aren't just watching the parade. Top image: Upstairs Beresford.
Remember when the Beast won Belle's heart with his impossibly beautiful personal library in Beauty and the Beast? How easy it is seduce a nerd. Now that animated library has a real-life rival in the spectacular Waanders in de Broeren, a converted 15th-century Dominican church in Zwolle, the Netherlands, that houses what must be one of the world's most gorgeous bookstores. Designed by architectural firm BK. Architecten, the development was carried out in exactly the right way. It was mandated that all the building's original features be preserved. This meant keeping the 547-year-old colossal pipe organ and huge stained glass windows just as they were. The firm took to the challenge with gusto: only three hues of building material were used, to reflect the pre-existing look of the church, and the three-level, 700-square metre retail space which frames its central nave is built so as to be easily removable in future, maintaining the church's essential structure beneath. The result is a distinctly light and airy bookstore, with shelves lining the walls and unobtrusive, contemporary stairways leading up to the upper reaches of the arches. If only all shopping venues could be so elegant. Sometimes opulent buildings are given over to unlikely retail tenants — for example New York's Chelsea has one of the most ridiculously fancy pharmacies ever, a CVS inside a grand old bank building on 8th Avenue. This makes buying condoms at 3am seem slightly more classy for locals. But books seem an extra worthy ware: picture yourself browsing in Waanders in de Broeren, imagination set aflame as soon as you enter the space with its lofty and ornately painted ceiling. There's also a wine bar and other shopping available, making this one of the loveliest spaces and best design ventures we've seen in ages — an attractive and respectful fusion of old and new. Via Colossal.
Scottish collective Camera Obscura make deliciously delicate whistful folk pop with notes of country and soul. Their 2006 album Lets Get Out Of This Country is the perfect recipe for a bad day; put it on your stereo and float away. The band have performed in Sydney a few times already, but seeing them outdoors under the shadows of the Hyde Park Barracks for Sydney Festival's Becks Festival Bar will be the perfect way to hear their music. With a beer in hand and the warm summer breeze on your back, you won't have a care in the world. Before the show, make sure you grab a copy of their new record My Maudlin Career and familiarise yourself with some of their new songs. It will make singing-a-long at the show (you know you'll want to) a whole lot easier. Special guest support is Slow Club (UK) and DJs Kate Jinx and Paul Gough https://youtube.com/watch?v=O3CkfvYMCWM
If you're in need of a few chuckles after the last couple of years, then Sydney has you covered across April and May. The Sydney Comedy Festival has a bumper edition on offer in 2022, delivering non-stop laughs from an impressive lineup of local and international comedic talent. From Monday, April 25–Sunday, May 22, venues across the city will play host to a program of side-splitting stand-up, improv, theatre, magic and more. Returning favourites include the always huge Sydney Comedy Festival Gala, which hits the State Theatre, Riverside Theatre, the Enmore Theatre and The Concourse to kick things off from Tuesday, April 26–Thursday, April 28. Whichever date and venue you choose, expect an outrageous night of on-stage antics from a star-studded cast of festival greats and emerging stars. Across the month-long fest, you'll also be able to catch solo shows from the likes of Mark Watson, Judith Lucy, Denise Scott, Aaron Chen, Natali Caro, Oliver Twist, Wil Anderson, David O'Doherty, Gabbi Bolt, Melanie Bracewell, Ross Noble, Rhys Nicholson, Nazeem Hussain and stacks more. Elsewhere, Two Queers Walk Into a Bar is holding its regular showcase of queer comedians hosted by Jenna Suffern and Brendan Hancock, with performances from AJ Lamarque, Marlena Dali and Lily Starr. Also, former Triple J hosts Matt Okine and KLP will be bringing their family-friendly musical group Diver City to The Comedy Store. And, that's where you'll also find Dragon Friends — the DND podcast featuring the likes of Alex Lee, Michael Hing and Ben Jenkins, with live music from Tom Cardy. Images: Ben Sanford
The latest cure for festival FOMO is here: for the first time ever, two of Glastonbury's headline performances are being livestreamed around the globe for everyone to watch. Won't be in the UK during the fest? Always wanted to see big names take to the event's famed Pyramid Stage? A fan of Dua Lipa and/or Coldplay? Thanks to the BBC, you're now in luck. When Coachella rolls around each year, it's not just an exciting time for folks fortunate enough to be on the ground in California, but for audiences worldwide via the fest's arrangement with YouTube. Glastonbury and the BBC might only be streaming two sets across the planet and not the majority of the British event, but it's still a welcome development. [caption id="attachment_926976" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Lee[/caption] Your destination: the BBC's Glastonbury website, where you can catch Dua Lipa's set on the morning of Saturday, June 29, then Coldplay's — before the Chris Martin-fronted group returns to Australia and New Zealand later in 2024 — on the morning of Sunday, June 30. Dua Lipa's stint in the high-profile slot also marks her first-ever time on the Pyramid Stage. As for Coldplay, they're headlining the fest for the fifth time, albeit in their first visit since 2016. [caption id="attachment_963580" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Raph_PH[/caption] "The Glastonbury Festival is an icon of British culture, and this livestream will give fans around the globe a front row seat to headline performances like never before. This is just the latest example of our focus on bringing more cultural-defining moments like Glastonbury to fans on our platforms outside the UK so users can experience the best of British culture wherever they may be," said BBC Studios' Chief Commercial Officer Tara Maitra, announcing the global livestreams. "From this exciting live music experience from two of the biggest names in music, to the BBC News channel livestream that is coming soon in Australia, our digital platforms offer immediate, unrestricted and tailored access for all audiences," added BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand General Manager Fiona Lang. Also on the Glastonbury 2024 bill across Wednesday, June 26–Sunday, June 30 UK time but not being beamed to the world, sadly: SZA, LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Cyndi Lauper, Janelle Monae, Shania Twain, Disclosure, The Streets, Camilla Cabello, Bloc Party, The National, Avril Lavigne, Jessie Ware, Sugababes, Jamie XX, Kim Gordon, James Blake, Sleafod Mods, Orbital, The Breeders, Peggy Gou, The Cat Empire, Eric Prydz and a whole heap more. Glastonbury 2024 Livestream: Saturday, June 29 — Dua Lipa, 7–8.45am AEST / 6.30–8.15am ACST / 5–6.45am AWST / 9–10.45am NZST Sunday, June 30 — Coldplay, 6.45–8.45am AEST / 6.15–8.15am ACST / 4.45–6.45am AWST / 8.45–19.45am NZST [caption id="attachment_963582" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Raph_PH[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926978" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Lee[/caption] Glastonbury's 2024 livestream will broadcast Dua Lipa's set globally on the morning of Saturday, June 29 Down Under, and Coldplay's show on the morning of Sunday, June 30 — head to the BBC's Glastonbury website to watch. Dua Lipa images: Raph_PH via Flickr.
The acquisition of good vintage clothing can be a difficult feat. Much like the metaphoric fog, sometimes you have to sort through a whole bunch of crap until you find something legit. Fortunately for us, the dudes behind Foe, Like The Enemy have trawled through Asia and the Americas to source the best vintage clothing they could get their hands on. Now you get to reap the spoils. From July 16, Foe, Like The Enemy will be holding a pop-up store in Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. For a limited time you can walk into a real-live shop and try on vintage clothes in an actual changeroom. If you're lucky, you might even get a mirror to yourself. But someone mentioned a party? With booze, beats and threads a-flowin'? Totally doable. The FLTE guys have plenty to celebrate, so they're launching the space tonight from 6:30pm with some some very special sets from two of Sydney's best beatlovers — electropop queen Catcall and smooth electronic Nicholas Jaar-like producer duo Phondupe. That's some serious Sydney talent behind the decks for a pop-up launch, we'll take it. To gear you up for tonight, the constantly-working Phondupe have created a brand new beats-laden minimix — just the thing to make your Wednesday that little bit more top notch. The London/Sydney-based duo crank dark, jittery trip-hop via Skype correspondence and online long distance production. After recording in NYC with New York native Justin Dean Thomas, the pair have released a killer EP by the name of Greenhouse. Specially created for the Foe, Like the Enemy launch, here's Phondupe's special minimix to wrap your ears around. Word to the wise, this some crispy shiiiiiiiiihhhhh. Launch night runs from 6.30pm, Wednesday 16 July. The pop-up shop is open Wednesday 16 - Saturday 19 July at Shop 1, 50-52 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. Words by Shannon Connellan and Natalie Freeland.
There's no denying that the United Kingdom has given the world a lot in the way of music. The nation is steeped in musical culture, from The Beatles to Bonobo; Oasis to One Direction; Elvis Costello to Elton John. It's given us The Spice Girls and 'Careless Whisper'. In short, its veins run thick with musical wealth — but there's more to it than just strolling through The Beatles museum in Liverpool. With the European summer just around the corner, we've been thinking about seminal musical experiences you can tick off your bucket list in the UK. And luckily, Contiki has launched a tour that covers exactly that. Dubbed Contiki Sounds, this ten-day journey includes stops in England's major cities — London, York, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool— and culminates in a VIP experience at long-running rock and pop extravaganza Reading Festival. This Aussie winter, pack your guitar (probably sacrificing some undies for space), head over the water to (somewhat) sunnier plains and prepare to pay homage to some legends. Tell your mum you love her and let her know you're off to find your inner John Lennon. ABBEY ROAD CROSSING, LONDON There's no getting around the Fab Four's reputation as paving the way for modern pop music and music fandom. Speaking of paving the way, the Abbey Road crossing in London's St John's Wood neighbourhood is certainly one of the enduring symbols of the band. The crosswalk is traipsed by countless fans of The Beatles daily in a bid to recreate the iconic Abbey Road album cover — undoubtedly frustrating traffic to no end. You can join the crowds and stroll your way across the road in tribute to the fallen members, John and George, and enduring larrikins Ringo and Paul. Sneak a peek at the current musical talent who might be ensconced inside the famous Abbey Road Studios across the way, where many of The Beatles' hits were recorded. [caption id="attachment_717739" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Image: David Dixon via Wikipedia Commons.[/caption] DENMARK STREET, LONDON Another London road worth a visit is Denmark Street. Traipsing this patch of pavement will have you walking in the boots of the ghosts of the London music scene founders. Somewhat of a musical mecca in the mid-20th century, the street is even referenced in a song of the same name by The Kinks. Here, many bands quintessential to the British music world either rehearsed or recorded, and David Bowie even lived on the street in a campervan. Bowie has passed but the street's resonance lives on. Today it's a hotspot for musical instrument sales and repairs, as well as being home to famous grungy livemusic venue Crobar. READING FESTIVAL, READING There's no greater musical experience than packing up a tent, dancing to live music in your gumboots with your best friends for a few days and coming back having had the time of your life. If you're seeking a definitive musical experience and are up for a good time, an all-in UK music festival is a must — and this is one of the best. Reading is the longest-running pop music festival in existence and serves up a jampacked lineup of pop, rock and alternative heavyweights each year in conjunction with its partner festival in Leeds. It also boasts a number of important moments in musical history, including Nirvana's first ever UK show and Arctic Monkey's launch into superstardom in 2005. And if you're going tick this musical mecca off your bucket list, you'll want to do it in style. If you hop on board the Contiki Sounds trip, the on-site crew will take care of all the logistics — from setting up your tent and mattress to making sure you've got brekkie every day — so you can concentrate on donning your boots and moshing in front of the main stage. [caption id="attachment_717914" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: travelmag.com via Flickr.[/caption] SALFORD LADS CLUB, MANCHESTER Made famous by the sleeve art of The Smiths 1986 album The Queen Is Dead, Salford Lads Club has been on the scene since 1903, when it was still a boys club. Over 100 years later, the club has had a whole fleet of musical legends as members (The Hollies also used to practise there). A decade or so ago saw some necessary refurbs, partly financed by Morrissey himself. These days, it's often used as a film and TV location for the likes of British series Coronation Street and hosts a variety of sports and talks geared towards young people. While that might sound like a far cry from The Smiths posing moodily outside, true fans need not fear — there's still an entire room dedicated to the band inside. The Salford Lads Club's musical pedigree is impossible not to acknowledge. [caption id="attachment_717753" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Image by Hens Zimmerman via Wiki Commons[/caption] CAVERN CLUB, LIVERPOOL A guide to the British music scene wouldn't be complete without Liverpool — the epicentre of a huge part of the UK's music roots. And yep, it's generally down to The Beatles. Every year thousands of people flock to the harbourside town, many wanting to explore The Beatles Story museum. The Cavern Club is equally as important and just as drenched in musical history. Step inside and take a deep breath — you'll be inhaling the atmosphere of years of musical history (along with beer). Still an important live music venue to the town, The Beatles made a name for themselves here, playing their first gig in 1961. Over the years, countless other British bands have followed suit, including The Wombats and The Rolling Stones. Pay your respects to this holy stage. Travel around the best spots in the UK with Contiki at Reading Festival. Unearth the UK's musical heritage, then experience an unforgettable party at one of the world's best and biggest music festivals. Contiki wants to take you there — all you have to do is choose from the 7- or 10-day trip. Plus, if you bring a mate, it'll give you both $200 off. Find out more here.
Public demand for multi-disciplinary, multi-media, multi-sensory, cross-genre events is insatiable right now and Carriageworks is about to take them to a whole new level. Introducing Birdfoxmonster, an epic, immersive dining experience combining food, theatre, music and art, created in collaboration with Erth and Studio A. You'll be sampling dishes inspired by the artists' passions and idiosyncrasies, served on Australian ceramics hand-painted by the artists, while watching video projections and interacting with masked performers. Studio A artists involved include Meagan Pelham, a hopeless romantic whose works are full of wedding cakes, bridal parties and wedding dresses, Thom Roberts, a skilled draftsman and creator of transformative installations, and Skye Saxon, a performance and visual artist who draws her ideas from dreams, memories and metaphysical worlds. Meanwhile, Erth's Scott Wright is taking care of direction, while composer James Brown is providing sound art and Elias Nohra digital art. "We have been working towards this point in our relationship with Studio A for the past five years," said Wright. "We have taken considerable time to find a non-physical space in which we could work together, where we could 'remove the expert'. Birdfoxmonster is a beautiful meeting of minds inviting the public to share the love, wonder and perspective of three incredible artists." Birdfoxmonster is part of Carriageworks' New Normal National Strategy and is one of ten new commissions from artists with disability. Birdfoxmonster is happening on key dates between September 21–30 at Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh. Tickets are $70+BF and available via Ticketmaster.
Show us a guy with a drum machine or a girl with a guitar who purports to never having wanted to be a rock star and we'll show you a liar-liar-pants-on-fire. Thankfully, you don't have to release a Pitchfork-approved debut album or sell out a stadium to live the life of a travelling troubadour. Boutique travel experts Mr & Mrs Smith, admittedly slightly more Elvis Costello and Diana Krall than Kurt and Courtney, have scoured the globe to find the greatest music-inspired and inspiring getaways. 1. Geejam Where: Lot 122 Skippers Boulevard, San San, Port Antonio, Jamaica If you've been planning to record your own Is This It or My Generation for some time now, you might want to check out the facilities at Geejam boutique hotel in Jamaica. Not simply a cluster of heavenly Caribbean villas and cabins blanketed by rainforest with ocean views, Geejam also has its own recording studio. Book Drum & Bass, a junior suite on the ground floor of the studio, and start strumming - or tinkling on the ivories at the piano overlooking the sea. If it's good enough for No Doubt and Gorillaz, it's good enough for you. 2. The Drake Where: 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada The bunk-ups are hip at Toronto budget-boutique hotel The Drake. A sock doll on your pillow may greet you on check-in, indie rock is on a loop on the flatscreen TV, and photographs of guitars and other gear hang on the walls. But it's the dining, drinking and entertainment up for grabs that will edify the party animal within. Start your evening with a cocktail at rooftop Sky Yard, follow it with steak frites in a banquette at the Dining Room, then head downstairs to the Underground, the hotel's basement club that's seen performances by everyone from the Killers to MIA. 3. Establishment Hotel Where: 5 Bridge Lane, Sydney, Australia An acquaintance of Mr & Mrs Smith once confessed to being tucked in to her huge bed at Establishment Hotel in Sydney, completely unaware that in one of the bars Jamiroquai's Jay Kay was DJing up a storm. Don't be caught napping when you check in to this multi-tasking pleasure palace. It's the premier destination for visiting rock royalty in the Harbour City. Who knows who you might be rubbing shoulders with, when Robbie Williams, Scissor Sisters and Outkast have all partied hard within its four walls. 4. Le Royal Monceau Where: 37 Avenue Hoche, Paris, France Arty, classy boutique retreat Le Royal Monceau hotel in Paris is definitely not the sort of place where hair metal bands throw televisions from windows. But the more contemplative singer-songwriter side of your soul will love the acoustic guitars in each room. Draw inspiration from the City of Love and express it in a tune. Loving your next big hit sick? The hotel has a mobile sound studio available to musos of all descriptions. 5. Hotel San Jose Where: 1316 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, USA Music fans will feel right at home at retro-hip boutique digs Hotel San José in Austin. Originally built in 1939 as a ‘motor court’, it’s been given a stucco overhaul and now nestles in happening 'hood SoCo buzzing with bars, stores and cafés. The mellow rooms – pea green is a favoured hue – are hung with vintage gig posters, their floors covered with cowhide rugs. Get into some tunes by borrowing one of the iPods stocked with Americana classics then head to the courtyard. During the day, beardy guys and tattooed gals knock back espressos; after dark musicians and DJs play alfresco. 6. Karma Kandara Where: Jalan Villa Kandara, Banjar Wijaya Kusuma, Bali, Indonesia Sure, the super-sized villas with vast plunge pools and views of the azure Indian Ocean at Bali boutique hotel Karma Kandara are private and impressive enough to suit even the most outrageous behaviour. Want to bake naked in the sun? No issue whatsoever. But you might prefer to get your togs on to check out what many people consider the best beach club in south-east Asia. Nammos is accessed via a cliff-front inclinator. Book one of the shady day-beds and settle back for chilled choons, icy cocktails and intermittent seaside splashing. 7. Shoreditch Rooms Where: 1 Ebor Street, Shoreditch, London, UK The skinny-jeaned massive frequents converted warehouse-turned-members’ club Shoreditch Rooms hotel in East London. There’s a rooftop pool, a bowling alley on the fourth floor and a Cowshed spa (perfect for overcoming night-before excesses), but the compact rooms are, most importantly, within staggering distance of Shoreditch’s coolest clubs and music venues, and grungy, bar-packed Dalston. Plus, because this is an outpost of Soho House, the see-and-be-seen crowd drapes itself around the Square Bar and on the roof, so there’s always action aplenty. Both Madonna and Harry Styles have celebrated their birthdays here. 8. Ace Hotel & Swim Club Where: 701 East Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, California, USA All those youngsters who like to declare that vinyl is dead, well, you’re probably not going to find them at Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs. Thankfully. Vintage furniture, swathed fabrics on the walls, full-size bottles of spirits in the minibar and handicrafts in all the rooms scream hipster heaven. Plus, if you book a Patio room – go for one with a garden – or one of the more expensive boudoirs, your digs come with a record player and a selection of retro vinyl that could range from Dylan to Zeppelin. When the temperature rises, though, it’s all about the pools. Yoga classes, bands and impromptu dance parties take place regularly by the water’s edge and, unlike many hotels, you can hang here until 2am. 9. Atzaró Where: Ctra San Joan km 15, Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain Sometimes even rock stars need downtime, and family-run Atzaró finca in Ibiza, the world’s most famous party island, delivers with a soothing blend of white-washed surrounds, day-bed-circled pool (and neighbouring cold-water Jacuzzi) and luxury spa. Recovering from the night before? The breakfast room is open until an incredibly civilised 1pm, after which a 90-minute Zen Shiatsu massage should improve your outlook enough to consider the evening once again – perhaps starting with mojitos at the Music & Sushi Lounge. 10. Dar Darma Where: 11/12, Trik Sidi Bohuarba, Medina, Marrakech, Morocco There wasn’t a Sixties rock icon worth his leather pants that didn’t get on the opium in exotic Morocco. Now, we’re not going to pretend that Jim Morrison, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix or Neil Young sucked the hookah at Marrakech boutique hotel Dar Darma, but you can easily imagine they did. In the heart of the medina, this darkly exotic five-suite guesthouse partners 300-year-old zouak ceilings and faded antique textiles with Versace-esque velvet settles, distressed metallic stripes and leopardskin rugs. Don your best boho-chic threads, head up to the plunge pool on the roof terrace and imagine you’re Talitha and John Paul Getty.
I've always thought of Utah as just another landlocked American state — a puzzling enigma of deep conservatism and desert monuments. Little did I know that a recent visit to America's most underrated state would unearth a skiing and mountain community steeped in beauty, history and epicurean experiences that wouldn't feel out of place in Australia. You'll find Park City — the ski town you've probably never heard of — a short 45-minute drive from Utah's capital. After leaving Salt Lake City International Airport, it's not long before the lights of the city's historic Main Street (as well as the headlights from the army of snowcat groomers on the hill) emerge on the horizon, as if glints of silver have been etched from the bowels of a mine shaft. [caption id="attachment_893649" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] In fact, it was rare minerals like silver which first had people rushing to these mountains in the 1860s in the first place. At one point, there were more than 300 mines in the Park City area. But the industry's collapse catalysed its rebirth as a skiing and tourism destination, and thus was born the allure of some of the greatest snow on Earth. In fact, the phrase: 'The Greatest Snow on Earth' was officially registered by the state in 1975. But geography and science help lay a solid claim to back this up. Giddy up, because this is America's most remarkable ski town. [caption id="attachment_893650" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Salt Lake City, Utah.[/caption] What makes it the Greatest Snow on Earth? Utah's geography to the mountains in the west makes it an arid state compared to its northern neighbours. The typically dry conditions, cool winters, and high altitudes (Park City's altitude is over 2,000 metres) allow the snow crystals that fall in the region to be thicker and more symmetrical in their structure; therefore, they accumulate fluffier powder. [caption id="attachment_893663" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] What's it like skiing at Park City Mountain? It's brisk at the top of the Super Condor Express chair lift (a balmy minus 24 degrees celsius), and while my face is frozen, I can't help but smile. "That was awesome. Do we go again?" I ask our guide Halle from Park City Mountain Resort. "Absolutely!" she replies, and within a few seconds, we're hurtling down Upper and Lower Boa for a second time. I'm not cold anymore because my legs are burning from another three-kilometre, nine-minute journey and nearly 550 metres of vertical descent. [caption id="attachment_893648" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] The terrain at Park City Mountain Resort is enormous. Technically made up of two individual ski areas of, Park City Mountain and Canyons Mountain, which were merged by Vail Resorts in 2014 and subsequently were joined by a gondola in 2015. With almost 3,000 hectares of terrain, there are 43 lifts, six terrain parks, and ski-in-ski-out access to Main Street. There are 330 named trails, but chatting to Halle (once a former Ski Patroller), that number is closer to 800 if you're in the know. There is a required proximity between 'resort' and 'town' when it comes to North American ski destinations. And that distance is what defines the culture of the town itself. Park City manages the balance of both on and off mountain activities better than anyone. Whether you ski down to Mountain Village for brunch and espresso at The Bridge Cafe or, carve your way right to the bar at High West Saloon, the only ski-in-ski-out distillery in the U.S. [caption id="attachment_893639" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] Where you also sleep matters. The new YOTELPAD Park City in Canyons Village is as Instagram-able, a hotel as they come. The reception and common spaces are filled with neon, and as the newest mid-range option on the mountain, it comes with all the expected mod-cons: spa, sauna, games room, and heated outdoor patio for afternoon Apres-ski. But the most significant novelty is the retractable Murphy beds in each room, which are a welcome addition on a luggage-heavy ski holiday. [caption id="attachment_893647" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Salt Lake City, Utah.[/caption] What about Deer Valley, Park City's quieter cousin? Like an expensive, out-of-reach necklace dangling just over a ridge is where you'll find the exclusive Deer Valley Resort (still technically within Park City.) It's one of only three resorts in the United States that does not permit snowboarders, often considered the riff-raff of the snow sports world. Both old money and the nouveau riche choose Deer Valley over Park City Mountain, not just because the skiing is quieter (lift ticket sales are regularly capped) but because the on and off-mountain service is exceptional. Skiers at Deer Valley are referred to as "guests" and not "customers", plus there's complimentary overnight ski valet for your gear. [caption id="attachment_893640" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] The Resort also offers a complimentary service with 25 luxury Cadillac Escalades. Don't be fooled; this is well and truly earned in your $500 daily lift pass. As a snowboarder, I'm used to being looked down upon by skiers at most other U.S. mountains. But here, I have no choice but to don a pair of skis for the first time in 20 years and set off with Uros, my Slovenian personal guide, for the next 48 hours. We ski together for hours through untracked Aspen tree runs. We wait only minutes in lineless lifts while ogling together from above at his favourite gated community. He points out to me the house where he was invited to a dinner with Steve Jobs and Al Gore after a day on the slopes. [caption id="attachment_893662" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] On the deck at the prestigious Stein Eriksen Lodge, the final pieces of the Deer Valley puzzle are assembled once inside their temperature-controlled Alpen Globes. It's only 3 pm, but in the fading afternoon sun, Après-ski well and truly has begun, and I'm handed a wine list by the Lodge's Sommelier with a cost price of over $4,000,000. Pioneers, distillers, hunters, snowboarders, paddlers, and mountain bikers. Like their world-class ski resorts, Utahns are in a class of their own. They're genuine outdoor people who personify a bygone and future America, and I'm happy to confirm them as the rightful custodians of the Greatest Snow on Earth®. Images: Jeremy Drake, Park City Chamber/Convention & Visitors Bureau & Deer Valley Resort. 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.
