The annual Young Gun of Wine Awards brings together Australia's top twelve emerging winemakers, with the best voted victorious by the attendees. Guests will get the chance to meet the winemakers and taste two of their wines, then vote on who should win People's Choice. This year, eight of the twelve are first time finalists, so it's a particularly exciting year to try some of Australia's budding winemaking talents. Tickets will include tastings, canapés by Kepos Street Kitchen and a Riedel wine glass to take home.
You can't re-do Christopher Walken. But Flight Facilities have given it red hot go. The Aussie producer duo have thrown down a brand new video for single 'Down to Earth' from their 2014 critically acclaimed debut album, recruiting none other than Sam Rockwell to Walken the Dinosaur through a tired ol' diner. From the disco ball-flanked kitchen to Rockwell's vicious thumb grooving, Flight Facilities latest video presents the ultimate happy place for jaded, Hawaiian shirt-wearing folk. Rockwell falls asleep at a diner and goes on an epic danceology quest through the kitchen and out to the carpark and back. The whole thing was directed by Rhett Wade Ferrell, who lent his mad skills to FF for 'Sunshine' with Reggie Watts and breakthrough, 15 million views single 'Crave You' with Giselle. Rockwell's strong moves were choreographed by the legendary Vincent Paterson, who's worked with the top tier likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. "I really, really liked the song, and it was an honour to work with legendary choreographer Vincent Paterson," says Rockwell. "I’m the kinda guy that likes to shake my tail feather, and so it was a great opportunity to get some new moves, especially to such a sweet beat.” Here's Flight Facilities' 'Down to Earth' video. See if you can spot the FF cameo. And here's Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice', because.
The Sydney Opera House plays host to the most revered musicians, actors and artists in the world, but it's also home to some of our finest culinary experiences. The four remarkable chefs who manage the Opera House's hospitality offering — Matt Moran of Opera Bar and House Canteen; Peter Gilmore, Executive Chef of fine diner Bennelong; Mark Olive, who directs the native ingredient-focused Midden; and Danielle Alvarez, who oversees the Opera Houses's private function spaces, the Yallamundi Rooms — are coming together for the first time to curate a series of intimate dinners. Drawing on the iconic venue's stature as an arts venue, each shared-table meal will held in the Opera House's cutting-edge Immersive Digital Experience Room — a space where 270-degree projection technology in tandem with live music will enhance the unique themes of each menu. [caption id="attachment_966804" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Anna Kucera[/caption] The series commences on Thursday, August 1 and Friday, August 2, with Danielle Alvarez's Winter Harvest Symphony — a multi-course meal celebrating seasonality and directly sourced produce. Through a carefully crafted fusion of food and paired wine, projected video and a live string quartet score, Alvarez will illuminate the special relationships with farmers, producers and artisans that underpin Australian dining culture. Next, on Thursday, August 8 and Friday, August 9, Mark Olive will present Dreamtime, an ode to the Indigenous cuisine he has pioneered at Midden. "By presenting some of the incredible native produce and Indigenous ingredients from the Midden menu, I hope to give people the opportunity to try something uniquely Australian and something we should all be proud of — a national cuisine within a national architectural icon," Olive explains. During the meal, diners will hear from First Nation performers Marimayi as they share the stories of their ancestors using the traditional sounds of Country mixed with blues and folk influences. A specially commissioned digital artwork inspired by Indigenous astronomy will be projected throughout the dining space, mirroring the fusion of traditional knowledge and contemporary techniques displayed on the plate. [caption id="attachment_966806" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Anna Kucera[/caption] The third instalment of the series takes place on Thursday, August 15 and Friday, August 16, when Peter Gilmore will present his Icons of Bennelong dining experience. Lifted from more than 50 years of Bennelong menus, diners will get to sample some of the most legendary dishes ever served at the Opera House's fine-dining restaurant — including the iconic Pavlova inspired by the venue's distinctive sails — accompanied by vibrant projections and live jazz performances, a wink to Bennelong's long-running Sunday jazz program. The final menu in the series, on Thursday, August 29 and Friday, August 30, comes from Matt Moran, whose Ocean to Table concept takes Australia's vast coastline as its muse. Championing the importance of sustainability and provenance in dining, this marine riff on the paddock-to-plate philosophy will feature locally sourced seafood served on bespoke flatware made by third-generation ceramicist Sam Gordon, who has incorporated crushed mollusc shells into the lustrous patina. Projections based on artist Dr Fiona Hillary's Reverberating Futures, which examines the bioluminescence of algal blooms and ocean fauna, will illuminate the space with an aquatic light show for diners as they eat. If you're unable to make it to one of the Chefs of the House dinners, you can still get a taste of this remarkable series. Throughout August, a signature dish showcased on each chef's menu will be available to order at their respective restaurants. [caption id="attachment_966812" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Anna Kucera[/caption] Top image: Katje Ford
The Sydney CBD's historic Macquarie Street is set for a landmark revamp as the NSW Government has announced it will dedicate $119 million towards revitalising the precinct. The multimillion-dollar investment in the area is part of the NSW Government's 2021-22 budget which was handed down on Tuesday, June 22 and also includes funding for cultural institutions statewide and for a seven-day New Year's Eve festival on the Cahill Expressway. Stage one of the redevelopment will include creating a public plaza in Macquarie Street situated between the CBD and The Domain. The plaza will create a gateway to The Domain and will restore the original heritage architecture of the Registrar General's Building that was covered by a modern annex in the 1960s. "The revamped precinct will create a vibrant destination for people to enjoy during the day and well into the evening at the southern end of Macquarie Street, allowing the city to showcase some of its historic treasures such as The Mint, Hyde Park Barracks and The Domain," NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said. [caption id="attachment_816712" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Artist render supplied by Committee for Sydney.[/caption] The revamp comes after a NSW Government-commissioned precinct review led by Paul Keating and Lucy Turnbull made recommendations to revitalise the area into a space that could cultivate culture and showcase Sydney's history. "This funding is a great step forward to begin the work of breathing new life and energy in to one our city's most precious historic and architecturally significant precincts," Turnbull said. The cultural revitalisation of Macquarie Street has slowly begun over the past six months with the NSW government supporting nighttime music, art and cultural events at the Hyde Park Barracks, St Mary's Cathedral and the Sydney Living Museums. Under the government's arts funding, cultural institutions in and around Macquarie Street including the Australian Museum, Sydney Living Museums and Hyde Park Barracks will also receive financial incentives to provide free general admission. The plan has been met with positive feedback from key Sydney stakeholders. "This decision will open up the quiet treasure that is Sydney's Macquarie Street to all of Sydney," Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of the Committee for Sydney said. "The government's announcement of a major injection of funds into cultural institutions, including free entry to the Australian Museum and others in the Macquarie Street precinct over the next 12 months, is an incredible opportunity for Sydney as we look to attract people back into the city - from around the world and across the city." [caption id="attachment_736575" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Australian Museum[/caption] For more information about NSW's newly announced cultural funding, head to the NSW Treasury website. The NSW State Budget was handed down on Tuesday, June 22.
Whether or not you've ever splashed in its wave-filled waters or taken a selfie around its edge, where the pool borders the ocean — or even if you've simply seen images of it everywhere, including sometimes featuring Margot Robbie in Barbie mode — feeling the urge to plunge into Bondi Icebergs is a side effect of watching Ian Darling's The Pool. The yearning to take a dip in your nearest body of water also strikes. Equally radiating from the screen as the Sydney landmark receives a cinematic tribute: the sensation that just by viewing the latest documentary from the filmmaker behind The Final Quarter and Paul Kelly — Stories of Me, you've enjoyed the next best thing to hopping in. Everyone knows Bondi Icebergs, thanks to about as many photographs as there are grains of sand on Bondi Beach, or perhaps more. It's the most-snapped pool in the world, in fact, The Pool notes. Darling's film explores its allure beyond its scenic aesthetic, even if the movie is stunningly gorgeous to look at (how could it not be?) and perfectly set to a 60s-inspired soundtrack. This is a doco about community, and about why one has formed around the haven of blue at the southern end of Bondi Beach that's been welcoming in swimmers for almost a century. Some come to Icebergs to relax. Others come to train and compete. Some head along with friends and/or family. Others arrive solo, knowing that their fellow swimmers are their friends and family. Some do indeed fill their Instagram feeds with photos, and The Pool sees them. But the film spends its time largely observing the immense cross-section of folks who frequent Bondi Icebergs, from daily devotees to casual weekenders, newcomers to veterans, young to old, and lifeguards and swimming coaches to baristas as well, as they congregate, revel in the spectacular tidal pool's gifts no matter the weather and discover a place to belong in the process. That's how Darling overcame what might've been a challenge for other filmmakers: diving beneath the surface of a place that is so instantly recognisable, and for good reason. It's also how he's made a movie that is meditative to watch, mirroring what many of its interviewees say about the body of water. And, it's why The Pool has been getting the love flowing from audiences around the country — not just in Sydney, where it fittingly world-premiered at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival; which "was actually quite emotional, because three of the key characters had died in only the month or two beforehand, and this was the first time that a lot of the audience had seen them again," Darling tells Concrete Playground; not only among swimmers as well. "We've been doing a lot of the film festivals, and so just meeting people all over — after launching at Sydney Film Festival, we went over to CinefestOZ in Margaret River, and then Byron, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide Film Festival. Then we've been doing a few pre-cinema release screenings up at Noosa when the triathlon was on, and Brisbane and Gold Coast," the director notes when we chat in the lead up to the film's release nationwide. "What I'm especially pleased about is that we weren't sure whether it was such a Sydney-centric film that it wasn't going to speak to other audiences, but it it's been wonderful seeing that there are so many common themes in it that it's speaking to people not only all across Australia, but to swimmers and non-swimmers. Which I was surprised about. Coming out of COVID, people are still hurting and yearning for a community, and really putting a greater value on any community they're a part of. And so it's had a much more emotional response than we than we expected." "I was especially pleased at the screening over at the Orpheum, where a number of people came up — and a couple of ladies who were very emotional said 'we don't swim, but we're part of a book club. And we feel that you've spoken the same language in terms of what we do in our book club. And we value it even more, it's about community and it's about a shared language'," Darling continues. "I was asking them exactly what they mean. She said 'well, we talk about a book and we could see here people were just talking about swimming'. And the penny dropped, and it made me realise that's so much about what we look for in a community — whether it's a film festival where we're all talking the same language, or a book club, or even at a pool. It never ceases to amaze me how long people can talk about swimming. But it is a shared language, and everyone comes from all different walks of life and they have this common link." Where inspiration strikes as a filmmaker, the 'I need to make a movie about this' moment with Bondi Icebergs, his own first experience with the pool, choosing interviewees, finding the doco's ebb and flow, the importance of community, what Bondi Icebergs both says about and means to Sydney: we also spoke with Darling about all of the above. On Darling's First Bondi Icebergs Moment "I came up from Melbourne in the early 90s, and my wife and I were swimming in the middle of winter at the beach, and suddenly realised how many people were swimming — and coming from Melbourne, I'd never swim in winter. And I was thinking 'how long does this happen?'. I saw this building down the end — and I wasn't familiar with the Icebergs. And I always was intrigued by it. I actually thought that it was more of a private club. Actually, for the whole of that decade, I never went to it. When someone told me that it was a public pool in the early 2000s, I remember walking in and it just blew me away. I suddenly actually did feel like I was in a 60s film, and it was one of the most-beautiful places and pools I'd ever swum in. There are so many pools I've swum in and I don't have any recall, but I remember walking in and just feeling like I was in this time warp, and it was a very positive experience." On When the 'I Need to Make a Film About This' Moment Came with The Pool "I think it was post-lockdown, and I think when we have something taken away from us — we're social creatures and we all realised that that we do need a sense of community. Also having come out of The Final Quarter and The Department on child protection, I wanted to give myself permission to actually make a happy film and a feel-good film, and a film where people could just meditate and contemplate their own life. I was sitting down at Icebergs with a friend of mine, Marg Simpson-Lee, who's a swimmer. And I was saying 'I'm really looking for something which is a connected story about a community that is uplifting'. And she said 'well, what about here?'. And so it was right under my nose. The more I thought about it, I thought 'actually, it is going to give me a platform to tell these stories about community and connection'. So it was as simple as that. I wasn't sure what it meant. And it took us a while to get a sense of how to make it and why we, in the end, decided to make the pool the central character, and let all the other characters, almost like 30 sets of arms and legs, give us context of to what was in there. But I think I was ready myself as well — I think we often wear the hair shirt as documentary filmmakers, and I had to give myself permission to say 'actually, it's okay to make a film where we just actually sit back and think and observe and hopefully feel happy at the end of it'. So that was the the intent." On Digging Into What Makes the Most-Photographed Pool in the World Special Beyond Its Aesthetics "It's a good question, because I think with the notion of it being the most-photographed pool in the world, with that comes all the connotations of Instagram and body image, and all of that. And we almost wanted the film to be the antithesis of that. One of the things we weren't sure of was how people would feel when we were down there with cameras, because people are perhaps at their most vulnerable when they're just in their swimmers. And we were very aware and respectful of it. So we had signs up everywhere, and we made sure, our producers went around, that anyone who didn't want to be in the film could come and tell us, and we'd make sure that they weren't and absolutely honour that. On the first morning, about three people came up and I thought 'wow, this is going to be challenging over the course of the year'. And then over the the whole year, I think only one or two other people came up and said that they didn't want to be in it. So we gained the trust, but it also made me realise that the people down there were actually very comfortable in their own skin, and all different body shapes and all different, all different types. I think that is very different from the notion of it being the most-photographed pool in the world. It was a very grounded experience, and the pool jumps out as something very beautiful — but I think whenever we were there on weekends, we'd see people doing selfies and everything, and we wanted to reflect that in the film but also highlight that it wasn't the story we were telling." On the Process of Choosing Interviewees From the Bondi Icebergs Community "On the website, we did 100 full-length interviews — because we never wanted to make the film about the history of the club, but we thought 'well, let's grab a time capsule of history and get the full stories'. And from that, we got a lot of clues. It was almost like an audition. A lot of the characters jumped out, and the stories. We didn't want to make it a character-based film. We said 'let's make the pool the central character, but let's define them by themes'. So what we saw was the characters were around things like friendship and routine — there are a couple of friends that get there at 13 minutes to seven every morning, and that's a very important thing about commitment. And then there are stories around mental health and physical sickness and endurance, and volunteering and perseverance and fear. A number of the characters were fearful of the water and learning to swim. So it was more 'how do we represent all those themes?' rather than characters. And so the two went sort of hand in hand. We had so many people that unfortunately we couldn't fit in, more because they told the same story rather than not having a great story. And I think that was the thing, as I was saying before, very few people didn't want to be in it but we I think we upset a number of people who desperately wanted to be in it but didn't make the final cut." On the Film's Crew Swimming at Bondi Icebergs Themselves for 99 Days of the 100 Day-Shoot "I think it was an important part. So the only day we didn't swim was the one when the huge storms were there. And I think people at the start of any film are wary when these outsiders come in, and we just we started very gently, but right from the start, we got in. And we started in May when the water was getting really cold. I think that helped with the locals, when they saw that we were prepared to get in the cold water and that we actually swam ourselves, and that we could speak the same language. I've never really asked them, but I know we were always observed — and I think just in a quiet sort of way that that enabled us to get even closer to everyone. But also, I thought if we're making a film at a place like this, if we don't actually get in and enjoy ourselves — because when we were at the homeless shelter, that was a three-year film shoot and that was all hours of the night. And when we were there at three o'clock in the morning, I was thinking 'hmm, we're certainly earning our stripes as documentary filmmakers here'. So unashamedly, we thought if we're doing a fun film, let's enjoy it." On Making a Meditative Film to Match the Mindset That Bondi Icebergs Can Inspire "I think we had two intents. One, sometimes we'd jump into a scene of a storm or the word of the coach and everything — it's quite bracing when you jump in the cold water. But also, the meditative nature we thought was really important. I think we've forgotten sometimes just to sit when we're on top of a mountain, just to look out and not look at our phone. And I thought it's really important for us just to have a feeling of what it's like just to sit and look at the waves, and that it's actually okay to sort of — bored is not the word I'd want to use in a film, but it's actually okay to do nothing. So we have an unusually long opening-credit sequence, but we wanted to play the whole of the Cream song 'I Feel Free' and just get people into the rhythm. Sometimes, I certainly know at the theatre when I'm there, sometimes I go 'wow, ten minutes has gone and I haven't been concentrating'. It can take us a while to get into it, so we thought let's just try and set up the rhythm of the film so that audiences give themselves permission just to sit and get into that meditative state. It felt like it was in sync with the intent of when you're swimming, because we wanted to make it immersive. But also I think sometimes it is good to let audiences — and a number of them have said during those meditative sort of scenes, the swimming or a storm or the purple tumble turns scene, that that's where they're actually thinking about their own place in a community. Or they're yearning for it. And so people have been doing a lot of self-reflection during the film as well, and that's really pleasing, because that was the intent as well." On What Darling Learned About the Importance of Community From Making The Pool "I think it really is that sense that we all need to be a part of a community and we all need to find people that share a common language — and, as I say, it means we can talk for hours about swimming or films or whatever. That, as a community, we deeply have this yearning to connect. And when it's taken away from us, we really miss it. If we haven't got it, we're yearning for it. It's such an important part of — at a pool, our physical health, but I think the most important thing is around our mental health. And as time goes on, we've got to ensure that cinemas remain open as a shared experience and that pools remain open. So many pools are closing, and we're going to do a bit of a campaign to try to get every mayor and council to come to watch the film, and actually see the importance that a local pool has on a community. As I say, so much of it is just around that connection, a meeting point, the importance of being with others. And I think that was very much the intent of the film, just to show how we do have to keep working hard at creating these gathering points, because the health of the community is very much dependent on them." On What Bondi Icebergs Means to Sydney — and Says About It "It says 'look at me', which is one of the things that, coming from Melbourne, where there are different seasons and everything, Sydney seems to have one season and it's sort of saying 'look at me' — which can be positive, but also I can be cynical about it. So that's on the surface, but I think it also says 'have a look below the surface and you'll find something that's far more profound and grounded — and if you are looking for a community, you'll find people with a common language there;. At the outset, it's a shining beacon and a tourist destination. The amount of times we've heard people go 'oh, I've had that swim. It's been on my bucket list'. People like to go to Bondi Beach. They'd like to go to the Opera House. In Queensland they love to go to the Gold Coast or the Barrier Reef. As a destination for Australians, but also as tourists, I think it's very much an important part of — unashamedly Australia has a strong beach culture, and I think it reflects that as a piece of beach history." On Where Inspiration Strikes for a Filmmaker with Documentaries About Everything From Bondi Icebergs, Adam Goodes and Paul Kelly to Capitalism and the Welfare of Homeless Youth on His Resume "Because I've had so many films that have fallen over, answering this way, typically the films that have fallen over are ones where I haven't had a strong-enough contact or connection with the subject matter. I'm a pretty slow filmmaker, most of the film shoots have been at least a year, and we take a long time in the edit suite. And I think to go on that long journey, I have to have a real interest in it. So with this one, The Pool, swimming's my main physical activity. I'm not a member of Icebergs, but I like cold-water swimming, so that gave me clues. With Adam Goodes, I'm a huge AFL fan and I go out every week — and we were thinking before he retired, actually, because he was one of my favourite all-time footballers, of making a film on him in his twilight years. So it ended up being a very different one, but having been so aware of it and been in the crowds when he was being booed, and being there when he was celebrated, suddenly he retired and I thought 'wow, are we going to' — I was just confused — 'are we going to let history be rewritten?'. So it took a few years but it just never left me, I think because I'd had such an intimate relationship with watching him as a player. I hadn't met him at all until we spoke about the film, but he was certainly present. [caption id="attachment_715066" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 29th September 2012, The Age Sport, Picture by Wayne Taylor[/caption] And then with Paul Kelly, I grew up in Melbourne — and in the 80s, just the Melbourne band scene was just extraordinary, and Paul Kelly spoke to me like no other sort of musician had. And again, I hadn't met him until we sought his approval, but he was my favourite musician — which can be dangerous, making films about your hero, as such. Then with the homeless, I'd spent a lot of time volunteering at this homeless shelter in Sydney and really got to know a number of the street kids, and just saw that homelessness was totally off the agenda, and felt it was really important to bring it back and try and put it into every home. We got a lot of philanthropic funding to present a report to the government. It's those sort of things, where I've had a connection and felt that I was in a place to be able to tell a story." The Pool opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
If battling zombies in your lounge room through a games console no longer cuts it, an augmented audio running game called Zombies, Run! might be the answer. London-based games and app developers, Six to Start, have combined mobile GPS technology with augmented audio technology to create a game whose story unravels in the outside world. The game's storyline may be based on an old cliché - a player runs from zombies in a post-apocalyptic world - but its method of delivery is certainly new. Players are presented with location-specific challenges in their mission to rebuild civilisation, completing the game by listening to atmospheric audio commands on their headphones and finishing a series of runs in which they collect medicine, ammo, batteries and spare parts. Adrian Hon, CEO and co-founder of Six To Start, told PSFK: "The idea is that we want to make running – and exercise in general – more fun and more captivating through game-play and story." The game for iPhone, iPod and Android devices has over 30 unique missions to be completed and most recently featured on Kickstarter. It can be pre-ordered online at their site.
The Bar at Buena Vista, Cuba's Grandfathers of Music [and Grandmother], brings the music and spirit of 1940s and 1950s Havana, the golden age of Cuban Jazz, to the State Theatre in Sydney. This is when the musicians of the now infamous Buena Vista Social Club first began playing together. They were re-united in 1997 to record an album, which spawned a concert and also the hugely successful Wim Wenders documentary. This in turn brought many of Cuba's exceptionally talented veteran jazz stars to our attention, most of whom went on to tour and to record albums with seemingly tireless enthusiasm, while our appetite for their magical music has remained similarly unfettered. The show, written and directed by Toby Gough, promises to recreate the 'bar' at the Buena Vista Social Club, giving us a unique chance to experience the magical atmosphere and infectious sounds of this legendary venue. Cuban masters: Reynaldo Creagh, 93, lead singer; Maestro Rubalcaba , 84, on piano; and Maracaibo, 83, on guitar, will be taking the stage with Cuba's original diva, the singer Siomara Avilla Valdes Lescay. The scene will be completed with a full band and troupe of dancers.
Feel like your interior space needs a 2023 refresh, but don't want to spend thousands on a couple of exxy cushions? We get it. Luckily the cost-effective homewares market is just getting better and better these days — and of course, a huge player is everyone's fave Aussie department store, Kmart. Well, take an extended lunch break or block out some time in the diary for online shopping — we mean, a 'meeting' — because today, Thursday, February 2, Kmart has just unveiled its latest home-focused lineup. Expect it to fly off the shelves. With prices starting at $3.50 — for dinnerware, should your kitchen need a revamp — the February Living Range goes heavy on colourful hues, natural materials and vintage inspiration. There are three main themes: timeless, natural and urban. The first two themes skew soft, gently preparing us for autumn with shearling fabrics, hygge-friendly throws and rugs, curved shapes and delicate glassware. The latter theme, which is still designed to mix and match with the rest of the range, is where bold silhouettes and gleaming surfaces come in. We also have it on good authority that deep purples and red wine tones are going to be big this year. Covering items for the dining room, bathroom, bedroom and living room as well, Kmart's current drop includes some 70s-inspired picks like a cream cloud chair (available online only), an arched bedside table and some funky vases and candles — all of which you'll probably see on TikTok in about six minutes flat. And it being Kmart there are all the classic beachy and boho tones that have become synonymous with the brand: think rattan baskets, chambray throws and fringed ottomans. Our top picks? The new coloured and curved water glasses are guaranteed to go viral — especially starting at just $14 for a set of four — while the coupe glasses are screaming cocktails in the sunshine to us. Scatter them along a long table for your next dinner party, amid your new pastel $5 candles and scallop-edged placemats. Oh and you can probably cater the party using Kmart's new outrageously affordable pizza oven and LED-screen air fryer (complete with a dehydrator for DIY cocktail garnishing). For the bathroom, make sure you grab the plush towels that are in our eyes a total dupe for Missoni — except they're only $13 each. But be warned — you only have a short period to get your mitts on your favourite pieces. The February Living Range is on sale online and in-store from Thursday, February 2 until Wednesday, February 22. This drop also includes a newly increased DIY line of decorative pieces like wallpaper, adhesive tiles, window dressings and door handles, for refreshing tired existing spaces around the house. Kmart's February Living range is on sale online and in-store from Thursday, February 2 until Wednesday, February 22.
When it comes to dazzling scenery, Tropical North Queensland is a technicolour dreamscape. Lakes are emerald green, and billabongs are turquoise blue, while the nearby rainforest canopies are dotted with brightly coloured birds and butterflies. Up north, the warm summer rains give way to heavenly autumn vegetation, with a dizzying array of tropical plants unfurling. The idea that the outback can only be beige and dusty is simply untrue in the tropics. So, read on to discover our picks for you to enjoy the bright green autumn scenes in the Tropical North Queensland outback this year.
A great bar isn't just about the tap count, but that figure can be a sign of a more-the-merrier situation for beer lovers. When the number is hefty, usually so are your drinks choices, including trying tipples that you mightn't have had a chance to otherwise. So when a 120-tap bar awaits, it really is a case of imagining the possibilities. The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular, aka GABS, loves getting creative with beers — and loves letting attendees at its annual festivals sip and sample over 100 different varieties each year. In 2025, when the fest returns to Melbourne in April, then to Brisbane and Sydney in May, it'll set up that 120-tap bar, all in a straight line. Exactly 100 of those taps will pour beers, and the weirder and wilder the flavours, the better. The other 20 will feature spirits, cocktails and other beverages. For many of the brews on offer at GABS, this is either the first time or the only place that you can taste them. It's too early for details on specific beers as yet, but sushi beer, cookie stouts and lollipop sours have featured in the past. Think of a foodstuff — peanut butter, coffee, earl grey tea, chicken salt, pizza, fairy floss, bubblegum, doughnuts, red frogs and sour gummy bears, for instance — and there's likely been a brew made to taste exactly the same at GABS. This year, GABS is doing two-day visits to its three Aussie stops. Across Friday, April 4–Saturday, April 5, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre will be saying cheers. Then, from Friday, May 23–Saturday, May 24, it'll be time to clink cups at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, before ICC Sydney hosts the last event of the tour on Friday, May 30–Saturday, May 31. If you're a newcomer to GABS, it started off as a Melbourne-only celebration of ales, lagers, ciders and more. Then it began spreading along Australia's east coast capitals, as well as to New Zealand. The event surveys both Australian and New Zealand breweries, plus sometimes some guests from further afield — Schlenkerla and Weihenstephan, both from Germany, are the first names on the list in 2025 — with more than 60 normally showcasing their wares annually. Also on the bill: other tipples, including non-alcoholic beers, seltzers, whiskey, gin, cocktails and wines. GABS is known for dishing up a hefty lineup of activities to accompanying all that sipping, too, which usually spans a silent disco, roaming bands, circus and sideshow performers, games and panels with industry leaders, plus local food trucks and vendors to line your stomach. And you might just find a ferris wheel or a mullet bar — yes, dispensing the haircuts — as well, as they've popped up in the past. Great Australasian Beer Spectapular 2025 Friday, April 4–Saturday, April 5 — Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Friday, May 23–Saturday, May 24 — Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane Friday, May 30–Saturday, May 31 — ICC Sydney, Sydney GABS will take place across Australia's east coast throughout April and May 2025 — head to the event's website for further details.
Beautiful One Day shows that devised theatre still has a unique power to bring people together for true sharing, collaboration, and storytelling. With the support of Belvoir, leading Indigenous theatre company Ilbijerri and documentary performance maestros Version 1.0 went and tested the waters at the Aboriginal community of Palm Island. When their suggestions for a project weren't rebuffed, they developed the work with the residents, three of whom join the seasoned performers on stage. Palm Island is a place we've mainly seen in snippets on the news — not anybody's best angle. It captured headlines in 2004, after the death in custody there of Mulrunji Doomadgee, whom the coroner found to have massive internal injuries. After the autopsy report was made public, there were demonstrations that turned to rioting. This event, still a trauma and a focus for the people of Palms, is at the chronological centre of the play, although in this version of the story, it is part of a continuum of acts of violence committed by white Australia for which there has never been justice. At the same time, the island has a continuous history of asserting its rights, including through large strikes in 1957 against the Aboriginals Protection Act, which had Aboriginal people under state control since 1897. As mentioned, this is devised theatre without writer or director, so linear story is not its strength — though nor its intention. Instead, the Beautiful One Day team — performers Magdalena Blackley, Kylie Doomadgee, Paul Dwyer, Rachael Maza, Jane Phegan, and Harry Reuben, plus additional devisors Sean Bacon, Eamon Flack, and David Williams — build layer upon overlapping layer of story, context, and meaning. A big success is that they set up an atmosphere of chattiness with the audience from the get-go, creating a feeling of lightness and inclusion. They use a Version 1.0-influenced toolkit of multimedia (presented, not excessively, across three screens), interviews, transcripts of historical and legal documents, and fictionalised scenes to build a picture of Palms. A nod to the 'telling their own stories' trope has the performers actually reading and acting out memoirs from books literally printed and bound, a nice little kick in the pants for anyone who thinks Aboriginal history is sidelined mostly because it's oral in form. The scenes about Mulrunji's death can't match the breadth and discovery of Chloe Hooper's award-winning book on the subject, The Tall Man, which is among the great works of creative non-fiction produced in this country. If the story of what happened to Mulrunji and in the subsequent trials and inquests appears more damning in this viewing, it is because the facts are condensed into a smaller space, in which it is impossible for the officers of law and justice involved to hide. It seems a pity, though, that in some moments, the police are portrayed cartoonishly, as a means to a joke. Even if it doesn't bring new facts to the conversation, Beautiful One Day certainly brings a new feeling. In trying to get a view of Palm Island from Palm Island, rather than of Palm Island from the mainland, the picture they conjure is one of hope. The island has seen conflict and absurdity, but looked at up close, there's at least an equal share of normalcy and paradise. There'll be more once its people can truly say they're no longer "living under the act".
Since '50s-inspired bar Hinky Dinks closed late last year, there's been a gaping, cocktail-sized hole at 185 Darlinghurst Road. But, the good news is, it's soon to be filled. The now-sleeping Darlinghurst space has just unveiled a shimmering gold sign announcing the words "Johnny Fishbone". Inside, a dark wooden bar lies fully stocked with wine bottles. We followed our noses to this mysterious website, revealing very little detail outside of a 'wine parlour coming soon'. There's also some rather relaxing imagery of running water and a link to a currently empty Twitter account. We've reason to believe some of Sydney's high-level hospitality personnel are behind this new venture, but we'll keep you updated. Watch this space. Johnny Fishbone sits at 185 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst. Opening date TBC.
Dining precincts are having a real moment in Sydney right now — think South Eveleigh and Unity Mascot. Named Quay Quarters, Sydney's latest exciting collection of restaurants and bars has just opened along Young Street, just up the hill from Circular Quay. It was announced back in 2019 that this Circular Quay block would be transformed into a bustling dining precinct with a new, much-hyped four-storey venue in a heritage building. Three years and a global pandemic later, Quay Quarter Lanes has arrived with more than a dozen retailers and, as promised, a spectacular multi-storey restaurant in tow. Alongside the mega-venue Hinchcliff House and its accompanying cafe Bar Mammoni, there are some Sydney favourites like Marrickville Pork Roll, Side Room and Humble Bakery. There's also a new Mexican restaurant from the Carbon and Taqiza team, a luxurious French bistro called Bouillon L'Entrecôte, inventive gelateria Zini and two Japanese omakase restaurants (Besuto and Kobo). Circular Quay and its neighbour The Rocks are both undergoing revamps which encompass government-funded initiatives, including waterfront cocktail and art festivals, outdoor activations and a plan to create a shiny new public square in place of the Cahill expressway — not to mention the return of the areas biggest annual drawcard, Vivid. There's also a sense of community among the restaurant owners and managers here. Zini and its owner Matteo Zini have been creating a yuzu sake gelato that acts as the bright and refreshing pallet cleanser at Besuto's mammoth 18-course menu; and mezcal sake for neighbouring Mexican restaurant Londres 126. The gelato haven is all about mixing the old and the new of the Italian dessert. The gelato is mixed on-site in front of your eyes with a traditional mixer, but the flavours aren't afraid to stray from the well-beaten path. This month, Zini and the team are putting on two gelato degustations, including an all-vegan night featuring flavours like coconut and avocado stracciatella, and oat cappuccino. Designed to accommodate visitors around the clock, you can drop in to the precinct for a coffee and pastry early in the morning at Bar Mammoni, a lunch-time treat at Marrickville Pork Roll, dinner at Besuto or Bouillon L'Entrecôte, and finally a late-night drink at Apollonia or Londres 126. Quay Quarter Lanes is now open between Young Street and Loftus Street, Sydney.
The famous Taiwanese noodle chain arrived in Sydney back in 2011 and has drawn in the masses. They're efficient, they're delicious and they're now a lunchtime favourite for many an office worker. Peer into the kitchen and you can observe the production line: line baskets with cloth, cut dough into discs, roll the dough, fill and pinch it at the top, then pop the newly made dumplings into the baskets ready for steaming. It's strangely hypnotising. Once inside, order up a storm. A must have are the xiao long bao pork dumplings, filled with hot broth and tasty pork filling. Take a small bite from the top, drink the broth from within, then down the remaining dumpling. Also worth your well-earned pennies? The vegetable and pork wanton soup or the vegetable and pork wanton dipped in a spicy sauce. Drinks and desserts are no less exciting. The lychee mint juice is hard to go past, while the steamed mini black sesame bun and golden taro bread are delicate but indulgent ways to finish up your meal.
If, like most Australian kids, you once dreamed of spending your school holidays at one of the Gold Coast's theme parks, then you probably hoped that you'd be making your way to Sea World. Historically Dreamworld has been home to plenty of rides, while Movie World has its whole 'Hollywood on the Gold Coast' theme going for it — but Sea World is the one with an onsite resort. In the near future, that might change, with slumbering at Dreamworld after a long day spent riding rollercoasters now on the cards. Ardent Leisure, the theme park's parent company, has announced plans to turn part of the land next to the Coomera spot into a new $75 million Dreamworld Resort, which is set to include a hotel and a tourist park. For those keen to bunk down for the night, there'll be options. The resort's four-star hotel is slated to include 250 rooms, and there'll be 40 bungalows as well. Making the trip to the Goldie via caravan? There'll also be 100 powered sites in the adjacent tourist park. Guests will have access to restaurants, swimming pools, a gym and conference facilities, too. Ardent Leisure also plans to include accommodation and theme park package deals, including exclusive offers to access both Dreamworld and White Water World during your stay. Just what that might look like hasn't been revealed — and, before you start making holiday plans, neither has a timeframe for the hotel and resort's opening. [caption id="attachment_810953" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Saberwyn via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] At present, Ardent Leisure has entered into an agreement with accommodation developer Evolution Group to fund and build the resort and tourist park — although it is non-binding, and also subject to a number of preconditions being met. Planning approvals also need to be secured; however, it's hoped that if the resort comes to fruition, it'll help Dreamworld, White Water World and the Coomera region to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. For more information about Ardent Leisure's plans for Dreamworld Resort, head to the company's website. For further details about Dreamworld, visit the theme park's website.
Now in its 34th year, Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia spotlights early-career Australian artists aged 35 and under whose works rethink production, labour and transformation in a rapidly changing era. Curated by the MCA's assistant curator Tim Riley Walsh, the exhibition invites visitors to consider what it means to continue making art in a digital and post-industrial world. The five selected artists — Francis Carmody, Alexandra Peters, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Keemon Williams and Emmaline Zanelli — work across a wide palette of mediums, from boomerangs and birdcages to bronze, corten steel, video and enamel paint. The artworks engage with the fraught relationship between human creativity and machine manufacturing, exploring the pressures on the role of artists in a rapidly changing world. [caption id="attachment_1045266" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Francis Carmody, 'Canine Trap I', 2025, installation view, image courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist, Photograph: Hamish McIntosh[/caption] Among the works: Carmody's narrative-laden installations that marry digital processes like 3D modelling with experimental materials that explore histories of ensnarement and trap-making as metaphors for capitalism; Zanelli's two-channel video and immersive installation that reimagine the subterranean spaces of mines as fantastical realms home to strange beasts; and Williams' sharp critique of cultural labour, featuring 999 outsourced aluminium boomerangs stacked into teetering towers that echo corporate skylines and the unsustainable pressures placed on artists. Running through to Sunday, March 8, 2026, Primavera continues its annual legacy of providing an early-stage platform for emerging Australian artists and curators. With more than 250 artists and 30 curators among its alumni, the series has helped launch numerous artists onto national and international stages. For art lovers, this is an opportunity to engage with the cutting edge of contemporary art — whether you're already plugged into the local creative ecosystem, or looking for new points of entry. [caption id="attachment_1045267" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamish McIntosh[/caption] Top image: Emmaline Zanelli, Magic Cave, 2024-2025, installation view, image courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist. Photograph by Hamish McIntosh.
Dread doesn't get enough credit. It's the emotion of worried anticipation and, as unpleasant and unsettling as it may be, it's the backbone of any truly unnerving horror movie. While startling bumps might elicit momentary jumps, spending an entire film in a state of distress is another experience entirely. Unravelling the struggles of a family wrestling with loss, trauma and unexplained events, Hereditary serves up more than a few well-executed shocks — but it's the picture's unrelenting mood of apprehension and anxiety that marks Ari Aster's debut feature as a disturbing, discomforting masterpiece. Hereditary begins with a piece of text that no one likes to read: a funeral notice for the Graham family matriarch. Yet as the deceased's relatives prepare for the service, only 13-year-old Charlie (Milly Shapiro) appears visibly upset. If her mum Annie (Toni Collette) bears any sorrow about the passing of her own mother, it's channelled into the miniature dioramas she's busy handcrafting — recreations of her sprawling forest-adjacent house and events from her everyday life, including the dearly departed's final days. Still, all isn't particularly well in the slowly disintegrating Graham household. There's distance between Annie and her psychiatrist husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), while teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff) is happier smoking joints between his high school classes than interacting with his family. If the story so far sounds like a routine drama, that's Aster's wheelhouse in a way. In acclaimed short films Munchausen and The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, the writer-director probed the problems that reside behind blood ties — only to take seemingly commonplace scenarios, and then up the ante in a provocative and unexpected manner. In Hereditary, he plagues the movie's protagonists with weird occurrences, including strange words etched into walls, odd flashes of light, upsetting strangers and alarming seances. He is making a horror film, after all. But more than that, Aster doubles down on tragedy, stretches the characters' emotional limits and heightens their psychological strain, trapping the Grahams in a situation devoid of hope, escape or choice. There's a reason that one of the movie's most pivotal scenes, involving Annie unburdening her pain to a support group, expands upon the family's history of mental stress. As we've already mentioned, all of the above mightn't sound overly revolutionary, especially if you've seen Rosemary's Baby, The Shining or The Babadook, three films Hereditary recalls in the best possible fashion. In the same vein as many supernatural spookfests, the involvement of a mysterious woman (Ann Dowd) who tries to help Annie with her grief mightn't sound unusual either. But in a movie that embraces the bleakness of life, and the way that grimness can feel like an unshakeable curse, it's how Hereditary tells its sinister tale that lifts the picture well beyond standard scary territory. If Annie's tiny creations appear painstaking and precise, they've got nothing on Aster's level of meticulousness. Thanks to roaming, grey-hued cinematography, every frame of the film bristles with unease. Courtesy of a score heavy on saxophone and percussion, every sound rattles the nerves. And, with the movie taking the slow-burning approach to an intense and insidious extreme, dwelling in the Grahams' unhappy existence is a fist-clenching, teeth-grinding exercise in deep-seeded tension. One of the year's best flicks — frightening or otherwise —Hereditary has another trick up its sleeve. It's not a huge twist or an especially terrifying moment, although the film contains both. Simply put, the movie wouldn't and couldn't be the powerhouse factory of dread that it is without Collette. The Australian actor played with all things unnerving back in The Sixth Sense, but now haunts this picture like a woman possessed with a lifetime's worth of worry, fear and anger. While Shapiro and Wolff also play their parts to perfection, Collette's expressive face couldn't encapsulate Hereditary's horrors better. When she reacts with fright, pain, anxiety and terror, so does the audience. Keen to know more about this terrifying flick? We went behind the scenes with Hereditary director Ari Aster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__y-uPwbe8
Surry Hills is quickly becoming Sydney's boutique hotel hub. The hyper-local Paramount House Hotel — complete with rooftop wellness centre — launched in March, and the 35-room Little Albion House (which you can book through Airbnb) followed in July. Now, real estate developer Cienna Group is opening a 12-storey laneway hotel on the corner of Riley and Campbell Streets. Designed by Australian architect firm Tzannes, the new Cambridge Hotel will have a swimming pool and spa in the basement, design-focused rooms, a plant-filled rooftop space and in-house bar and restaurant. If the hotel wants to compete with Paramount House, it'll need to get a big name in to run the restaurant. Ester's Mat Lindsay recently opened Poly in the Paramount House building, and it's already a huge hit with locals. Tzannes Director Ben Green said in a statement that new hotel would reflect and be inspired by the surrounding area, saying that the new hotel would be "tailored to the place in which it is located, Surry Hills — gritty, colourful and vibrant". [caption id="attachment_691322" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Render of the new hotel courtesy of Tzannes[/caption] Cienna Group is no stranger to the Surry Hills area, either, owning the existing Cambridge and Adge Hotels on the same Riley Street block. The new Cambridge Hotel will be located adjacent to them, and will have interconnected doors and shared facilities. According to Commercial Real Estate, the new hotel will cost around $26.6 million dollars, and developers need to lodge another application before construction can begin. We'll update as soon as we know more. Images: Renders courtesy of Tzannes.
Circular Quay has welcomed a new rooftop bar into its ranks as the Salt Meats Cheese team opens Bar Ombré on the top level of the Gateway Dining Precinct. The bar boasts house-made cheese, a dedicated spritz menu, a daily happy hour, free bar snacks and sunset views across the Harbour Bridge. Expect a bright fit-out with heaps of greenery and colourful furnishings to greet you as you enter the bar on the third level. Inside, you'll find stretched cheese —made onsite daily — along with antipasto plates of cured meats, burrata and wood-baked focaccia. Share plates include marinated white anchovies with tomato, fried calamari with crumbed zucchini and prosciutto with grilled eggplant, basil and rocket pesto. If these snacks don't quite touch the edges, you can head downstairs for a heartier meal — woodfired pizza or a big bowl of pasta, for example — at the Circular Quay outpost of Salt Meats Cheese, which is located on level two of the dining precinct. To drink, the European-inspired cocktail menu includes the likes of the Forget Me Not (gin, lychee and elderflower liqueurs, egg white and plum bitters) and the Smokin' Nights (amaro, mezcal, Angostura bitters, cream and cinnamon), as well as a pear and maple old fashioned and a vanilla and grapefruit barrel-aged negroni. You can also choose from five different spritzes and a drop off the wine list, which focuses on Italian drops and local biodynamic, vegan and organic labels. We recommend stopping by after work to catch the sunset and the daily happy hour, which runs from 4–6pm. Nab $5 beers, $10 spritzes and $20 cocktail carafes (including Aperol spritz, sangria and margarita jugs). Then, from 6–8pm, punters can enjoy free bar snacks — similar to Venetian cicchetti. Expect truffled pecorino, roasted peppers with salsa verde and wood-fired crackers with pesto, plus smoked olives, cured pancetta and truffled popcorn all on offer (for free). This is the 13th venue for Salt Meats Cheese co-founders Edoardo Perlo and Stefano de Blasi, with other recent openings including SMC outposts in Dee Why and Brisbane's South Bank. Images: Kitti Gould.
Marrickville ceramics studio Clay Sydney is bringing back its super-popular in-studio classes from June, so you can book in for a fun date night or catch up with a mate. After a brief hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions (and moving classes online), the in-studio workshops will be running with limited class numbers. The studio's resident ceramicists will be running wine and cheese nights (BYO vino and cheese), where you'll learn the basics of ceramic design. You'll be hand-building a vase or mug out of white speckled clay then using vibrant glazes to finish. If you'd rather skip the snacks and get straight into getting your hands dirty, Clay hosts wheel throwing classes, plus date night-specific ones on Sunday evenings. The 90-minute classes will take you through how to throw clay on the wheel. Other classes include a mug and mimosa workshop and a planter party. At the end, you'll get to take home a perfectly imperfect product, handmade by you. You can check out times here. Or, if you're planning a special occasion, you can also arrange a private class — think hens parties, birthdays and corporate events. Clay Sydney has changed up its studio a bit to ensure safe social distancing, as well as implemented stricter cleaning routines. In-studio classes will set you back $80, which includes all the gear and guidance you need. For those who would prefer getting creative from the couch, Clay Sydney has been running its Clay At Home sessions ($55), which will continue. Online classes work like this: sign up and the studio will courier you clay and tools; watch the webinar at the scheduled time (or take an on-demand class), chat to the tutors and make your creation; drop your work off at the no-contact spot outside the Marrickville studio; the team will fire it; and you'll be able to pick it up from the no-contact pick-up point. You can also watch the webinar at a later date if you need. For future class dates and to book your spot, check the Clay Sydney website.
What would the global culinary scene of the last 20 years be without René Redzepi? Whether or not you've had the good fortune to dine at Noma since 2003 — including at its pop-ups in Sydney, Kyoto, Tokyo and Tulum — the mind behind the three-Michelin-starred Copenhagen eatery has helped shape the restaurant industry in the 21st century. For more than half of that time, the Danish kitchen wiz has also been cooking up a television docuseries that asks similar questions, but about the ingredients that we consume. What would the world be without chilli? What is the impact of our appetite for tuna? How has salt helped shape our history? Bananas, pigs, rice, coffee, corn: in Apple TV+'s Omnivore, they're all also in the spotlight. It was over a decade ago, when Noma was firmly established as a sensation — it's been voted the planet's best by The World's 50 Best Restaurants five times, from 2010–12, and also in 2014 and 2021 — that Redzepi came up with the idea for the series that debuts on streaming on Friday, July 19, 2024. As happens with renowned chefs, TV offers were coming his way, but never for the type of project that'd see him happily spend time away from his celebrated fine-diner. Taking inspiration from natural history documentaries, especially David Attenborough-fronted greats such as Planet Earth, gave rise to a show that treats the nutritional staples that fuel humanity with the same care and reverence. [caption id="attachment_966274" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Ditte Isager[/caption] With Redzepi leading the way within the series and Australian ex-Noma Chief Operating Officer Ben Liebmann an executive producer — the latter alongside Anthony Bourdain: Explore Parts Unknown alum Matt Goulding — Omnivore's first season whittles down its key ingredients to the eight mentioned above. "It was a giant process," Redzepi advises Concrete Playground in an interview with both him and Liebmann. More than 120 choices were under consideration, but that's one of the program's delicate balancing acts. Another is in the buffet of stories and details that it dishes up about each type of food, telling viewers the origins and history of every ingredient, stepping through the impact and importance at both a mass and a personal level, unpacking the relationship between the item in question and the climate, and recognising that none of it exists in a vacuum without having ripples around the planet. Just like off-screen, of course, Redzepi knows how to create a winning recipe. As it travels the globe, pairing meticulous footage of each ingredient's life cycle with portraits of folks whose existence revolves around them, this isn't a talking heads-led show. It observes. It appreciates. Redzepi is also heard more than he's seen. It's his second television project in as many months, however, as everyone who watches The Bear — so, everyone — will know. Given how long that Omnivore has been simmering, that timing is purely coincidental. Also, even being in The Bear briefly took some convincing. "It's a nice to have, not a need to have, for me," he shares. "I only did it because they really asked me to. I know them very well. We've known them long before The Bear was a thing, and they were in Copenhagen and they shot all these scenes, and they said 'hey, can we please have you there?'," Redzepi tells us. "And I wasn't going to be in the show. I said 'I don't know how to act. Don't ask me this.' But then they they thought it would be a great idea, and I did it. And then many people mentioned it, even though I just look at the guy for a second. I guess it's a good thing for Omnivore that that happened, and perhaps they were right in saying 'no, no, you should be briefly in there." [caption id="attachment_966275" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Ditte Isager[/caption] 2024 isn't just a big year for Redzepi in the TV realm. Before 2025 hits, he'll bid farewell to Noma 2.0 — the restaurant's guise since 2017, after it reemerged following its closure in 2016 — and say hello Noma 3.0, a test kitchen and food laboratory in its latest reinvention. Working on Omnivore has helped cement the new direction for Noma, Redzepi explains in our chat. He also credits Liebmann, whose stint at Noma from 2015–22 sits alongside working on television franchises such as MasterChef, Grand Designs and Idol, with to ensuring that it came to fruition. Ahead of Omnivore dropping its first season in full, ready for a binge that'll make you hungry for chilli, tuna, salt, bananas, bacon, rice, coffee and corn — perhaps not all at once — we spoke with Redzepi and Liebmann about what gets them excited about new projects beyond Noma, the original idea for the series, taking inspiration from Planet Earth, coming up with the right recipe for the show, picking which foods to focus on and Noma's future. Always wanted to know Redzepi's can't-live-without ingredient, too? We discussed that as well. On What Gets Redzepi and Liebmann Excited About New Projects Beyond Noma René: "I think when you get to be part of something groundbreaking, which I think Omnivore is. Being a part of a groundbreaking project with a network that believes in you, working with some of the best people on a project on a subject that I genuinely believe in, that also teaches me so much about a world that I've been in for the past 30 years — that is inspiring. And that really gets me excited when the scope is so amazing, like with Omnivore. That really does inspire me to do something like this." Ben: "I think I've heard René talk about over the years, just that simple idea of stepping outside of one's comfort zone. An opportunity, in this instance, in terms of using media and storytelling to perhaps reach a broader audience, a broader community, than we would otherwise be able to in person — about sharing knowledge, sharing hope, sharing inspiration. And with a series like this, hopefully creating a conversation and potentially hopefully creating a movement around it. I think that's still that power of media and, in this instance, what makes the project so exciting." On What Inspired Omnivore a Decade Ago — and the Original Vision René: "I can't remember if it's like 11–12 years ago or whatever, but it's a while back, and it was at a time when Noma was getting to be known around the world. We had rocket fuel on, and when that happens, you very quickly get offered TV. And I was. I was supposed to be judges in competition shows or travel. I think there was a show called Fire and Ice, and I had to travel around Scandinavia with a celebrity and teach them how to cook and stuff, and show them where to eat. And I guess it was never enticing enough for me to step out of my work. I was also very happy doing that. But it did make me think 'iIf I was ever to do this, what would I do?'. And that's when Omnivore started as a seed: a show that would have the same respect, dedication, care and sophistication towards what we eat as you would see in the great nature documentaries like Planet Earth. If we can show a beetle with so much attention and care, why can't we do that with rice? And thus inspiring people to be more inspired about what they eat and how they eat, and make them more curious about this wonderful world of food — make them hopefully realise that food is the most amazing thing on earth, besides basic nutrition. It's who we are. It's what made us. It was always the genesis of the idea. And when Ben came aboard, that's when we finally could put the pieces together. Because if I would have run it, it would never have happened because I would have tried to run it like you built a menu. It's like 'okay, we have this idea, in seven months it should be on camera, right? It should be on TV?'. That's how I would have thought about it." Ben: "I think from my side, when René originally shared the concept for it, it for me was just so intriguing. It was such a simple but yet powerful idea. And I think what intrigued me was that it had not been done before, which was in itself a very Noma thing of trying to do things that hadn't been done before. Certainly standing on the shoulders of giants in terms of programs that had inspired us in the years before, but trying to elevate, let's call it, food media. Although in some ways this isn't food media. It's this extraordinary kind of combination of food and natural history, but I think it was that amazing challenge and opportunity to try to create something. And then to build a team, an amazing team, from René and Matt, our partners at Fifth Season and obviously in Apple, somebody who believed in this idea and wanted to help it, help us realise that, was where it all began." On the Excitement, Challenges and Daunting Feeling That Comes with Taking Inspiration From David Attenborough, But with Food René: "By no means are we comparing ourselves to his productions at all. We're just inspired by him and his productions. And yes, it is super daunting. I mean, it's the first time for me. I've never done anything like this. When we do menus at Noma, I've reached a point now where when we set it up, the finals tasting, the entire team is there, the test kitchen team is there, and I think to myself 'we nailed it. I know guests will like this'. I know where on the menu they'll be surprised and be like 'oh, my god, I can't believe this'. You get a sense of that and a feel for that, and it's been a while since I had this feeling that 'okay, I have no clue if people are going to like this'. We are putting it out into the world — there might be 50 people that watch it, you being one of them, and we have no clue if people are going to like it and accept it and be inspired. They might hate it. No, they won't." Ben: "It'll certainly start a conversation. It's interesting you ask about that. I mean, 20–30 years ago, somebody also asked that question of — and we're using the old vernacular here, it was prime-time television — but would audiences sit and watch the migration of the dolphin or the mating of the polar bear on prime-time television? Because there had been nothing like that before. And it showed that audiences are looking for things that inspire them and give them hope and make them think, and start conversations. We're certainly not comparing ourselves to the Planet Earths, but we certainly took inspiration from those. Again, it was that thought of 'could we create this catalyst or this movement around food, and just give people the tools and the information to maybe have them think a little more about where their food comes from, and the impact that it has on culture and community and the planet', etcetera." On Balancing Each Ingredient's History, Impact, Influence, Relationship to the Climate and More René: "It's super hard. That was actually a challenge from the beginning to set the focus right, and to tell eight different stories that somehow still have the ethos and our beliefs in it that food is amazing and everything and the most important thing. But at the same time, to say it with different tonalities and different energies — it was really, really hard. And then also not to step into the realm of over-explaining — let the people that are actually being filmed explain, let the visuals talk, not step into the camera saying 'hey, we're going to show you this' and have 15 talking heads explaining everything — but, in that sense, being a little more adventurous. It is always a challenge to do that when you talk about food, the environment, where things come from, where they belong. It's a delicate balance always, without a shadow of doubt. And we threaded very carefully and hopefully we didn't do anything wrong, but I feel like we've really taken great care and attention to actually thread it carefully, and showcase our ideas and the places on earth with a lot of respect and care. Then ultimately, of course, we want to do that without it all telling the viewer what to do or how to do it. That it's an inspiration for people, that we respect you no matter what you choose to do. We all want the same thing: happiness and a good life. We have very different ways, each of us individually, to actually get there, but we believe in a lot of things when it comes to food — and we want to inspire you to try to see some of that, and see if you can grab some of it and implement it in your daily life. On Choosing the First Season's Eight Ingredients René: "It was a giant process of choosing these eight ingredients. We probably boiled it down from 120 or something like that, and I think we have at least season two also well-researched — of course, we don't know if we're doing season two yet, it depends on if people like season one. The process was long and it was hard. We had to do a lot of research before we actually chose. And then, of course, it's between me and Matt and all the other stakeholders in the show. Ben was heavily involved in that, but there was also other people here at the restaurant, like Devin, that works on the show as well from Noma. We had Fifth Season, the producers at Apple, everyone had an opinion actually. It was like the UN Peace Corps. And we made it happen and we ultimately ended up choosing eight ingredients that — we could have chosen eight world-altering staples, put wheat in there and the potato and so on and so forth, but we felt it would be a little too one note to have too much of that in there. We needed something that was also just about love, like the chilli story is for instance. So it was a long process. It takes a lot of research. And then once you have that, you also have a framework for each of the ingredients to actually start from, that you can explain to the director and to everyone that's involved, and then they go do their thing." On Omnivore Arriving Just as Redzepi Is Preparing to Say Goodbye to Noma 2.0 René: Actually, Omnivore has helped crystallise so many of the thoughts for the new Noma 3.0. When we go into that, we have a desire that we'd spend our team, our network, our 21 years of expertise, all the labs we have, to actually broaden our approach and work with new collaborators, start new projects that impact food in a bigger way than just cooking every night for 50 people. And in that sense, figuring out how to focus, how to bring the scope, how to have a larger scope, Omnivore helped crystallise a lot of the projects that we're going to initiate in Noma 3.0. I feel like I should also say that in Noma 3.0, we will still pop up as a restaurant now and then. When the body of work is ready and we need someone to test it on, then we'll come back and work so hard every minute to be the best of the best of the best. But Omnivore has helped crystalise some of the projects, which actually has been an amazing thing for that reason. And surprising, I would also say, that an added bonus was all that we've learned, all the meaning that we saw and all the interesting people you get to encounter, that they help guide you towards your next path. It's fantastic." On Redzepi and Liebmann's All-Time Favourite Ingredients, If They Could Only Choose One René: "Ben Liebmann, it's easy for me. You will let me know what you think, Ben." Ben: "Well, given that it's 7am here and I'm already on my second cup of coffee, it's probably coffee for me." René: "I was sure is was going to be coffee for you. For me, it's without a doubt chocolate. I cannot live without chocolate. That's for real. There's a little chocolate store in Mexico City called La Rifa. It's the best chocolate for me that exists, and I eat a block of that every day. I just can't be without chocolate." Omnivore streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, July 19, 2024.
Singapore is renowned for its world-class dining, efficient transport, luxury shopping and pristine streets. But you don't have to venture far to get your nature fix, with wide expanses of greenery woven throughout the city. Whether its kicking back at an eco-friendly retreat in the heart of the Garden City or wandering off the beaten path to explore Singapore's lesser-known nature reserves, we've partnered with Singapore Tourism Board to share five uncommon adventures to be had in the outdoors. [caption id="attachment_977882" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sum Ling[/caption] Garden Pod at Gardens by the Bay With a field of Supertrees, two massive conservatories (with an indoor waterfall), a sky-high observatory, 1.5 million plants from across the globe, Michelin-rated food and a free light show, it's no wonder that Singapore's Gardens by the Bay is one of the city's most iconic attractions. There's no better way to immerse yourself in the heart of this landmark than to stay in your very own Garden Pod, situated in the Serene Garden of the Gardens by the Bay. This innovative, eco-friendly accommodation comprises four duplex suites with views of the grounds and Singapore skyline, with all of the Gardens' signature attractions at your doorstep. Sentosa Intertidal Exploration Home to wondrous attractions, picturesque beaches and family-friendly activities, Sentosa Island is a local favourite for outdoor explorations. Get close to some of Sentosa's smallest inhabitants with the Sentosa Intertidal Exploration — a one-and-a-half-hour tour which gives you a peek into the world under the sea at Siloso Beach. As the tide recedes, marine experts will teach you about the coastal ecosystem and the importance of conservation, while you encounter crustaceans, clams, gobies and crabs amongst the seagrass and coral. This experience is suitable for all children, but little ones under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Kranji Countryside Only about a 45-minute drive from central Singapore, the Kranji Countryside brings education and nature together. The area encompasses multiple working farms that welcome visitors, as well as a WWII memorial and nature reserve. Animal lovers can dive into the colourful world of fish at Nippon Koi Fish Farm or feed the goats and sample fresh goat milk at Hay Dairies Goat Farm. Learn about sustainable and organic farming practices with a tour at Kok Fah Technology Farm or Kin Yan Agrotech, and then tuck into a farm-to-table meal at Bollywood Farms or GardenAsia. Close out your adventures with impressive views across the Straits of Johor at the Kranji Reservoir Park. History buffs can also pay a visit to the Kranji War Cemetery and Memorial, which is the final resting place for Allied soldiers who lost their lives during the Battle of Singapore and the Japanese occupation of the island during World War II. [caption id="attachment_976872" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lim Wei Xiang[/caption] Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve If you're spending the day in Kranji, you can't miss the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. The 130-hectare park is home to a wide range of wildlife species, from herons, eagles and kingfishers to lizards, otters and even crocodiles. Despite its immense size, it's easy to roam the grounds with a free guided tour or on one of the walking trails. The network of tracks caters to various interests, whether you want to bird watch, explore mangroves or let your little ones run about on the Junior Adventure Trails. For breathtaking views, head to Eagle Point or climb the 18-metre Aerie Tower for a panoramic look at the reserve. Sisters' Islands Marine Park After years of development, the country's first marine park reopened for visitors in October, 2024. Sisters' Islands Marine Park stretches across both Sister's Islands, the western reefs of Saint John's Island and Pulau Tekukor, and provides an insight into the biodiversity of Singapore's marine life. Hop aboard a ferry for a 30-minute cruise to Big Sister's Island — Small Sister's Island is closed to the public for conservation research — where you'll be able to explore a floating boardwalk, a coastal trek, dive trails and a gallery. A major drawcard is the lagoon tidal pool, where swimmers can catch glimpses of reef sharks, turtles, seahorses and giant clams, to name a few. Book your Singapore holiday now with Flight Centre. Top image: Yik Keat. All images courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board.
For many families in the hospitality industry, children often inherit the beloved restaurants where they spent their formative years. It's not often that you find a hospitality veteran launching a restaurant specifically with his parents in mind. Brookvale's Bazaar and Bar and Sketch Manly founder, Kabir Arora, wanted to give his parents a "real place to land" once they emigrated to Australia from India. "Mum had years of catering experience back in India and deserved a kitchen where she could show off properly," says Kabir. "Dad, BJ, is a numbers guy, so he slid straight into the accounting seat. Sketch became our family project before it ever became a restaurant." If you're not familiar with the curry and craft beer house, Sketch Manly, you've been missing out. The restaurant started with Indian tapas nights that the locals packed out. Throughout COVID, Sketch Manly stayed open every day and nine years into their venture, the restaurant still hasn't closed its doors once. "That's how committed we are to being part of this neighbourhood," says Kabir. "Sketch is what it is because Manly made it that way." Kabir describes Sketch Manly as Indian home-cooking meets a cosy Melbourne bar (despite being in Sydney). "Vibey street energy, hip tunes, and a space built with genuine care for food and drinks," Kabir tells Concrete Playground. Sketch Manly's curries are all Kabir's mum's, Sukh's recipes. "It's simple food done right. Our butter chicken and mushroom korma anchor the menu, and the rest rotates seasonally. No gimmicks. Just home cooking executed properly." Said butter chicken is the "unofficial mascot of Sketch", and Kabir prides himself on their version going back to basics. "Too many Sydney spots have turned butter chicken into dessert, so we went in the opposite direction: tomato, butter, cream, a few spices, and restraint." Kabir's partner, Ivy, has also helped Manly to fall in love with the restaurant's newest dessert: the Chai-misu, an Indian twist on the ever-popular tiramisu. Alongside its food offerings, Sketch Manly is also known for pairing its homemade curries with crispy craft beers. "Spices and a crisp, cold beer are natural mates," says Kabir. "A clean lager cools things down beautifully, but a juicy pale or hazy IPA can actually lift the flavours and make the whole meal pop." Ultimately, the family ethos that began Sketch Manly is what Kabir hopes customers feel after dining in. Similar to eating at your cousin's or mum's place, he says, the family hopes diners leave full, content, happy and planning their next visit. "It's the neighbourhood curry spot where everyone feels welcome," says Kabir. "First-timers, regulars, families, tradies — whoever walks in gets treated like part of the crew. We cook the same way every day, with the same care." So, what's next for the Northern Beaches restaurant? Kabir is setting his sights on more dinner collaborations, hibachi nights, and even an expansion. "And we're finally launching Sketch Goods — small-batch chutneys, sauces, pickles, and other Indian pantry staples we've been quietly perfecting," says Kabir. The idea for Sketch Goods is simple: bring Sketch Manly's beloved flavours into other cafes, delis, pubs, and home kitchens. What began as a family project has turned into a nearly decade-long love affair with the Northern Beaches suburb, and as the Pittwater Road gem expands, it seems Sketch Manly's food and flavours could soon be enjoyed by more than just the locals. Images: Supplied
When Super Mario Kart first rolled onto Super Nintendo consoles back in 1992, it came with 20 inventive courses and endless hours of fun. Nearly three decades later, the game has become a beloved phenomenon — not just speeding through desert tracks and rainbow roads, but onto Google Maps and mobile phones, and also into reality. The hugely popular game's next stop? Theme parks. Come Thursday, February 4, 2021, you'll be able to enjoy a real-life Mario Kart experience as part of the first-ever Super Nintendo World. Initially announced back in 2017, the new site is joining Universal Studios in Osaka. Its launch was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic but, after revealing back in October that it'd open early in the new year, the fresh addition to the theme park has an official date. Actually, Universal Studios Japan has done more than lock in an exact date. It has dropped a heap of new details — and a couple of sneak peeks, too. The fact that there'd be Mario Kart and Yoshi-themed rides isn't new news; however, until now, only a few clues about what they'd entail had been released. For those keen to hop on Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, prepare to race through familiar Mario Kart courses that've been recreated in real life. And yes, as you're steering your way along the track, you'll be surrounded by characters such as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. You'll also be able to throw shells to take out your opponents — because it wouldn't be Mario Kart without them. If you're wondering how it all works, expect physical sets, plus augmented reality, projection mapping and screen projection, all designed to make you feel like you're really in the game. As for Yoshi's Adventure, it'll see you climb on Yoshi's back — and it's designed to be family-friendly. So, you'll hop on, then set off on an adventure. You'll follow Captain Toad to find three coloured eggs, plus a golden egg as well. Taking over multiple levels — fitting for a gaming-themed space — Osaka's Super Nintendo World will also feature Bowser's Castle, complete with spiked fences and heavy iron doors. Peach's Castle is part of the park, too, as are other rides, restaurants and shops. A certain highlight: the world's first Mario cafe, which has already launched ahead of the rest of the site. Here, patrons are surrounded by oversized Mario and Luigi hat sculptures, the whole space is kitted out with a red and green colour scheme, and Mario Kart-style checkered floors are a feature. As for snacks, there are Mario pancake sandwiches and cream sodas, plus other drinks available in 'super mushroom' souvenir bottles. The theme park is also introducing wearable wrist bands, called Power Up Bands — which connect to a special app and allow patrons to interact with the site using their arms, hands and bodies. That mightn't sound all that exciting, but the bands will enable you to collect coins just like Mario does in the Super Mario games. Like the red-capped plumber, you'll also be able to hit question blocks to do reveal more coins. And there'll be collectible items to gather, such as keys and character stamps, which you'll find after achieving various goals. The stamps will also earn you even more coins — so you really will be basically playing Super Mario in real life. You will have to buy a Power Up Band separate to your entry ticket to enjoy that element of the park, though. If you're keen to take a look, Nintendo has released two videos that take you through Super Nintendo World — one brief, and the other running for 15 minutes. The latter is hosted by 'Mario's dad', aka Shigeru Miyamoto, the video game designer who created Super Mario Bros all those years ago. It provides a detailed walkthrough, so you'll spy everything from huge piranha plants to giant bob-ombs, all with Miyamoto's commentary . You can check out both videos below — and yes, the music will sound very familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Nc9au7FjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQaRBOI-9kg Nods to other Nintendo games are expected to pop up around the park but, for now, all other specifics remain sparse. Given that Nintendo's game stable includes everything from Donkey Kong to Tetris and The Legend of Zelda, there's plenty more to play with. Our suggestions: real-life Tetris, where you move bricks around in person, or a Donkey Kong water ride that uses the game's iconic aquatic music. While no one is travelling far at present, Universal Studios is also planning Super Nintendo Worlds for its other parks in Hollywood, Orlando and in Singapore — if you need to add more places to your must-visit list when international tourism starts returning to normal. The latter was just announced last year, and is set to open by 2025. Super Nintendo World is slated to open at Universal Studios Osaka on Thursday, February 4.
Gone are the days when a lobby was just a lobby. Now, you'll find all sorts of great cafes, wine bars and coffee nooks jazzing up the bottom of office buildings and residential complexes all over Australia. And for Sydney, the latest of these is cafe Lobby Boy, which has made its home in Northpoint Tower, right in the middle of the action of the North Sydney CBD. Spurred by the success of the original Lobby Boy over in Commonwealth Bank's Eveleigh site, this new northern counterpart is once again the work of Ramzey Choker — the mind behind hits like The Grounds of Alexandria and The Grounds of the City. The result of another collaboration with design studio Acme and the Cromwell Property Group, Lobby Boy North Sydney is decked out with rustic timber flooring, soft lighting and splashes of musk pink and deep green. It's a warm and relaxed space, designed to act as a chilled out meeting place for the buzzing Miller Street office block above. From the kitchen comes a contemporary daytime offering, flecked with international influences. You'll spy the likes of a brioche brekky jaffle stuffed with maple-glazed bacon, roast tomato, egg and smoked barbecue mayo, and a brown rice chirashi salad starring tuna tartare, edamame, charred avocado and salted kombu. A ploughman's-style sandwich is loaded with leg ham, cheese, pickles, heirloom tomato and relish, and a lineup of small plates features the likes of Asian-style South Australian mussels, fried school prawns and an heirloom carrot and buffalo mozzarella tart. Of course, coffees are pumping all day. To match, there's a range of shakes and smoothies, and a line of house-made sodas in flavours like Berry Minty and Pine Passion Fizz. Choker and his team also have plenty more big things in the works, including a huge new dining precinct, espresso bar and coffee research lab opening in South Eveleigh next year. So stay tuned for that one. Find Lobby Bar North Sydney on the ground floor of Northpoint Tower, 100 Miller Street, North Sydney. It's open 7.30am–4pm Monday to Wednesday, 7.30am–late Thursday and Friday and 9am–2.30pm Saturday.
Across 2021's cooler months, locations around Australia will transform into winter wonderlands, celebrating the chilly season in all of its frosty glory. From May through until September, The Winter Village is returning after its debut run in Melbourne two years back — and this time it's dropping by several other cities as well. Modelled on your typically picturesque European winter market — and giving Aussies a taste of a winter experience that we don't really have otherwise — The Winter Village comes complete with an ice rink, an igloo village, daily snow showers, and a food and drink lineup. Think of it as your quaint wintery escape in the very heart of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Parramatta. Melbourne is the pop-up's first stop again, with The Winter Village bringing its frosty fun to Skyline Terrace at Federation Square (aka the top of the carpark) from Thursday, May 13–Sunday, August 29. But this event is actually running concurrently around the nation, rather than making its other destinations wait their turn. So, it'll set up at Torrens Parade Ground in Adelaide from Friday, May 14–Sunday, September 5; at Northshore's Riverfront event site in Brisbane from Thursday, June 3–Sunday, August 29; and at Northbridge's Ice Cream Factory in Perth from Friday, May 28–Sunday, September 19. A Parramatta stopover is also listed on The Winter Village's website, although no dates or locations have been provided as yet. So Sydneysiders had best cross their fingers that the event will make its way to the city. Attendees will be able to dust off their skates and hit the ice, and hire a private igloo where you can wine and dine in cosy solace — either with up to five people in a smaller space, or in a six-metre-wide igloo that can cater for 14. Folks spending their time in The Winter Village's igloos will feast on grazing plates of chips, dips, mini pretzels, cured meats, fried chicken bites, mac 'n' cheese croquettes and more, drink their choice of wine or beer, and tuck into a chocolate ice cream sandwich for dessert. That's the $49 package, with the $69 option including espresso martini-flavoured chocolate fudge dipping sauce, berries, brownies, marshmallows, cookies and your choice of an Aperol spritz, espresso martini, wine or beer. Or, get festive over brunch instead — which includes a 45-minute skate session and a meal afterwards for $35. There'll also be pop-up bars and outdoor seating throughout the village, should you be keen on heading along without spending time in an igloo. The latest venture from hospitality group Australian Venue Co, the frozen oasis will be open daily and free to enter. That said, ice skating, igloo hire and a couple of winter warming beverages will come at a cost. The Winter Village will head to Skyline Terrace at Federation Square in Melbourne from Thursday, May 13–Sunday, August 29; Torrens Parade Ground in Adelaide from Friday, May 14–Sunday, September 5; Northshore's Riverfront event site in Brisbane from Thursday, June 3–Sunday, August 29; and Northbridge's Ice Cream Factory in Perth from Friday, May 28–Sunday, September 19 — and with details of its Parramatta visit still to be revealed. Head to the event's website to book igloos and skating sessions. Top images: Mazloum J.
Each year, Vivid LIVE transforms the Sydney Opera House into a playground of sound and light. Luckily for us, 2025 is no different. From Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14 the world's most-recognisable venue will become an immersive celebration of music's most-exciting names. This year's lineup is stacked with international titans like ANOHNI & the Johnsons and Portishead's Beth Gibbons playing the majestic Concert Hall. Below ground in the Studio, Trackwork, DUNJ, dstreet and House of Mince are bringing the party vibes. For something more low-key and intimate, the Utzon Room is hosting performances from homegrown hip hop, R&B and post-punk artists such as 3%, SAXHL and G2g. And to top it all off, the Joan Sutherland Theatre is featuring explosive nights of genre-defying soundscapes, cutting-edge visuals and electronica with WavyLand's 7th anniversary with Thaiboy Digital and Oli XL and other special guests — as well as Pale Jay, the craftsman of soul-infused heartbreak, plus seminal British electronic group Sabres of Paradise. Your Vivid LIVE night isn't complete without a moment under the Opera House sails, glowing with Kiss of Light — a kaleidoscopic, technicolour celebration of visionary Australian artist and activist David McDiarmid. Don't miss your chance to explore all corners of the Opera House during this exciting takeover. Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14. For more information or to book tickets, visit the website. By Jacque Kennedy.
When Shaun Christie-David launched Colombo Social — a contemporary Sri Lankan diner and social enterprise that supports asylum seekers, refugees and people facing food insecurity — his parents' experiences migrating to Australia in the 1980s were a major inspiration. Memories of his mother's cooking and the way her food bridged cultural divides in her adopted home continue to resonate in every aspect of Colombo Social and Plate It Forward, Christie-David's meal donation charity. Given their close relationship, it might not seem all that surprising that the restaurateur is now joining forces with his amma, Shiranie, for a new series of special menus. What's less expected, however, is that Christie-David is also inviting some of Australia's top chefs to team up with their mothers in the Enmore Road kitchen as well. Colombo Social's Mum Cha events will be delivering multi-course set menus on the last Saturday of every month. In June, Christie-David tapped Merivale's Executive Chef and TV personality Dan Hong (Mr. Wong, MuMu), who was joined on the pots by his mother, Angie Hong. The second event in the series, which takes place on Saturday, July 27, will showcase the talents of Melbourne's Atlas Dining founder Charlie Carrington, who will be cooking alongside his mother Jacqueline. Carrington's impressive CV includes stints at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordan Ramsay in London and pyro-powered Surry Hills diner Firedoor. The eight-course menu will be inspired by Charlie and Jacquie's trips around the world, featuring elevated interpretations of international dishes including a garlic butter-infused smoked drumstick paying homage to the chicken Kiev, a curious fusion of Italian and Asian flavours via a bolognaise vermicelli san choy bao, and a beef taco with European inclinations, dressed with cabbage, peas, mint and ricotta. There are just 40 seats available for the eight-course meal every month, so you'll have to book quickly if you don't want to miss out. Each $150 ticket includes a welcome cocktail on arrival, plus unlimited premium red and white wines for the duration of the 90-minute sitting.
'Handjobs on Hudson' would be a better title for this film, and it turns out I'm not the first reviewer to say it. After the initial handjob scene between Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his sheltered fifth cousin, the local naif Daisy (Laura Linney), I began seeing handjobs everywhere. Daisy seems to exist solely to simulate jerk offs, whether she's on her knees, vigorously rubbing her aged aunt's legs; shaking FDR's martini after he spills it on himself; or smearing mustard all over King George's hot dog. That's King George VI, the stuttering guy we all know and love thanks to The King's Speech. But where's Colin Firth? It would have been so winning to have he and Helena Bonham-Carter reprise their roles as King George and Queen Elizabeth, almost like a He-Man/She-Ra crossover episode. Instead we have the hilarious Samuel West and Olivia Colman, to whom I warmed, as caricaturish as their portrayals are. The plot centers on their 1939 visit to the Roosevelt household in upstate New York, a visit with diplomatic repurcussions at a critical moment when England sought America's help against Hitler. Framing this historical weekend is the story of Daisy's evolving relationship with the President, which comes across rather more degrading than comedic. Screenwriter Richard Nelson nonetheless tries to reimagine the gathering on the Hudson as a comedy of manners, as the King and Queen, FDR, his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams), secretary Missy (Elizabeth Marvel), and mistress Daisy all navigate their own dramas. Cue the trope of uptight Britain being shown how to kick back and have a good time by its affluent colonial son, plied with late-night martinis, hot dogs, and not-so-subtle parallels made between the King's stutter and the President's polio. Visually, there's tons to enjoy, with all the trappings of the era captured impeccably by cinematographer Lol Crawley, who, mind you, seems to be having a private LOL at us some of the time (see: handjob scene). I didn't laugh at the jokes so much as listen out for Bill Murray's adorable mid-Atlantic accent. The film's failing, as many reviewers lament, is that its story is told through the inconsequential eyes of Daisy. Though the screenwriter met the real Daisy Suckley in the 1980s, he fails to connect to her; the climactic moment of betrayal comes across as unearned melodrama, offering very little emotional wisdom. I felt sorry for the character, because there's not enough appeal written into her for us to be truly on her side. At the end, composer Jeremy Sams' main theme repeats itself for the 50th time and we're offered a montage that glosses over too many questions. I genuinely hoped that as far as history and sexual politics went, it was inaccurate. https://youtube.com/watch?v=UQaScjiWDyY
Circular Quay is ushering in the Year of the Rat with the unveiling of 12 lanterns in its annual Lunar Lanterns exhibition, which runs from January 31 to February 9. Each larger-than-life illuminated artwork symbolises one of the signs of the Chinese zodiac, with the free exhibition spanning from the Sydney Opera House all the way to The Rocks. This year's new additions include a tower of nine 2.8-metre-tall gold robotic rats by artist and author Claudia Chan Shaw at First Fleet Park, Lauren Tan's fiery ox on a scholar rock in The Rocks, a rooster made from hundreds of egg-shaped glowing lights by Valerie Khoo at East Circular Quay, and Louise Zhang's eight-metre-tall tower of monkeys at Cadman's Cottage. Other glowing animals to look out for include Qian Jian Jua's impressive pink pig; a slithering, suspended snake; an origami-like rabbit; and a small herd of electric sheep inspired by Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. To help you navigate the animals, the City of Sydney has put together the handy map below. If you visit the lanterns from Thursday–Sunday, make sure to stop by The Rocks Lantern Markets, too, for live music, lion dancing, savoury snacks and colourful dessert. Images: Katherine Griffiths/City of Sydney.
Frustrated at the distant Australian release date for The Great Gatsby? Forget the flamboyance and pizzazz of Baz Luhrmann's film, because the best way to get lost in the decadent world of The Great Gatsby is through this 8-bit video game. Okay, maybe we're exaggerating a pinch, and maybe this isn't the best bit of Gatsby paraphernalia going around. But the Great Gatsby video game is undoubtedly the best Friday afternoon procrastination that we have stumbled across in a very long time. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yqTUKgQ_Cz4 The story behind the making of the game is a Gatsby-esque rags-to-riches tale in itself. Having come across the 8-bit Nintendo game at a yard sale and forking out a whopping 50c for it, the developers thought it deserved some time in the sun and transformed it into an open-source online game. For all the Gatsby fans out there, the thrill of playing as a butler-and-showgirl-killing Nick Carraway in search of both your fortune and the mysterious Gatsby himself is only matched by the games plethora of references, some of which we loved (like that deliciously smug gentleman reading a book and dishing out directions), and some which I imagine flew right over our heads. If nothing else, the game may just be one more thing to get us in the mood for Luhrmann's film, which by now we're busting to see. Via Fast Co.Create.
The much-adored Bondi institution China Diner launches its latest ultimate dining experience — Bottomless Bondi Brunch — on Saturday, April 6. From 12.30–4.30pm every Saturday, you can indulge in a Cantonese-inspired feast, including some signature China Diner dishes, endless drinks and the Bondi Beach ambience — perfect for a weekend celebration. For just $65, dive into the Wok N' Roll package, including their 'chiko' spring rolls, xiao long bao, chicken hokkien noodles and more. Enjoy bottomless house wines, beer and seltzer for 90 minutes. Feeling extra indulgent? Upgrade to the premium banquet for $85, featuring the five-spice duck pancakes with specialty cocktails, including the iconic yuzu spritz — a perfect refreshing beverage to wrap up your delicious lunch. Bookings are essential, so gather your friends and secure your table for a laidback Saturday session filled with great food and endless drinks.
The beloved Halal Snack Pack is an unrivalled treat. HSP's have spawned nationwide appreciation groups in pursuit of the city's best pile of meat and chips — and now, Enmore Turkish mainstay Stanbuli is throwing its hat in the ring for the best inner west HSP. The new menu item sees a small mountain of Stanbuli's tender marinated chicken on a pile of golden-brown chicken-salted chips, topped with the 'Holy Trinity' of sauces: chilli, garlic and barbecue. If you're vegetarian, never fear, the Enmore Road favourite is also serving up a new vego offering that will satisfy any craving for sauce-heavy potato. The kumpir is a street-style baked potato overflowing with butter, yoghurt cream, pickled cabbage, corn and sauce, and has been added to the menu alongside the chicken snack pack. Both menu items are part of Stanbuli's new $38 per person takeaway banquet menu. The affordable lockdown feast is available on Friday and Saturday from 5pm–7.30pm and comes with the likes of bread, hummus, fried vegetable salad, the loaded kumpir and lamb and potato kofte or braised peas. From there, you can add on the HSP as well as pickled octopus salad, or sumac and honey glazed ribs, depending on how extravagant a meal you have in mind. The banquet can be ordered via Bopple, just leave 45mins for the Stanbuli team to prepare before you swing by to pick up your dinner. Stanbuli is located at 135 Enmore Road, Enmore. It's open from 5pm Friday and Saturday. To pre order during the week, contact Stanbuli at enquiries@stanbuli.com.au.
There is no shortage of hairdressing salons and barbershops in Sydney, but Rumbie & Co sets itself apart. Here, the team, led by Rumbie Mutsiwa, specialise in cutting, treating and styling wavy, curly and afro hair. After finishing her apprenticeship, Mutsiwa opened the salon in 2014 with a mission to help clients "embrace every curl". Unlike traditional salons, Rumbie & Co stylists cuts hair dry to "enhance the natural curl pattern". After the curls are looking well-defined and the client is happy with the shape, they are then treated to the usual shampoo, blow-dry and style. Rumbie & Co also offers specialty afro styling, including cornrows, dreadlocks, and weaves. Of course, the usual hairdressing services like colouring and treatments are available, too. To help with the upkeep, the salon also has its own range of products, including curl gels and silk pillowcases. Plus, it runs workshops on styling and caring for curly and afro hair on occasion.
When you woke up this morning, Thursday, February 18, your Facebook news feed probably looked a little different. Instead of news about the pandemic, restaurant openings, events and all the usual things you're used to seeing as you scroll, it was filled with memes, photos from distant family members and groups you don't even remember joining. So, what on earth is going on? Well, there's been a bit of standoff between the Australian Government and Facebook and Google, because of the Federal Government's controversial media-bargaining code, which passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday night. In response, Facebook has banned Australian users and publishers from viewing or sharing any "news articles" on its platform. And it hasn't just banned news. Everyone from embattled Sydney art institution Carriageworks to state government-run Queensland Health, which posts daily COVID-19 updates and streams press conferences, and Melbourne Food and Wine Festival have been kicked off the social media platform. And we have, too. That means, to keep up to date with all the exciting things going on in your city, you need to track us down in other spots. Like, right here on our website, over on our Instagram pages (@concreteplayground, @concreteplaygroundmelbourne and @concreteplaygroundbrisbane), or on Twitter (@concreteplay) and by signing up to one of our newsletters. If you're in Sydney, you can sign up here: Melburnians, get your fix here: And Brisbanites, discover all the best things to do right here. You can also bookmark some of your favourite content of ours. Like the best waterfalls to swim under around Sydney, the best things to do on the weekend in Brisbane and Melbourne's best boozy bottomless brunches. Just because Facebook is boring RN, doesn't mean you have to be. Top image: Kitti Gould
If you happen upon a pink furry fortune-telling ghost on a walk around Sydney, you may have run into a local Newtown resident out-and-about or you may have discovered a new art installation commissioned by the City of Sydney. Beginning the year by bringing some artistic joy to the streets of the city centre, the Council has installed four temporary artworks across the city as part of the new City Art Laneways public art program. The four art pieces, commissioned for up to $50,000 each, can be found in Barlow Street, Wilmot Street, Abercrombie Lane and Barrack Street, all located in the CBD and Haymarket. Environmental group Dirt Witches has transformed Haymarket's Barlow Street into a micro forest made from 30 plant species. The installation incorporates critically endangered eastern suburbs banksia scrub, as well as sugarbag stingless native bees and their hives, and will host talks on environmentalism from scientists, poets, academics and artists throughout its activation. On Abercrombie Lane, you'll find the aforementioned pink furry ghost offering up insights into the year ahead through an interactive fortune-telling video titled We Are All Astonishingly Wise. This omniscient spirt, created by Katy Plummer, allows you to draw an oracle card containing a mysterious riddle designed for self-reflection on the year that's been and what is to come. Multimedia artist Adam Norton has installed giant badges around Barrack Street emblazoned with provocative and prophetic slogans. The badges are mounted to lamp posts and draw on the uncanny relationship between current climate and public health emergencies and pop culture and science fiction that anticipated these emergencies in years gone by. Wilmot Street's artwork is yet to be installed, but when it is you'll find a vibrant light installation that responds to the mood of the weather by artist Rochelle Haley. We Are All Astonishingly Wise will be up until Sunday, February 7, 2021, while Giant Badges, Ever Sun and Barlow Street Forest will remain until July. Read more about the City of Sydney's City Art Laneways program and where to find each artwork at the City of Sydney's website. Images: Jessica Lindsay
Who says Easter egg hunts are just for kids? Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel is hosting an egg hunt unlike any other on Easter Sunday, with their aqua egg hunt for children and kids at heart alike. Suit up in your best snorkelling gear to find treasures (swappable for chocolate eggs) littered on the sandy floor of Watsons Bay. More fun is on tap for the adult crowd throughout the weekend, with DJs spinning music all weekend long and Yolanda Be Cool headlining at Euphoria on Sunday. The Bay Brunch returns for another round of mid-morning face-stuffing on Saturday. Don't miss out on the seafood feasts on offer for the weekend, with everything from lobster to paella being cooked up by executive chef John Pye.
The last week of summer is here, so you might soon expect your social calendar to take a major dip. Yet electrolyte brand Liquid I.V. is working to keep you immersed in life-affirming experiences for the foreseeable future, giving away $100,000 in prizes designed to keep people out and about both in Australia and overseas. Taking place at Manly Wharf from 10am–5pm on Saturday, February 28, simply scan any stick of Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier or Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free Hydration Multiplier at the on-site booth. This earns you a special 'Sticket' — aka your chance to win any of the epic prizes — with the loot up for grabs no small thing. Your Sticket could score you tickets to the Elrow dance music festival in Spain or Bali, as well as tickets to Field Day 2027 or Mighty Hoopla 2027. Also in the prize pool are passes to Yacht Social Club 2027, a 2026 United Cup Champion Player Autograph, LSKD activewear vouchers, and a year's supply of Liquid I.V — alongside 1800 more instant-win prizes. On the day, singer-songwriter and television personality Alli Simpson will be hosting the fun-loving giveaway, ramping up the feel-good vibe even further. What's more, there's an incentive for getting down early. The first 50 people are guaranteed a prize, so put that hydration to good use and score a memory-making prize that ensures your last day of summer is extra special.
One progressive hotel in Oslo is making a pretty bold statement through entertainment programming choices: opting for high culture over the pleasures of the flesh, it has replaced all its TV porn channels with contemporary art videos. Billionaire, magnate, philanthropist, art collector, environmental activist and sensitive dream-man Petter Stordalen, the owner of the large Nordic Choice Hotels chain, has dropped the porn-on-demand channels from all 171 of his hotels across five northern European countries. His motivation? Concern about the link between pornography and the hideous child prostitution industry, which he hopes to help UNICEF fight in its anti-exploitation campaign by doing his part via revamped in-hotel programming. Though dropping porn could seem shocking to some, Stordalen has pointed out that Nordic Choice was also the first hotel chain in the world to ban smoking, a ban which is now considered normal in most public spaces. One of Stordalen's hotels, The Thief, is an 'art hotel', an establishment with its own in-house curator (former director of Norway’s National Museum Sune Nordgren) as well as artworks by Tracey Emin and Peter Blake and special rooms where "art installations signed by supergroup Apparatjik add to your hotel experience" — itself an exciting concept, no? This provides the perfect context for art-video-on-demand in place of the former nookie channels. Nine pieces of high-end video art are currently on rotation on the rooms' interactive TVs, including Sam Taylor-Wood’s 'Still Life' (2001). In this work, you get to watch a bowl of still-life oil painting-like fruits slowly become festooned with mould and decay (perhaps a winking nod to and comment on porn?). Surely it would be soothing to switch from Miley twerking on the VMAs to a thought-provoking piece of modern art while you relax in Oslo. Apparently guests have responded very favourably to the change. Via Hyperallergic.
Bill & Toni's is one of Sydney's longest-running eateries. Other places come and go, but this classic has stayed in the game since 1965. Its trick is to keep things simple, unpretentious and affordable. Think Italian family-sized portions of pasta, complimentary cordial, down-to-earth waiters and red-and-white gingham table cloths. The restaurant on Stanley Street — home to Little Italy back in the 50s and 60s — started out as a cafe, run by Guglielmo "Bill" Chiappini, before mates Toni and Adolfo added a second floor — and a restaurant — in the 1970s. Take the whole family on a Monday night and dig in without obliterating your bank account. Images: Kimberley Low.
In every way that matters, Manly is the heart of Sydney's northern beaches. Despite its close proximity to the city, Manly has a distinctly small-town vibe that you won't find in many other areas of Sydney. In addition to the beach (which we all know is a stretch of heaven), the coastal suburb is also home to great cafes, boutique grocers and plenty of long lunch spots. To show some of Manly's best small businesses some love, we've teamed up with American Express to put together this list of spots that'll help you out, no matter the situation.
Prepare to spice up your April at the Woollahra Hotel's Mexican Fiesta in partnership with Mexican tequila brand Don Julio. Until Friday, April 24, you'll see the hotel's iconic upstairs terrace transformed into a vibrant oasis inspired by all things tequila. Think: lush greenery and pops of azure blue in honour of the blue agave plant. Experience a taste of Mexico and sip on a selection of specially crafted tequila cocktails, including the classic frozen margarita — served in mini Don Julio bottles for $15 — or switch it up with a pomegranate marg. Be sure to check out the fiesta over the weekends, when you will find live acoustic sessions starting from 2pm every Sunday. Book a table now for the ultimate weekend fiesta.
The end of the world is happening in Hollywood. This North American summer has already seen Tom Cruise meet Oblivion, Seth Rogen and co scream This Is the End and all of us embrace our wildest apocalyptic fears in our terrible movie heavens. Now with Elysium, the director of District 9, Neill Blomkamp, turns his sights from apartheid South Africa to the interplanetary concern of undocumented immigrants. In the 22nd century, Earth is overpopulated, polluted and diseased. The Third World is now the world, and the rich have fled and founded a new off-planet habitat, Elysium, a floating disc of palm trees and daiquiris where the idyll sun-bake in oblivion and 'medbays' cure all sickness in seconds. The ruined Earth is just in sight over the horizon, where Matt Damon toils away making the terrifying robot policemen that oppress him and the other proles. A cruelly unnecessary industrial accident exposes him to lethal radiation, and now he's the classic John Connor-style everyman hero with nothing to lose. He needs a medbay, and the only solution is to wage an all-out war on Elysium, opening it up to all Earthly "illegals". His war armour transforms him into a man-robot fighting machine — if Aldous Huxley rather than Marvel designed Ironman. Let's face it, Matt Damon is a boss. Not only is he the most bankable actor in Hollywood, he has not given one dud performance, ever. Think about it. The day he does will be the day I weep and quit movie reviewing with a heavy heart and wistful glance in Brad Pitt's direction. Jodie Foster is our steel eyed, fluorescent-toothed and impeccably tailored Bad Ass Neo-Con, Delacourt. Foster is in full-tilt Nicholas Cage mode here, dispensing with naturalism to give a presentation-style performance as a heartless Hawk whose sole job is to keep those pesky illegals at bay and the squeaky clean wealth of Elysium safe. Her henchman Kruger (Sharlto Copley) is a no less than a demented sadist, screeching outrageously abusive one-liners in a full-blooded South African accent. While his boss is the ostensibly civilised policymaker pushing the sleek buttons of war from afar, Kruger is the brutal, gloves-off and knives-out psycho, and together they form both sides of the conservative coin. This gleeful bastard must surely be one of the best baddies in recent movie history, and a hysterical one at that. He injects the film with a blood-red jab of dark humour, and that sense of humour is something that is sorely lacking from the surging majority of Hollywood blockbusters. His one-liners are wonderfully gruesome, real Old Testament stuff. Best of all, it's this Hannibal-style character that allows Blomkamp to really reach beyond the formulaic sameness that characterises most films of this hi-tech genre and deliver some proper twists in the final act. If you've wondered why recent big-shot Hollywood flicks like the $200 million-plus World War Z have been oddly bloodless, in a way that doesn't gel with their ADHD violence, it's because rocketing production budgets ensure that these films need to be rated PG to attract the largest possible spectrum of paying cinema-goers, and that has to mean high school-aged boys and their parents. Elysium has no such qualms — with an MA15+ stamp, it has gross blood to spare and it's all the more satisfying as a result. If there ever was going to be a contemporary director to hijack Hollywood, it's Blomkamp. He delivers blockbusters based in empathy and political smarts that actually aspire to be more than insulting filmic pollution. The state of Elysium suffers from a serious "political sickness, a moral tumour that must be removed". It's an especially crucial message in the weeks leading up to this country's joke of an election and the more open-ended atmosphere of unhooked xenophobic psychosis. Increasingly, being Australian is like having a totally obnoxious and embarrassing mother who's vocally and publicly racist. And homophobic. And sexist. And completely without social skills. The towering blockbusters of the literary realm have often been piercingly thoughtful and critical (here I'm thinking of Brave New World and The Road. It's more than time for movie blockbusters to be the same, to linger in an afterburn of ideas. Elysium is the blockbuster for me. And these mad times. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oIBtePb-dGY
IKEA's blue-and-yellow Frakta bag has been a shop staple for 30 years. It has helped carry your purchases of (too many) tea light candles, has been an integral part of moving house, has been used to make everything from masks to boots and has even inspired a $2000 Balenciaga knockoff. And now, it's getting a (temporary) new colourway. IKEA has just dropped a limited-edition rainbow version of the instantly recognisable, and super versatile bag, and it's available at all Aussie stores. The multi-coloured Kvanting — with six stripes of purple, blue, green, yellow orange and red, and yellow handles — was first released in the US at the start of June to coincide with Pride Month, with 100 percent of profits from the bag going to the Human Rights Campaign. In Australia, IKEA has decided to make a one-off $20,000 donation to ACON, a NSW organisation that works in HIV prevention and LGBTQI+ health, instead. https://www.instagram.com/p/ByLAEnWAJh9/ Kvanting is available to purchase in-store at all Aussie IKEAs now for just $1.99. It'll be available online from August, too. Kvanting is now available for $1.99 at all IKEA stores across Australia. To find your closest, head to the IKEA website.
Can you think of a better way to spend a muggy, summer night than with an outdoor movie and quality food in Bondi? From January 25 to March 4, American Express is bringing its outdoor cinema to Sydney's coastline. Movies on the big screen this season will include Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Call Me By Your Name, Pitch Perfect 3, Coco, Crazy Stupid Love and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Salt Meats Cheese will be supplying the movie bites with a daily menu of gourmet food, including their truffle pecorino pasta, arancini antipasti and woodfired pizza. In addition, there will be 40 events across the installation, including live music performances, DJs and trivia. Every Sunday, $3 from your ticket will go to OzHarvest to provide meals for people in need. You'll also be able to make use of the bar, serving 4 Pines beer, Giesen wines, cocktails and frosé all night long. Oh, and it's a dog-friendly space with special picnic platter for the pooch, so you don't need to leave part of your family at home. Plus if you're an Amex user you'll get 15% off selected tickets, plus a blanket.
Have you ever been half way through the work week and fantasised about living the simple life? Perhaps you've been dreaming about waking up in a timber cottage with nothing but rolling hills as far as the eye can see? Well, luckily for you, there's a small collection of quaint cottages on vineyards and rustic cabins set amongst idyllic gardens in Victoria — perfect for your next serene weekend venture. To help you live out your dungaree-wearing, straw chewing, horse riding dreams, here's a list of the most charming farm stays across Victoria you can book right now. UNDER A PEPPERCORN TREE, CASTLEMAINE A beautifully renovated self contained studio perched under an ancient peppercorn tree. Just four minutes from Castlemaine, a charming country town with a bounty of restaurants, pubs and small shops. From $216 a night, sleeps two. DOG-FRIENDLY HOLLOW LOG ESTATE, MUSK VALE With weatherboard interiors, a stylish yet quaint kitchen and stain glassed windows, this stone cottage looks like its straight out of a fairytale. Bring your pup for a weekend on the 23 acre property featuring gardens, open paddocks and dams. From $225 a night, sleeps two. HALCYON COTTAGE RETREAT, STRZELECKI This stylish cottage is perfect for a group of friends searching for an idyllic weekend away spent cooking and drinking wine in front of jaw-dropping views of the Strzelecki Ranges. There's a veggie garden and an outdoor bath, too. From $290 a night, sleeps six. MOORAKYLE RETREAT AT EASTERN HILL ORGANIC FARM, BLAMPIED This cottage is set on a 300 acre property that is a registered farm animal rescue and grows wildflowers. Perch yourself on its deep verandah that overlooks grows overlooks native forests, a creek, and Mt Kooroocheang. From $255 a night, sleeps two. BUSH HAVEN CHAPEL NEAR CASTLEMAINE, FRYERSTOWN If you want to mix things up for your next country stay, consider booking a weekend at this chapel (originally built in 1861), which has been lovingly restored and styled. Swim nearby at the mineral spring reservoir if you stay during summer. From $210 a night, sleeps two. ORTO TWO STRAW ECO COTTAGE, BLAMPIED Set on a regenerative permaculture farm, and nestled between even more farms with delightful offerings (free-range pork, home cooked sweets, organic wine and berries), this straw eco cottage also has cooking lessons for two to ten people. From $230 a night, sleeps two. A VIEW TO A HILL, BULLAROO Bullaroo has two spacious bedrooms, each of which can be rented separately or all at once if you're with a group. There's a high-end kitchen and a top floor terrace with a barbecue and bar with sweeping views across acres of farmland. From $690 a night, sleeps five. THE JUNE, BIRCHCREEK This two bedroom cottage is tucked into the foot of the Mornington Peninsula Hinterland, close to beaches and nearby towns. Wander the grounds of the working farm you'll be staying on — you'll see goats, cattle, alpacas and beehives. From $275 a night, sleeps four. RED HILL BARN IN IDYLLIC RURAL SETTING, RED HILL A picturesque barn-style house stands amongst vines and olive groves. The timber wrap-around deck is ideal for afternoon drinks, and there's a dam for swimming on those balmy summer days. From $390 a night, sleeps six. RURAL RETREAT, SELF-CONTAINED STUDIO, WOODFORD If you want alpacas, sheep, pigs and chickens as your neighbours for a weekend, this newly built studio set on five acres of farmland is right up your alley. The farm also supplies fresh free range eggs and has a walking track nearby. From $140 a night, sleeps two. ON A PEACEFUL VINEYARD IN THE YARRA VALLEY REGION, ARTHURS CREEK This B&B is on the first floor of a vineyard farmhouse 45 minutes from Melbourne with world renowned Yarra Valley wineries only a 15 minute drive. If you want to stay in, there's a clawfoot bath for soaking, plus a deck overlooking a private garden. From $246 a night, sleeps two. THE ROCKS, PYALONG This off-grid studio is truly unique — it's surrounded by massive granite boulders and just as many sheep. Bask in views across the Great Dividing Range from the deck, or by the fire through floor to ceiling windows. From $210 a night, sleeps two. MACEDON RANGES FELLCROFT FARMSTAY, COBAW Built by the Crozier family who have been farming in the Macedon Ranges since 1862, every detail in this house has been thoughtfully planned for an authentic and relaxing stay away from the hustle and bustle of city life. From $255 a night, sleeps two. HALFMOON CREEK — MOONDANCE COTTAGE, WANDILIGONG If you've been needing to finish that book with a glass of wine, unreachable by your boss, Moondance Cottage has cozy, rustic decor, no television, no phone reception and gets all of its water and power from the nearby creek. From $255 a night, sleeps two. BABENOREK STUDIO, DEANS MARSH Charmingly styled, with a small but dreamy country-style kitchen and handmade furniture, this solar powered studio was hand-built from lime-rendered straw bales twenty years ago by the family that owns the farm. From $175 a night, sleeps four. TORQUAY FARMSTAY BLUE STUDIO TRUCK, FRESHWATER CREEK Close to Great Ocean Road beaches and national parks, this tiny house has been built on a truck using a recycled timber, windows, doors and stain glass. Don't be fooled by the exteriors — three lofts and a fully functioning kitchen await you inside. From $155 a night, sleeps four. COUNTRY PARADISE IN THE GULLY, SMITHS GULLY The twisted staircase leading to a wooden mezzanine along with stain glass windows and a pitched roof give this farm house a magical feel. Enjoy panoramic views of vineyards, nearby farms and the Kinglake Ranges. From $195 a night, sleeps four. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Having earned cult status (and TikTok stardom) among the seafood lovers of the USA and Melbourne, Cajun-style restaurant The Boiling Crab is coming to Sydney, bringing its famed signature crab boil offering to Haymarket. Monday, August 13 will see the chain open an expansive restaurant on Harbour Street, a couple of years on from making its first Australian splash in Victoria. Just like its siblings in the south, the new Sydney outpost invites you to don a bib and gloves, turf your inhibitions, and get messy digging into saucy piles of seafood and accompaniments. The menu delivers a sumptuous choose-your-own-adventure scenario. First, select your hero seafood — perhaps some Aussie lobster, Moreton Bay bugs, king crab legs, clams or baby octopus — which is priced by weight, then steamed or boiled in your choice of seasonings, sauces and spices. The latter ranges from 'non-spicy' up to 'XXX (I Can't Feel My Mouth!)', and you can round it all out with extras like gumbo, corn on the cob, whole baby potatoes and cajun-spiced fries. It's delivered to you in the bag, ready to be spilled onto your paper-topped table and devoured with abandon. Fans of the fried stuff can supplement their feast with a hefty lineup of crispy things served by the basket. You'll find hot wings in a variety of coatings, soft shell crab served atop a pile of chips, fried calamari and the crunchy Sha-Bang Bang Shrimp, available in three levels of heat. You'll be quenching your thirst throughout with a crisp imported brew, margarita or michelada — or you can BYO drinks for $3 per person. The Boiling Crab will open at the Ground Floor, 68 Harbour Street, Haymarket on Monday, August 13 — open 12–10pm Monday–Sunday.
