All posts tagged: culture

Johnston St Latin American Festival

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Melbourne’s favourite outdoor festival, the Hispanic Fiesta returns to Johnston St this November.  The festival will tranform Johnston St into a Latin American carnival with delicious Latino food stalls, free dance classes, DJ’s and live entertainment all weekend as well as dance showcases by local dance schools and community groups. Inspired by the commemoration of One Thousand years of the Spanish Language, the annual Hispanic Festival is now in it’s 37th year and is guaranteed to be one colourful party. Don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes. When: 21 November – 22 November 2015 Where: Johnston St, Fitzroy Visit the website here. 

Batman

Australian Movie and Comic Expo

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If you’re into gaming, fantasy, comics, anime, sci-fi  or just a straight movie buff, you’ll want to attend the Australian Movie and Comic Expo. Formerly known as Armageddon Oz, this fan event is run by the fans for the fans with special appearances from both local and international celebrities. There’ll be costuming panels, prop making, laser skirmish, lego displays plus a special display of the Back to the Future’s own DeLorean car and the 1966 Batmobile. And for all the comic nerd there’ll be a huge comic book giveaway over the whole weekend, with more than 1000 comics up for grabs for those who arrive early! So get your costumes out, and get ready to mix with the stars, including voice over celebrities  Hal Rayle and Maggie Roswell (The Simpsons) and Melbourne’s own Tristan Jones (current artist on Mad Max Fury Road), plus many more. When: Saturday 17 October – Sunday 18 October. Where: Melbourne Showgrounds Visit the website here. 

Meyers Place Latin Fiesta

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This October, Meyers Place will be transformed into a Latin American street party. The all-ages festival will be filled with the party vibes, showcasing Latin American’s finest food, wine and culture from Meyers Place venues San Telmo, Lily Blacks, Mr Big Stuff, Loop and Loop Roof. And if that’s not enough to get the party started,  there’ll also be live music from Latin American bands  (curated by Mick Williams, PBS Latin connection segment presenter), Carpoeira, and dance lessons of salsa, merengue and samba. When: October 11, 2015 Where Meyers Place Visit the website here. 

Melbourne Fringe Festival

Fringe Festival Review: The Sparrow Men

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The fun thing about improv is that you can go to the same show every night for a week, and quite literally never see the same thing twice. Having seen these two in action before at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, I was once again (as always) impressed by their quick wit, fast ability to throw themselves into character and to draw energy and direction from each other with the smallest of cues. As with most performances of this genre, the audience are asked to throw out their best and brightest one-word ideas for the theme of the night’s show. In this instance we were visibly taken from the sumptuous, marble-roofed home of two fussy retirees, one nosily and jealously spying through the venetian-blinded windows on the new wealthy neighbours as they were moving in, over to the neighbours themselves, past two would-be assassins Russian with a penchant for ham (by the gram) – and then right back around to the beginning, each set of characters somehow linked to one-another as part of the story – it all becoming …

Melbourne Fringe Festival

Fringe Festival Review: Showga

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Reading the bio for this piece, I was expecting to go along and have a good laugh at someone satirically poking fun at the pretentiousness and fake elements of the yoga / wellness industry which at the moment, is so very trendy – and for the most part I did. What I didn’t expect was an hour-long performance which was actually quite insightful – playing on not only the aforementioned pretension and perceived judgement of many so-called wellness “guru’s” but also the hidden undercurrent themes of this genre like low self esteem and hiding one’s own self-loathing by projecting it out onto others… kind of like blowing out someone else’s candle, so yours can shine that little bit brighter. A clever and relatable piece, with plenty of crowd interaction, dressed up in 12 inch glitter platforms, a green two-piece and a feathered headdress reminiscent of of Bollywood-themed Priscilla, Chelsea Evans (aka Chakanunda Vaganunda Chikki Chikki Wa) is one flexible, funny woman. Showga has finished it’s Melbourne Fringe Festival run, with the last show running Sunday evening, 20 September 2015 at the …

Channels Australian Video Art Festival

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Channels Australian Video Art Festival,  Australia’s only biennial celebration of video art and culture kicks off with a bang this Thursday.  The 10-day curated festival will feature 60 artists in 21 events and will present the very best contemporary video practice from across the globe in Melbourne and in the digital sphere.  International festival guest Sam Smith’s new exhibition Slow Fragmentation will mark the launch of the event and the evening will screen  a selection of twelve video works from artist-run-initiatives in Australia and New Zealand at Screen Space. Other highlights include: Saturday 19th September, 4-6pm – opening event with drinks at Incu and Zambes. Selected by Project QUAD, seven video works are presented in non-traditional exhibition spaces including shopfronts, restaurants and hotels along one of Melbourne’s busiest laneways. Flinders Lane, CBD. Saturday 19th September, 10am – 5pm –  In the Epoch of the Near and Far opening. In the Epoch of the Near and Far features work by Petra Cortright (USA), Heath Franco (AUS), Marian Tubbs (AUS), Emile Zile (AUS/NL), Keith Deverell (UK/AUS) and Aaron …

Melbourne Fringe Festival

Melbourne Fringe Festival

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If you’re into independent and creative arts, your time of the year has come. The Melbourne Fringe Festival kicks off on September 16 with over 400 events, performances and exhibitions popping up all over the city. We’d suggest you book your tickets to these events: Luminous “Enter the world of LUMINOUS, where blacklight body art and circus collide to tell neon-lit stories, create magic and form impossible illusions. Leave logic behind and experience a spectacle where hand-painted performers bring their bodies-as-canvases to life.” Opening Night Gala – Sept 18 Turn up the glamour at the Opening Night Gala. There’ll be performers from across the festival, dancing and all round good vibes. Shoot from the Hip Festival “Shoot From The Hip’ is a thrilling detective story, featuring a femme fatale and a private dick, classic 1940s fashions, a jazz-inspired original soundtrack, all in the licentious speakeasy atmosphere of the appropriately named Jury Room.” Torte e Mort: Songs of Cake and Death Enjoy the world premiere season of the darkly humourous, seductive and dangerously witty TORTE E …