Two things compelled me to return to Tasmania sooner than I'd expected: one, my good friend and photographer Dee Kramer, who told me about the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, and two, of course the festival itself. “It’s only held once every two years Andy and the king of Holland will be attending”... The Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2017 It was a while since I’d … [Read more...]
A Spanish Festival in Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is an Andalucian seaside town that’s virtually unknown outside of Spain. I found this surprising given it has so much going for it. Christopher Columbus sailed on his third voyage from town, while the first known ship to circumnavigate the world - and the only surviving ship in Portuguese mariner Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet - returned here in 1522. Today, … [Read more...]
Pride and Produce – Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival
It seems that where there’s cold and drizzle, there’s lamb and potatoes in abundance. At least this holds true in England, where the combination is regarded as a “luxurious” national favourite. It also appears so in Guyra, NSW, a comparatively chilly part of Australia where curtains of sleet and mist often wash over the streets of this tiny New England town. As every year folk … [Read more...]
Guadalajara City, Mexico
Arriving at the Festival International Cervantino, in Guadalajara city, Mexico, was like a dream. Colonial-esque buildings forged from large sandstone blocks rested on cobblestone streets, in a dry, savanna-like landscape. It was as if a European town, housing an eclectic culture of old and new worlds, had been tossed into the desert. On this particular weekend, the town was … [Read more...]
Peats Ridge Festival
Cars, dust, checkpoints, jostling for a good campground, the searing heat and familiar bushland hum - part cicadas, part sun - of the Australian summer. It was good to leave the humidity of Byron Bay behind, 700 kilometres further north. Although as we were beginning to find out, Peats Ridge Festival was dishing up one fireball of an event for 2012. This was also the first … [Read more...]