This festival was well planned and well financed and highlighted a certain nation - the object of my    love/suspicious relationship.  Some say that that country has too much influence around our universities - for one .  I wondered about that when their centre of learning opened at the local university but who can say? The university would know what it is doing.

ENVIRONMENT.  Currently, with Ireland in its path, the powerful hurricane, Ophelia, is the most powerful hurricane to have ever been as far east in the Atlantic on record.
 Currently, our decision makers only toy with policies to curb the emissions from energy use that contribute to climate change. The law makers are weak and pushing back.
  One educated politician,  Jesuit education, I believe, and Oxford scholar, has abandoned science and talks second rate anti-climate-change gossip to make matters worse. We need to pay for our pollution in cold hard cash if that's what it takes.     

Leaving the old historical trains behind moving to Vivid in Sydney to a dark shot. That evening, Fairyfloss or Cotton Candy or Candy floss was spun like magic.
One quantity was furled into a ball about each minute and cost $14 for the waiting queue.. It wrapped around a novelty hand held illuminated stick.

Following the pack.  Camel rides and belly dancers were out in force at Hamilton street fest known for staging cultural presentations from new comers from other lands. The belly dancers were probably not in that category.
Despite the exotic vendors I couldn't go past the sushi bar....conveyor....automaton.. .. . . maybe Korean style is best as sushi varies a little.
Sushi -  another rice product. Is nothing sacred, a program with good credentials told us that rice is naturally contaminated with arsenic and suggested that soaking and rinsing and boiling in a large volume of water is mandatory.  Amazing. We wondered if the contaminate has cleared up, used up, leeched out of the environment in Eurasia where rice has been grown for centuries. However, contaminate might arrive with each new flood from the rivers or from the rain fall.

 Alasdair Fraser, Scotland's premier fiddler and Californian cellist Natalie Hass were outstanding duo at National Folk Festival, Canberra with 112 groups or individual performers from the four corners. Non stop.
 And Gordie Mackeeman and his Rhythm Boys from Prince Edward Island were blistering as they say.
 Authentic folk music, world music and lots in between, dance, choral and instrumental workshops, bush poetry, Australian folk, Anzac tributes, then alternative fashions, trinkets, foods were the abundant market stalls. Camping at the site is popular and extensive. 
 Next year marks 50 years and organizers are gearing up for four days always at Easter.
 Weather is warm to rather chilly with a little snow arriving this morning somewhere on a local hill top, they say.

Morris dancing.
Festival poets have been known to parody the dancers. Wonder why?

'Zines and market stalls for This is not art, held in King Street today.

And Christ Church Cathedral.

. The letters of St James - he's on to us.  How did he know about the global financial crisis and Labour day?

An answer for the rich.  Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.  Your wealth is all rotting...All your gold and silver are corroding away, the  same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body. It was a burning fire that you stored up as your treasure for the last days.

Labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them - listen to the wages that you kept back, calling out; realise that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.  On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter, you went on eating to your heart's content. It was you who condemned the innocent..........Jas 5 1-6.

goodness gracious

To its credit, a state school organized a weekend of Fair Trade debates and stalls pertinent to the fringe who are into sustainability.
Hare Krishner nosh was appropriate.  Of course, the carbon footprint of vegetarinism is a step in the right direction as well as its other benefits.
I'm big on good intentions but conversion to sustainability remains a work in progress.  That and other issues take forever and ever to resolve, such as justice for piece workers who machine our well known clothing brands and the stall in the picture is drawing attention to their conditions. 

The Arts with the bard in drapes and Queen Victoria is wrapt.

Why look at a ray of light backstage when the Volatinsky Trio, trained in Odessa, Minsk and Kiev, was on stage? The showwoman who played the cimbalom was a sparkling entertainer.

 

I bet one of those instruments is a.... hurdy-gurdy!
Mega-fauna roamed the festival
Instruments: Try before you buy!
Any excuse for a song by the red shirted songsters

At the National Folk fest in Canberra this troupe were preparing to dance. What national dance? Could be Macedonian.

Back with Thomas Hardy at the National Folk Fest in Canberra. Visitors from Auckland NZ were among the Morris Dancers.

Indonesian style fabric. Local Ethnic Community groups featured cultural collections, food, music and dance on Australia Day holiday where crowds were busy relaxing all over the city, parks and beaches. Japanese design was outstanding in a mini display and the Ukraine was revealed in a potted history which provoked wander-lust then an Indonesian food tasting and samba lessons were cooled off by a small shower of rain and relief from the hellish humidity and before any drunks got out of hand.

Laman Street, Newcastle, is lined with large Morton Bay Fig Trees along this portion with the Art Gallery and other heritage. Several of the trees were removed because they were unsafe and eventually all of them will need replacing with other species.

Civic Park is on the left on a lower level and the festival, the Cultural Stomp, was in progress Saturday.

Monday is the Queen's Birthday holiday, one of two or three long weekend holidays each year including Australia Day, two days at Christmas, one at New Year, four days at Easter, and Anzac Day are the holidays enjoyed by many of us; increasingly those in retail and entertainment (and other jobs) often miss out.

The 'nerve centre' of the Dungog Film Fest was 'getting traction' before the event and was 'spade ready'.
'Done Sundance, done Cannes, Dungog'!

Dungog Film Festival is specially for those who love Aussie films. Stone Bros, shown at the opening last night, was yet another classic and many others are shown over these three days. Simply the best!

In this very small, quiet, conservative country town, an hour or so north of Newcastle, last night's dinner was nicely up-market and 'song' from the outlandish Paul Capsis was just right.
Although, small is beautiful, the arrangments grow more complex so as to appease big city visitors. Mining interests are an assertive sponsor of the event.

Google has an acquatic theme on their tool bar today and prompted this masterpiece taken at the sideshows near Nobbys Beach. Had this siren emerged from the nearby seas?
A group of young European women tourists added a touch of class as they were employed to run the ticketing and the side shows. For one, their fair complexion, without a hint of freckles or sun-tanned weathering, 'gave them away'.

The folks in Stroud are protesting and I suspect the problem is that of proposed mines.
Beware because they are into throwing bricks and rolling pins in this otherwise sedate little country town!

The annual International Brick and Rolling Pin Throwing Competition is held between the four Strouds in the world: Canada, UK, USA and Australia, third Saturday of July each year.

An extended family or mob, as they like to say in some contexts, of Aboriginal Australians gathered at a festival. I asked permission to take a photo. The weather was very hot and a long wait was ahead before the show got going.

At the Picture Show the crowd, on the wharf, was watching every flicker on the screen and the screen was on a floating pontoon - where else? (Is the word floating redundant? Floating is used to be descriptive.)