For me the highlights among Sydney’s neighbourhood festivals are Surry Hills and Newtown. A few Saturdays ago Surry Hills Festival engulfed Prince Alfred Park, and last Sunday perfect weather graced Newtown Festival as it jam-packed Camperdown Memorial Rest Park.
Newtown was the front runner in the vibe stakes… in the past Surry Hills was a contender but this year, at least while I was there, it purred rather than rocked. We arrived and left both festivals early in the day to avoid the crowds, impacting not at all at Surry Hills which hadn’t remotely filled up by the time I left just after lunch. On the other hand Newtown was heaving by the time we left and there were hoards still heading that way at 2pm as we walked home.
From a front entry a street behind Newtown’s King St, courtesy of a mere few gold coins each, we were uplifted and swept along by a melange of music and people. Wandering and browsing, stopping for a snack, listening to bands on the green, the going was reasonably good up until midday when we escaped to a corner near the Writers’ Tent for a bite of lunch, before going in to see Warren Brown, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph cartoonist, and author of Frances Birtles.
When we emerged, we were swamped. The festival had morphed into a moving mass of bodies. We made our way back through and bought a hemp satchel for the G.O. so we no longer need to share mine purchased there a couple of years back.
While the G.O. had a smoke break in a far corner, I attempted to re-enter the melee but quickly emerged defeated by the crowd. We decided to call it a day, and left via a back street only to meet head on, the afternoon shift.
Two notes re Newtown Festival, which encompass also the philosophies of Surry Hills Festival:
“The Newtown Festival is organized by Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, and for more than 30 years the centre has given the festival to its community as a free event [entry via donation*]. The festival is a showcase of all things Newtown with huge crowds gathering each year for a day of community celebration. The Festival is an important event in the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre’s calendar with ALL monies raised by the Festival returned to the Centre to provide community support services to the local community. Newtown Neighbourhood Centre supports people through community action and provision of services to address their need, focusing on the disadvantaged and vulnerable members in the community. The centre provides services to the aged, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people on low incomes. ”
“Newtown Festival 2012 is going Bottled Water Free – making a stand against the commercialisation of water and massive plastic bottle waste. There will be no sale of bottled water by stalls or suppliers – just refill stations serving FREE [truly free*] tap water.”
Given the content of the festival was predominantly people, opportunities to take photos were circumscribed, but to give a feel of the day…
[* Notes are mine.]
daleleelife101.blog 
Your photos make it look very inviting, especially with the warm weather, I can understand why it filled up so quick.
What a brilliant idea regarding water bottles, far kinder on the environment, I do think there is a total overuse of bottled water in the countries where tap water is just as good.
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Thank you 🙂 We only buy water when we’re really disorganised… we have 2 x Cheeki 600 ml steel bottles, I have a ‘deflatable’ plastic bottle, and the G.O. has a Cheeki litre bottle. We gave the Cheeki’s as Christmas gifts last year, and a few this year 🙂
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Sounds like two fun festivals, although I suspect Newtown would have been too crowded for my liking! Thanks for taking us with you! 🙂 PS. I love the Cheeki bottles!
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Newtown was quite good until early afternoon – the morning had a good balance of vibe vs crowd, and we really enjoyed the Writers’ Tent and a whole range of different performers. Sadly we were too late for the dog show… we got sidetracked at the ‘old wares’ shop across from the fire station on Australia Street.
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Missed this (as usual). Looks a fun day out, although I would have disappeared when it got busy. Some nice photos there of people relaxing and just enjoying life. I don’t think I ever went to an Aus festival.
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Thanks… we made a quick escape when it got too busy… I hadn’t been to a festival anything like this until I moved back to Sydney to the inner west 9-ish years ago. I’m fan because there is something for everyone, and they raise much needed funds for the neighbourhood centres.
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I luuuuvvvv a festival. This one looks great! Relaxed crowd, sunny weather, interesting looking stalls – all stars aliened. The bottled water issue also hit a note! It is incredible how this industry has penetrated the market over the last 20 years. Back in the late seventies and early eighties down here it would have been unthinkable that water would be sold in bottles. But when disorganised, I have to admit that I am pleased that my kids have a water option added to the fizzy drink brigade. But am trying to make sure that we always have a bottle of good old tap on hand when we go out anywhere. Distracted mom doesn’t always get it right though!
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Of course if the bottled water option wasn’t avaliable distracted mom’s might be more motivated to pack better!
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Possibly, or it would be cordial for the kids, like in the old days 🙂
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Oros has become our ‘water staple’ and gets thrown into most bottles. Fruit juice is just rediculously expensive and from what i understand has a similar sugar content – so no more of that. I find now that if I have the choice between the two I go for the cordial – most likely I’ve developed an addiction to the chemicals in it 😉 The two litre bottles that it comes in go to the local village where they are used for selling parafin and sour milk . Our formal recycling systems in this country leave much to be desired – so we go informal as much as we can! Have a good sunday.
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I took no water to the festival – didn’t even think of it, but they had stands with disposable cups for us disorganised people.
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