Fête de la Musique Brisbane

Okay, go grab a cuppa & put your feet while you catch up on our latest adventure...

I recently found a great website, Brisbane in Winter. While browsing around, I came across an event called Fête de la Musique which is a music festival which takes place in about 350 countries around the world on the same day. There are no tickets, no A-Reserve seating, no headlining musos, no critics. Jazz, rock, rap, umpa bands and gospel singers could be on the same bill. All performed in non-music venues.

So armed with our waterproof jackets & a great big umbrella, we braved the rain & headed off to the city. We parked the car at Scott's office and walked down to the Queen Street Mall where there was a big concentration of acts all along the mall. Brisbane isn't as vibey as Sydney but it's certainly got a helluva lot going on in the arts & culture department! Just walking through town, you get to see some pretty cool architecture & there are also sculptures all over the place.

Something else I picked up while browsing the Brisbane in Winter site, was that the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace was on display at Brisbane square - at the river end of Queen Street Mall. This buddha was carved from a rare find - an 18 ton boulder of gem-quality Polar jade discovered in 2000 in Canada and called Polar Pride.

Cathedral Square - Just across the road from Scott's office

I absolutely love this sculpture! I can't find what it's called or who the artist is so it's all very mysterious. I guess that adds to the attraction.

Wanting coffee..... ah great a big NOW OPEN sign at Gloria Jean's..... oh wait, it's closed. Damn!

Funky new building

"The Overseer"

Sculpture on the side of a building

"Dialogue" on Queen Street

It begins.... Our first glimpse of live music in the Queen Street Mall

The Pig & Whistle with Tattersalls Club in the background.

Sahaj Sangeet - An ensemble playing Indian music. They were great - very rhythmic & you could see they were thoroughly enjoying what they were doing.

The Jade Buddha

The Dreadlock Cowboy
(Just to let you know that some of the captions are actually links to the artists' websites - so go, have a look & listen! If it's underlined, it's a link, so get clicking!)

A whole bunch of teenage girls & one guy - can't remember what they were called - something Collective. They didn't really appeal to us.

Scott with a couple of the balls in Brisbane Square

Joseph's Caravan - the St Joseph's Bardon Gypsy Band. A whole bunch of school kids - only their parents were really enjoying their perfomance. But good on them for giving it a go!

Jambezi - an 8-piece marimba band. They were fabulous & had the biggest crowd clapping & dancing

Including me!

It was a total blast!

And this lonesome fellow with his accordian playing for about 3 people

Next we found the Cook Islands Cultural Dance Group. Check out this woman's "bum dance"

Then each of the dancers grabbed someone from the audience. I tried to hide behind Scott but was dragged up anyway!

A very bad impersonation of a hula girl! LOL!

But I think I did better than this guy who looked like he needed a shot of vodka & a furry hat!

They ended off with this dance

And then we found Martin Rappeneau - he normally plays Fête de la Musique Paris but came over to Brissie this year. WOW!!! What a beautiful voice!!! And a real character on stage. It was well and truly worth standing in the rain to watch his performance.

Martin Rappeneau with the Brisbane String Quartet whom he had only met & rehearsed with 2 hours previously. Brilliant!

I'm pretty sure if you click on this picture & look at the enlarged version, you'll see the rain falling.

Here's one of Martin Rappeneau's music videos so you can hear what he sounds like - it also gives you an idea of his sense of humour.

The last perfomance we took in was Muziz. Scott had spent the day wondering if he'd see his work mate, Michael performing. Well, here he is, 3rd from the right. They play Egyptian music while Mike's wife, Tamara (on the far right) does a bit of belly dancing.

Heading back to the car.... "Echoes From The North"

Through Anzac Square

A Queensland Bottle Tree

The Anzac Memorial with Central Station & the Sofitel Hotel in the background.

Scott at the fountain in Anzac square

Scott on the steps of the Memorial

We were very surprised to see the flame out. I'm pretty sure the Memorial in Sydney burns constantly.

All very symbolic - the number of columns, steps leading up to the memorial, all have meaning which I won't bore you with. ;)

The Masonic Memorial Temple. Opened in 1930, this is an incredibly imposing building. Wish we could get a glimpse inside.

And that's all for this time folks!

Bye for now.

Lake Wivenhoe

I was looking around on Google Maps for places to go on a Sunday drive and came across Lake Wivenhoe. It's the origin of the Brisbane River, is one of SE Queenland's main water sources and is just 50km away from Moggill. We took a small picnic lunch and hit the road.... Only to discover that the first road we had to take, Mount Crosby Road, was closed. Scott insisted we take a "short cut" along the side of the road next to a big pipeline. There was no road. Just churned up grass where a couple of 4x4s had tried their luck. I was driving our Astra - not even a 4x4 wannabe! Because there was a bend up ahead, we couldn't even see if the 4x4s had been successful or not. When I refused to take this "short cut", Scott accused me of having lost my "spirit of adventure"..... It coulda gotten ugly but I bit my tongue instead! Ouch! LOL!

We stopped along the way at a bustling little village called Fernvale. Heaps of cars, bikes, trucks & bicycles parked outside this one little shop - Old Fernvale Pie Shop, The Best Pies In Australia. Even though we had our picnic, we couldn't resist & figured that all these people couldn't be wrong. They weren't!!! Fabulous pies - in over 100 varieties & flavours. Absolutely delicious & it won't be the last time we stop there either! Next time we'll take some pics - I totally got lost in pie heaven & completely forgot about the camera.

A is home - B is Lake Wivenhoe

Scott at Logan's Inlet - a picnic area which also has a slipway. Only non fuel driven boats are allowed on the water which is great as you don't have speed boats racing all over the place disturbing the tranquility. All the tinnies we saw on the water had little electric motors.

There's a camp site in the distance there - we're planning a few days away there in for next month

The picnic area at Logan's Inlet

Getting my feet muddy for the pic

A couple with their canoes at the water's edge

It was a beautiful day and we practically had the place to ourselves. There is another picnic area on the other side of the dam wall which was alot busier than this one.

Enjoying the view

A successful Sunday drive discovering somewhere new... Nope, clearly I don't have any "spirit of adventure"..... ;)