Newtown Festival
Pack your hat - Newtown is heating up for its annual shindig
By Sarah Norris
There aren't too many Sydney events that can boast a 30-year run, but Sydney's favourite inner-city suburb, Newtown, can shout it from the rooftops, with their eclectic and bustling annual festival taking over Camperdown Memorial Park for another year. And this year expect big things. "Our 30th birthday celebrations will mean the festival will be more spectacular this year," says a visibly excited festival organiser, Sue Anderson, from the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre.
By spectacular she means four stages of impressive local music - so much so that the Newtown Festival has been described as the "alternative Big Day Out". The Stiff Gins, The Seabellies and Tijuana Cartel will tear up the stage, among other musicians and bands who have all had long associations with the Newtown area.
Bookworms will also get their share of the action, with social commentator Hugh McKay, award-winning journalist Malcolm Knox and cult author Christos Tsiolkas all talking about their latest works at the Writers' Stage. The dog show will make a return, and a bunch of eco events will take place throughout the day. Park your two weeks with 'bike valet parking', get some tips from Planet Ark and the Watershed Sustainability Resource Centre, and in a new twist, a mobile worm farm will be disposing of all of the festival's biodegradable waste. There will also be people. Lots of people. "The festival is a melting pot and brings together so many different types of people. It really is very local and couldn't be anywhere else. It's distinctly Newtown," says Anderson.
Keeping with previous years, the event is a non-BYO affair, with hundreds of stalls and bars serving drinks throughout the day.
The Newtown Festival is on Sun 9 Nov.
While you're there
Buy a second-hand frock at Scraggs House of Fashion. 559 King St, Newtown 2042. (02 9550 4654).
Head around the corner for a beer at the Carlisle Castle Hotel. 19 Abermarle St, Newtown 2042. (02 9557 4852).
Stop for a steak sandwich on the Camperdown side of the Memorial Park at Cordial Café. Shop 8, 130 Carillon Ave, Newtown 2042. (02 9557 6066).