Melbourne Patron

I am an absolute sucker for pretty lights. So when I saw the Dandenong Festival of Lights advertised, I was pretty keen to go. Basically it looked like a big bunch of colourful, lit-up sculptures with a Chinese twist, in a park. The website more classily described it as celebrating "Chinese culture through a display of hundreds of beautiful and unique silk light displays". We chose a night to go - Friday, 2 October 2015 - and rocked up to Greaves Reserve (Dandenong Showgrounds) around 7pm. There was ample parking, and it was needed: there was a queue of people lining up for tickets probably 300 metres long. An usher said it would be the busiest night of the event's duration (why, I'm not sure). The queue moved quickly though - we probably reached the gate within ten minutes - but I did make a mental note for next time, to buy tickets online beforehand. The entrance was promising: a huge, intricate, colourful archway, lit up against the night sky, framed b...

To say 'thank you' for loaning him my travel pack, a friend shouted me brunch at Grub Food Van  (87-89 Moor Street, Fitzroy) one day in July. It's one of those places you've heard of, but never think to go to until someone takes you. Knowing my penchant for blogging, my friend suggested this place specifically, and I'm glad he did, because it's definitely one of the more unique venues I've been to in a while. Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks, the Grub Food Van is essentially an outdoor site and greenhouse based around a retro silver caravan permanently ensconced at the front of the lot. Owners Mark Murphy and Tim Mann imported the 1965 Airstream caravan from the States and refurbished it for hospitality use. The van A caravan brings with it the notion of being immersed in your surroundings, and this is translated through to the menu via produce grown in the onsite greenhouse, with much of the rest sourced from local suppliers. I wa...

The first thing any Adelaidean will tell you about the Fringe Festival is that "The Garden" is an absoulte MUST. A sectioned-off part of Rundle Park at the north-eastern corner of the CBD, The Garden of Unearthly Delights  (cnr East Terrace & Rundle Road) is essentially the hub for All Things 'Fringe'. Here, for the duration of the Festival, you can buy or collect tickets, attend shows in any one of the on-site 'venues' (mainly tents like you'd find at a circus), buy merchandise, get a food or drink fix, shop at market stalls, attend events, lounge around on the grass or chairs and watch people or the free entertainment, take the kids on rides... and the list goes on. The Garden is set up like an old-fashioned fair: elaborately decorated caravans housing food stalls, games and tickets; various stages and 'big top' style, colourful tents; wooden painted signs, flags, mirrors and coloured lights. It is loosely divided int...