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...

Some might call it inner-city wank, but to me, the Gertrude Street Projection Festival , held annually for a week or two in winter, is what Melbourne is all about. Now in its seventh year, I have been to the Festival almost every year since landing in "Melbs" 5.534 years ago (yes, I actually just figured out that amount of time to three decimal points), and although it is often a bloody freezing foray down Gertrude Street, it is always enjoyable. Fitzroy and Collingwood are about as cool as you can get in Melbourne, suburb-wise (and yes, I'm biased): homes to hipsters-y students, young professionals, and alternative families (massive generalisations of course, but then, I am actually generalising here), 'typical' Melbourne fashions plus up-and-coming designers, food trends, bicycles, music venues, pubs, restaurants, cafes and bars galore, galleries and loads of street art, iconic tram lines, and some of the oldest (and therefore, grungiest) buildings to ...