Last Sunday we went to the St Kilda festival, a festival celebrating Australian music that has been running for over 40 years. The last time we visited was in 2018. I went back and read my blog post about it to remind everyone that we did in fact go with my parents when Ella was two years old. We all have a hazy recollection of this event, the memory made more clear after reading the blog post. That is pretty much the purpose of this blog… so that I’ll be able to remember all the little things that make up our lives that we’d otherwise have long forgotten. Hilariously, our day in 2018 was remarkably similar to our day in 2023, with the addition of an extra child.
Our day started early. The roads are closed to traffic around the festival so we knew it would be tricky to get a parking spot, but we were rewarded for our early departure with a good spot just outside the closed off zone.
The kids had fun exploring the area while walking to the festival. They were enthralled by the giant palm leaves on the ground and wanted to take one with us.
And Ella is always very good at remembering to stop and smell the roses. Or in this case, the sunflowers.
The first part of the festival we visited was a kid's area. These plants played music in response to touch which was really cool.
We then had a photo op with Bluey! I think Ollie was particularly enchanted with meeting the “real” Bluey.
We then came across this funky emu:
In the kids area we watched the children's entertainment group Team Dream. They were very high energy and got all the kids up and dancing. It was like watching an updated version of the Wiggles.
Ella, as usual, took the opportunity of a large grassy area to practice her cartwheels and splits. She's getting pretty good!
Once the Team Dream show was over we headed out of the children's area to check out more of the festival. On the way we stopped to watch some skateboarders along with a medieval battle:
The battle ending up being a bit more violent than we expected (I'm not sure what we were expecting actually... something like Medieval Times maybe?) so we moved on to the main stage, where a 12-year-old called Devy was putting on a very impressive show. She was the New Music Competition winner in 2022 and won the honour of opening the main stage at this year's festival. I could not believe she was only 12 years old. Perhaps in a few years she'll be famous and we can say we saw her when she was just starting out.
This was also a good chance to have a rest and some refreshments while we enjoyed the music.
Next up we headed to Catani Gardens where we saw a pretty good band called Grazier. We set up our picnic rugs in the shade and had some food while watching the band. There were amusement rides in this area and I was shocked, absolutely SHOCKED at the cost of the rides, which ranged between $8-16 PER RIDE. Needless to say, we did not go on any rides this year.
Next up was the obligatory stop for ice cream, and then we headed to the Latin Quarter at Alfred Square. There was a pretty entertaining salsa performance going on but it was really hot by this time, and there was no shade anywhere. At this point Andy and I decided to head home, as I had to pack for my upcoming week at school camp. My parents offered to stay with the kids and take them down to the beach for a few hours, so we headed back towards the car to get their bathers. We did come across this very cool sculpture of an ice skater on the way, a tribute to the St. Moritz Ice Rink that used to be in St. Kilda from 1939-1981.
As per usual, the kids had a fab time at the beach. And Grampy had a nap.
My parents took them back to the festival for a bit, but by this time it was heaving and a bit less child friendly than when we had been there in the afternoon.
All in all we had a pretty good day and I'm sure we will head down to St. Kilda again next year to celebrate the Australian music scene.
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