Street performers

There is a new event happening at Surfers Paradise and one of the happenings during that Festival is a competition for Street Performers. Although I live in one of the suburbs inland from Surfers Paradise I wanted to join in the fun and see what was happening.
The Street Performers or Buskers competition started today which meant that I was able to see some of it. My weekend is pretty well organised with heaps of activities! Surfers Paradise is not really the safest place for a woman on her own so I dragged my willing husband along with me as my body-guard.
I was not sure what to expect but I anticipated performers on street corners and alcoves singing or playing an instrument or juggling or whatever, what I did not expect was to find a clearing with rows of chairs arranged for a seated audience in the middle of Cavill Mall. Asking a fellow who was tweaking a sound system inside a small marquee, when things were going to start I was told "two minutes" so we found ourselves a seat on the front row. Following our lead lots of others came and sat down too. Setting up took far more than two minutes! More like twenty! Anyway the wait was worth it, The young Argentinian fellow twiddling a soccer ball while the sound system was being fine tuned turned out to be the first performer.

f6.3  1/200  ISO500

There was not much that this boy could not do with a soccer ball! He was quite a comedian too so his performance was very entertaining.
The act that followed was also a juggling act and although each of the tricks were very clever the fellow himself irritated me so much that I actually wanted to walk away!

f6.3  1/200  ISO500 

This fellow juggled with fire, knives and an active chainsaw (!) and finished up on the top of a pole held up by people he had picked from the audience - he even jumped up and stood on the shoulders of one man (from the audience!) to get up high on the pole where he had a couple of footholds. I actually felt sorry for his victims!
Changing the pace of things was the sound of drums. We looked around and a bunch of people were creating amazing rhythms using tin garbage bins, folding chairs, tin lids and stuff, they walked as they drummed and led the crowd to the top of the Mall to the Esplanade where they stopped and gave a performance. I took a few minutes with my pocket video camera which I will try and put together for tomorrow.
Colin and I walked to another venue at the other end of Cavill Avenue and watched and listened to a very talented group who were playing exciting music.

f11  1/50  ISO500 

The young fellow in the red shirt was just as talented as the other two band members! They were a great trio. I did feel very sorry for the performers who were allotted this location for their performances though, there were no people here. a great venue but no audience.
Surfers Paradise was actually very quiet - apart from the sound from the performers, that is - I have never been there and seen so few people. It meant that I was able to get my shots of the performers easily but from the entertainers point of view it was not good! There are not many visitors around, in past years the place has been teeming with people who are obviously from other countries but today most were locals. The high Aussie dollar has killed our tourism!
AJ

Art in the sand

There is yet another Arts Festival on the Gold Coast of Australia. Over the past couple of years an area of land has been developed into wonderful parkland on the banks of the Broadwater at Southport. Not only is there plenty of lawn and lots of walking tracks but there is so much seating that the place is suitable for people of all ages. The buildings (a stage and buildings for cafes) are modern and the design of the park is not only functional but is pleasant to be within too. It is within this artistic landscape that a new festival has been started. I think that the greatest support for this festival has come from the Sculpture Society and its members. But whoever is responsible I hope that it will develop into something to look forward to each year.
The Festival has been given the name "Bring on Spring" and my photographs of many of the sculptures can be seen HERE.
Fortunately I wandered around the sculpture exhibits during the week because at the weekend I took my young Granddaughter along and she was much more interested in spending time in the children's play park! A different set of photos (not shared with the everyone) were taken there! However . .
There was something happening during the weekend that was not there during the week. A man was busy creating sand sculptures.

f/11   1/80  ISO 800  (very dull light so high ISO)

We happened to arrive soon after he had lit the nostrils of his sand dragon and it was most impressive the way the flames were spouting out of its nose! We were sorry that we had not brought along a spade because we were inspired to try and create our own sandcastle!
Here are a couple more photos of the sand creations - there were two, a dragon and an elephant.

 f/16  1/80  ISO 800

f/16   1/80   ISO 800

While the exhibition was all for free this enterprising fellow had created his sand sculptures with a request for a coin donation to aid his employment! So I presume he was not an authorised participant in the event - but we enjoyed his work and he was a pleasant person willing to talk about his sand sculpting.
The workshops that I had read about and expected to find were not there. Maybe they will be there on Sunday but I am not prepared to return a fourth time to find out. Hopefully next year what is promised will be available at the promised times otherwise the public will not be very forgiving.
AJ