While it mightn’t quite be Ballarat, 20 or so minutes away is close enough for me. Running next weekend, and right next door at Meredith, is the 25th annual Meredith Music Festival. It’s always a sellout show, but the festival isn’t about making money or getting to slap a ‘sold out’ graphic over its poster: Meredith is about the community.
As corny as it sounds, and trust me this will rank highly on the corny scale, over the past 25 years Meredith festival has formed its own little family. While past years have seen a few dickheads enter the festival (breaking the festivals very strict no dickhead policy) it still stands as one of the best festivals in the Australian music scene. Chances are, you will never see Meredith so full of life and just plain busy as you will on the weekend of Meredith festival (except of course when Golden Plains rolls around in March). So Ballarat locals, consider this column an love-note to your neighbours lovely festival and a public service announcement to avoid the main roads in Meredith at all costs – that is if you’re not going to the festival.
In the late ’80s Tas Pappas (and his brother Ben) gobsmacked onlookers with their skateboarding skills. They soon made the move from stuffing around at a Melbourne skate park to rivallring Tony Hawk in America and dealing with the many drugs, partying and general lifestyle that comes with the spotlight. In 2014 a film, ‘All This Mayhem’ was made of the brothers’ journey, and Tas is coming to Ballarat (Karova Lounge to be specific) on December 17 to have a chat about his life. Put it in the calendar folks as this one set to be an eye-opener on the skating scene of the ’80s and ’90s
Dates of note
Pop up lunch with Masterchef contestants Jacqui and Ashleigh at Daylesford Cider Company on December 13
70th Annual Jazz Convention for a week beginning on December 26
Early bird tickets are on sale for the Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival on February 11-14
Ballarat Carols on December 13
Written by Alexander Lightfoot
