The Weekender: November 14 – 16
DANCE the samba at the Johnston Street Festival, rejuvenate yourself at Mind Body Spirit Festival, check out Melbourne Music Week, or watch Chai Junction’s end of year performance, Open for Inspection. Anthea Batsakis guides you through this weekend’s highlights.
Johnston Street Hispanic Fiesta
Saturday, November 15 – Sunday, November 16 (12.00pm – evening); Johnston Street, Fitzroy
Image: Hispanic Latin American Festival / Johnston Street Festival’s event page.
This festival is a Hispanic Fiesta that will be held on Johnston Street for its 36th year this weekend. The Fiesta is a vibrant and enthusiastic celebration of Latin American and Hispanic culture as well as one thousand years of Spanish language.
This enormous two-day event will necessitate the roads to be blocked in order to make way for dancing, live music, food stalls, and markets that will keep your toes tapping and your mouth watering all day.
Free dance classes will run from noon, giving you a chance to practice samba, cha-cha and merengue. But if this doesn’t appeal to you, then you can just sit back and watch the colourful dancing on the street while munching on donuts, paella and sipping sangria. Live music will be performed by many local artists, including DJ George, Melbourne’s most popular Latin DJ and Salsonando, a Melbourne-based salsa band.
You can find out more about the event by visiting the festival’s official website.
Mind Body Spirit Festival
Friday, November 14 – Sunday, November 16 (10.00am – 7.00pm daily); Melbourne Exhibition Centre (1 Convention Centre Place, South Wharf, Melbourne)
This Friday, the Mind Body Spirit Festival will return to promote healthy and natural living.
With more than 200 hundred stalls, there is a vast range of exhibitors showcasing different ways to achieve wellbeing. The stalls offer various services and products, ranging from psychic readings, mediation sessions, herbal supplements, organic health products, life coaching and spiritual healing. You can also make the most of your experience by enjoying free performances, attending inspiring seminars or even taking part in the meditation session to unwind yourself.
As Australia’s largest and most popular health, wellbeing and natural therapies event, the Mind Body Spirit Festival is an event you won’t want to miss! This year, the festival will be held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and the concession tickets cost $16.
For more information about the festival’s program and its exhibitors, head to the official website.
Melbourne Music Week
Friday, November 14 – Sunday, November 23 (Various times); Various locations
Kicking off this Friday is Melbourne Music Week – a nine-day event dedicated to the talent that makes Melbourne’s music scene so well-known.
Melbourne’s music scene is unmatched anywhere else in Australia, and this inspires Melbourne Music Week to showcase our unbridled talent. The event kicks off with a performance by Melbourne indie pop superstars Architecture in Helsinki at the Queen Victoria Market, but it definitely doesn’t end there! With more than 110 events in 40 different locations and more than 250 local Melbourne artists performing, you won’t be short of finding some new music to listen to.
The engaging line up of local musicians will accompany the industry-focused events, panel sessions, and workshops together with The Age Music Victoria Awards and Face the Music.
Ticket prices vary with each performance and show. The full program can be found at the Melbourne Music Week’s website!
Chai Junction’s End of Year Performance
Friday, November 14 (6.00pm – 8.30pm); Study Melbourne Student Centre (599 Little Bourke St, Melbourne)
A preview of what you can expect from Open for Inspection. Image courtesy of Chai Junction.
Chai Junction will be holding its end of year performance, Open for Inspection, this Friday.
Chai Junction is a service for international students dedicated to generate their involvement with the Melbourne community by conducting workshops and holding social events, among various other means.
The performance, Open for Inspection, humorously follows three students in a confined studio looking for a new flatmate. It tackles the essence of international student life and all that it entails, from the excitement and loneliness to the unity and diversity.
So don’t miss this poignant performance and stay for a chat about the upcoming events and opportunities for 2015. Light refreshments will be provided and tickets are free, but you need to book quickly!
Tickets to the show are free and can be booked through the show’s Eventbrite page.