A unique festival experience which endeavours to unite music and art lovers from a broad demographic has been launched on the NSW far south coast.
Key points:
New festival to feature performances from Ziggy Alberts, the Teskey Brothers and Sarah Blasko
The event aims to provide an experience for all demographics
It will take place in September at Bournda
Wanderer Festival's founder Simon Daly has described it as a mix between the popular Woodford Festival in Queensland and Falls Festival, which takes place across a number of states.
The three-day event will be held at Bournda and features a huge music line-up, including acts such as Ziggy Alberts, the Teskey Brothers and Sarah Blasko.
Mr Daly said he aimed to attract a mixed demographic of people to the festival.
"It's for someone who loves going to festivals all over the country and youth events," he said.
"[Or] somebody who loves a Woodford or Womad [festival].
Simon Daly wants to attract a mix of people to the festival.(ABC South East: Keira Proust)
The event will showcase three main stages for a range of performances, including music, arts, circus, workshops and comedy.
There will be a stage for younger festival-goers, another for families and one for a mix of both.
Event by Falls Festival founder
Mr Daly has already had a long career in the festival industry.
He founded the Falls Festival in 1994 and launched the Lost Lands Festival in Victoria a couple of years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
He ran the Falls Festival for 20 years and said he hoped to provide a similar legacy with Wanderer.
He said he hoped to attract 9,000 people to the first one and then expand to 14,000 people for future events.
Mr Daly also founded and ran the Lost Lands festival in Victoria.(Supplied: Ben Vella)
But running a festival on this scale is no small feat.
"There's a reason why something like this at this scale hasn't occurred in the south east before," he said.
"We're absolutely in the middle of everywhere but in the middle of nowhere."
The festival has garnered financial support from the NSW Government, which will provide funding through its State Significant Event fund.
Far south coast residents Sinead McLaren and Lili Postance are keen for the new festival.(ABC South East: Keira Proust)
Local youth excited
Having access to live music might be a given for most young people living in metropolitan Australia.
But far south coast residents Lili Postance, 22, and Sinead McLaren, 23, said it could be quite difficult to find.
"It's always been a little bit tricky," Ms McLaren said.
Now, they'll have a chance to see some big acts in their own backyard.
"It makes me proud to be honest to have so many people in the area and show off our local talent," Ms McLaren said.
"It looks really promising and I think it will cater to a lot of generations."
Ms Postance said she hoped the festival would encourage more young people to stay in the area.
"So, it's going to be cool to have that in our backyard now."
The festival will be held on private property in Bournda on the NSW far south coast.(Supplied: Simon Daly)
A boost for local economy
The southern part of the NSW coastline was hit hard during the 2019-2020 bushfires and also felt a huge financial impact when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Wanderer Festival operations manager Peta Lehoczky said she was among many local people being employed to put on the event.
She said the festival was an important part of the region's recovery.
"After the fires and the pandemic it's paramount to the growth of our region and to bring tourism back here," she said.
"We want to be able to support the local businesses and give everyone opportunities."
Peta Lehoczky has picked up a job working on the Wanderer Festival.(ABC South East: Keira Proust)
Festival organisers also plan to run shuttle buses during the event to give patrons access to and from the surrounding towns.
Ms Lehoczky said she hoped the event would help provide a needed economic boost.
"If we boost the tourism then the cafes will start boosting again and we can get more people employed there," she said.
"And then there are the opportunities with the festival itself, which is just great."
EXCLUSIVE: Shattered Olivia Frazer has a tense phone call as the Married At First Sight star is spotted for the first time since boyfriend Jackson Lonie cheated during a wild night out
She's dealing with a brutal blow after her boyfriend Jackson Lonie was caught kissing another woman in a nightclub on Friday.
And on Saturday, Olivia Frazer appeared to be having a tense phone conversation as she arrived to Sydney Airport after leaving Melbourne, where she and Jackson were on holiday.
Joined by a female pal, the MAFS star, 28, looked downcast and appeared to be growing increasingly agitated throughout the conversation as she landed back home in Sydney.
Olivia wore blue jeans, a green jumper, warm grey coat and a pair of comfortable white sneakers.
She went makeup free for the flight and kept a low profile in sunglasses and a face mask.
Olivia carried a $5,000 Dior tote bag as she held her phone and strolled through the airport.
The sighting comes after Olivia's boyfriend Jackson was caught on camera passionately kissing another woman during a wild night out with the boys at a bar called Lava Lounge in Melbourne on Friday.
Footage shared to Facebook shows Jackson tongue kissing a brunette bombshell Han Hughes for some time.
A devastated Olivia told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday she's 'speechless'.
In the footage, Jackson is seen embracing the 20-year-old, who showed off her curves in a tight-fitting black mini dress and clutched a blue cocktail.
He then goes in for the kiss before another woman runs up to Han and taps her on the shoulder.
Olivia was with Jackson earlier in the night and went home to bed before her beau headed off to party with his friends, including fellow MAFS groom Anthony Cincotta.
The blonde beauty shared a loved-up photo with Jackson on the night to her Instagram Stories, looking gorgeous in a yellow frock and unable to wipe the smile off her face.
They were at 81 Bistro & Taphouse in Berwick, which is just down the road from Lava Lounge.
Swedish director Ruben Östlund's class warfare comedy, Triangle of Sadness, has won the Palme d'Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, giving Östlund one of cinema's most prestigious prizes for the second time.
Key points:
Ruben Östlund won the top award in Cannes a first time in 2017
Korean star Song Kang Ho won best actor for his performance in Broker
Zar Amir Ebrahimi won best actress for her role in Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider
Östlund — whose art-world send-up, The Square, took the Palme in 2017 — pulled off the rare feat on Saturday, local time, of winning the top Cannes award for back-to-back films.
Triangle of Sadness — which features Woody Harrelson as a Marxist yacht captain and a climactic scene with rampant vomiting — pushes the satire even further.
"We wanted after the screening [for people] to go out together and have something to talk about," Östlund said.
The awards were judged by a nine-member jury headed by French actor Vincent Lindon and were presented in a closing ceremony inside Cannes' Grand Lumière Theatre.
Jury President Vincent Lindon (centre) poses with (from left) jury members Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols, Rebecca Hall, Jasmine Trinca, Joachim Trier, Deepika Padukone and Asghar Farhadi.(AP: Joel C Ryan)
The jury's second prize, the Grand Prix, was shared between the Belgian director Lukas Dhont's tender boyhood drama, Close — about two 13-year-old boys whose bond is tragically separated after their intimacy is mocked by schoolmates — and French filmmaking legend Claire Denis' Stars at Noon, a Denis Johnson adaptation starring Margaret Qualley as a journalist in Nicaragua.
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy and The Handmaiden) took home the directing prize for his twisty noir, Decision to Leave, a romance fused with a police procedural.
Korean star Song Kang Ho was named best actor for his performance in Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's film, Broker, about a Korean family seeking a home for an abandoned baby.
Song Kang-ho won the Best Male Actor award for his role in Broker by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda.(AP: Petros Giannakouris)
"I'd like to thank all those who appreciate Korean cinema," said Song, who also starred in Bong Joon Ho's Palme d'Or-winning film, Parasite, in Cannes three years ago.
Best actress went to Zar Amir Ebrahimi for her performance as a journalist in Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider, a true-crime thriller about a serial killer targeting sex workers in the Iranian religious city of Mashhad.
Violent and graphic, Holy Spider wasn't permitted to shoot in Iran and, instead, was made in Jordan. Accepting the award, Ebrahimi said the film depicted "everything that's impossible to show in Iran".
Zahra Amir Ebrahimi Best Actress for her role in Holy Spider.(AP: Vianney Le Caer)
The jury prize was split between the friendship tale The Eight Mountains, by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen, and Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski's EO, about a donkey's journey across a pitiless modern Europe.
"I would like to thank my donkeys," said Skolimowski, who proceeded to thank all six donkeys used in the film by name.
The jury also awarded a special award for the 75th Cannes to Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne — two-time Palme D'Or winners and long a regular presence at the festival — for their immigrant drama, Tori and Lokita.
Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh took best screenplay at Cannes for Boy From Heaven, a thriller set in Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque.
The award for best first film, the Camera d'Or, went to Riley Keough and Gina Gammell for War Pony, a drama about the Pine Ridge Reservation made in collaboration with Oglala Lakota and Sicangu Lakota citizens.
Cannes returns post-COVID
Saturday's closing ceremony drew the curtains on a Cannes that attempted to fully resuscitate the annual France extravaganza that was cancelled in 2020 by the pandemic and saw modest crowds last year.
This year's festival also unspooled against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which sparked red-carpet protests and a dialogue about the purpose of cinema in wartime.
Last year, the French body horror thriller Titane took the top prize at Cannes, making director Julia Decournau only the second female filmmaker ever to win the Palme D'Or.
In 2019, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite triumphed in Cannes before doing the same at the Academy Awards.
This year, the biggest Hollywood films at Cannes — Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, Three Thousand Years of Longing — played outside Cannes' competition line-up of 21 films.
However, their presence helped restore some of Cannes' glamour after the pandemic scaled-down festivities over the past two years.
Sydney is lighting up tonight during the Vivid festival, which has returned for the first time after two years of COVID-19 cancellations.
The Vivid Sydney light walk is "longer than ever" this year, extending from Circular Quay and the Rocks to Walsh Bay, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour and Central Station.
Tickets are also available to check out the lights at Taronga Zoo and Luna Park.
Colourful balls across Darling Harbour for Vivid 2022. (Destination NSW)
Minister for Tourism Stuart Ayres said Vivid Sydney is set to be "bigger, bolder and better" after the festival was cancelled for the past two years due to COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's been a long wait since the lights went out on Vivid Sydney 2019 and few things could make me happier than seeing this spectacular event kick off," Ayres said.
"The world will be watching and welcome.
"For Sydney with Love" will be shone onto Customs House. (Destination NSW)
"It's time to get out and enjoy our Sydney again, to celebrate our beautiful and resilient city."
There are 50 light installations and 3D projections across the city this year as well as more than 100 music events.
Central Station will light up with different artworks during Vivid 2022. (Destination NSW)
Ayres hopes the return of Vivid will boost the hospitality and entertainment industry after COVID-19 caused extensive economic losses to the sector.
Incredible moments as Sydney lights up for Vivid 2018
"We can boost our live performance venues, bars, restaurants, cafes, retailers, attractions, hotels and businesses in the city who have done it tough over the last two years," he said.
Vivid runs from tonight, May 27, through to Saturday, June 18.
Space installations in Barangaroo for Vivid 2022. (Destination NSW)
Anyone attending Vivid Sydney is encouraged to use public transport.
"Public transport is the most convenient option to get to and from Vivid Sydney with all precincts within walking distance of major transport hubs, so leave the car at home," Transport for NSW COO Howard Collins said.
Australian director Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited fever dream of a biopic about the King of Rock'n'Roll, Elvis, has split Cannes down the middle between cheering admirers and barb-throwing critics.
Key points:
Baz Lurhmann's new movie drew a 12-minute standing ovation at Cannes from an audience that included Priscilla Presley, Shakira and Ricky Martin
The biopic attracted a range of reviews from 'dazzling, bold and moving' to 'deliriously awful'
Luhrmann said he was unfazed by the criticism and more focused on the blessings of Elvis's family
The epic, which aired there on Thursday (local time), features a star-making turn by young actor Austin Butler as the swivel-hipped, rule-breaking cultural pioneer and Tom Hanks as his exploitative manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
As one of the hottest tickets this year at the world's top film festival, the movie drew a 12-minute standing ovation at the premiere, which was attended by Kylie Minogue, Shakira, Ricky Martin and the late rocker's former wife, Priscilla Presley.
However, as the first reviews emerged, the glowing portrayal of an American icon and the top solo recording artist of all time divided Cannes.
Robbie Collin of London's Daily Telegraph called it "indecently entertaining" and set for a "big" box office this summer.
"Elvis Presley grooving down 1950s' Beale Street to the sound of [American rapper] Doja Cat and singing Viva Las Vegas in the style of Britney Spears?" he said of the movie's head-spinning musical mashups. "Man, it's good to have Baz Luhrmann back."
Oscar-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro tweeted that the film was "dazzling, bold and moving … Loved it. Loved it. Loved it".
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'Deliriously awful'
The New York Times's Kyle Buchanan said fans of Luhrmann — the brashly flamboyant director of Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet — would get exactly what they came for.
"Overcranked, glittery, silly, fun, ridiculous … sometimes all of those within the same five seconds. The only variables are lead actor Austin Butler — better than expected — and Tom Hanks, much worse," he said.
France's Le Figaro called it a "departure from the conventional biopic" while its "baroque touch does the rest" to make it a crowd-pleaser.
The picture traces the King's life from his dirt-poor childhood living in a black neighbourhood in the segregated Deep South to his final, drug-addled years as a bloated shadow of himself during a lengthy residency in a Las Vegas hotel.
It trains a spotlight on the role of blues, gospel and soul in shaping his music, showing Elvis as a respectful and devoted admirer of black culture rather than a white profiteer ripping it off.
(From left) Olivia DeJonge, Jerry Schilling, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, director Baz Luhrmann, Priscilla Presley, Alton Mason, Natasha Bassett, and producer Patrick McCormick.(AP: Invision/Vianney Le Caer)
In a scathing review, US movie website IndieWire zeroed in on what it called its historical white-washing.
"Martin Luther King Jr's assassination is framed as something that personally happened to Elvis Presley, and made him feel very sad," reviewer David Ehrlich wrote, calling the film "deliriously awful".
The Guardian was similarly unimpressed: "Incurious yet frantic, Luhrmann's spangly epic is off-key — and Austin Butler flounders in those blue suede shoes."
Not a typical villain
At a news conference, Luhrmann said he was unfazed about occasionally being panned.
He said he was most concerned about the reaction of Elvis's granddaughter, Riley Keough, an actress and film-maker screening her new feature, War Pony, at Cannes, and Priscilla Presley. Both have given their blessing to the film.
"Criticism of anything you make — I'm used to it," Luhrmann said.
"No critique, no review was ever going to mean more to us than the review of the woman who was married to Elvis Presley."
Hanks said he didn't take on the role of Colonel Parker as a typical villain.
"I'm not interested in playing a bad guy just for the sake of 'Before I kill you Mr Bond, perhaps you'd like a tour of my installation?'" he joked about the cartoonish evil-doers of the 007 movies.
"What Baz tantalised me with, right off the bat, was: 'Here was a guy who saw an opportunity to manifest a once-in-a-lifetime talent into a cultural force'.
"I give Colonel credit for doing that very thing."
Laurina Fleure is expecting her first child with partner James Black.
The Bachelor star, 38, and the landscape construction businessman, 32, made the announcement via an Instagram post on Thursday.
Showing the couple sitting side-by-side, Laurina captioned the post, 'The mum & the dad... 3.5 months...'
The reality TV star told the Herald Sun she had started to believe having a baby wasn't 'in my cards.'
'I was with James when I was going to freeze my eggs and I didn't react well to the hormones so I gave up and thought I'd struggle to have a baby,' she said.
She also revealed that the pair are planning to tie the knot soon.
The exciting news comes after the Instagram model revealed she was focussing on her 'mind and body' during last year's lockdown by building her very own wellness sanctuary.
'I invested in a tiny sauna and I have set it up in the garage,' she told the publication.
'Whenever I need time out I go in there, turn the lights off, play a really loud mediation and rub my crystals all over my face in an upwards lifting motion,' she explained.
The influencer added that performing these rituals really 'soothes her soul'.
Elsewhere in her interview, Laurina extended her condolences to embattled footy WAG Nadia Bartel amid her snorting scandal.
Like Nadia, Laurina was left humiliated in March after video surfaced online of the reality star snorting white powder at a party in Melbourne.
Laurina shot to fame on Blake Garvey's season of The Bachelor back in 2014, before later appearing on the first season of Bachelor in Paradise.
She went viral after complaining that Blake had taken her out for a 'dirty street pie' at a food truck instead of enjoying a glamorous date like the other women received.
In 2018, Laurina made a brief return to screens on the first season of Bachelor In Paradise.
She entered the Fiji-based reality show in episode two, but decided to quit five episodes later after failing to spark romance with any of the contestants.
