Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Byron Bay Surf Festival

Lots of new things being added in the countdown to the festival. 

25 DAYS AND COUNTING - BYRON BAY SURF FESTIVAL 

The Byron Bay Surf Festival looms near. With less than a month until the opening, the full program is online, locked in and bursting with good cheer. Many new events and festival trimmings have been added this year, especially in the realm of music, art and exhibition.

Big music news to announce this week is that our favorite surf-muso Donavon Frankenreiter will be lifting the new Seaview Stage (at Main Beach). Festival partner Sanuk and Low Pressure Sound System present "A Collective of Life Minded Musicians", spearheaded by Donavon and special guests with a one off jam session by Ash Grunwald, Shannon Sol Carol & Oj Newcomb (Band of Frequencies), Dave Rastovich, Scotty Owen (The Living End), Terepai Richmond (The Whitlams), Vinnie LaDuce (Mt. Warning). These legendary musos are playing to raise awareness, inspiration and continued support for local environmental and educational not-for-profit organizations Take 3, Seabird Rescue Centre, and the Burra Jurra Indigenous Surf Program. This comes as an incredibly rare occasion; a colourful mix of surf culture icons and musical talents performing at a FREE family friendly open-air venue surrounded by sustainable brands like Banks in the Tipi Pop-Up Block, next to gourmet food partners Santos Organics, Loving Earth, Chia Co and Allpress Espresso. Across the road, long time sponsors the Beach Hotel and Corona Extra will continue musical entertainment throughout the festival nights.

More big announcements this week include the much-anticipated Australian premiere of the Californian produced 'Expencive Porno Movie' shot entirely on 16mm film in true 70's retro style, showing at the local Community Centre during the festival. This will be an exciting fringe venue, which also hosts a 'GoPro tech-tips' seminar by GoPro guru Nigel Raynard of Unique Images Australia as well as the GoPro photo comp final presented by pro photographer Willem Ungermann who will also host a GoPro beach day for the grommets.

On the crafty side of the spectrum, the festival is hosting a variety of special workshops; Handplane Shaping by Grown Surfboards, Board Bag Making and Indigo Dye by Byron Bay Board Bags and a very exclusive Wooden Fin Shaping workshop by master craftsman and Itako historian Nobuhito 'Nobby' Ohkawa who is travelling all the way from Japan for this event. In fact, this year the festival hosts quite a large contingent from Japan, as well as from the USA.

 This is obvious also within the infamous Art Photography Show with well-known Japanese artists Iki Yasuo, Hi-Dutch, Kei Otsuka, Kuni Takanami and Yoge Kensuke Yoshida featuring alongside Australian up and coming artists Kasper Raglus, Kye D'arcy, Josh Rufford and renowned American artists Andy Davis, Heather Brown, Matthew Allen and The Captain Surfs of Hawaii. The stART-me-up youth art show and sustainable craft workshops by Meet Make Create is open for kids to do their own recycled/up-cycled art and includes awesome fun prizes donated by local businesses such as a Hot Air Balloon ride up for grabs and groovy surf gear. Local youth are also represented on the music stage. Nearby, major sponsors Golden Breed and Uppercut Deluxe will also be putting on special displays with plenty of historical, vintage surfboards, 50's cars and bikes. Exhibits well worth spending time with!

With so much choice and variety of things to do, feel, smell, see, surf and create; the Byron Bay Surf Festival plans to keep you busy and entertained all weekend. The Friday night opening film 'Beyond the Surface', the Saturday markets with Tipi Pop-Up Block and infamous Corona Party Wave dash for cash at Wategos Beach, besides surfing and demo events on Sunday will be full of sunny merriment. Almost everything is free, outdoors and fun. For the few ticketed events at the Byron Community Centre and Beach Hotel, get in quickly because they will sure sell fast.

Keep an eye on the ever-mounting program at www.byronbaysurffestival.com, be sure to lock in any flights, friends or accommodations soon and we look forward to sea-ing you there!

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