Toy’ing With an Expo in Sydney?

On the 5^th and 6^th July, if you’re looking to tap into your inner kid excitement, the International Toy and Game Expo at the Dome, Sydney Olympic Park is the place to be!

As Australia’s only public expo all about games and toys, the whole family can enjoy two days of playroom heaven and the chance to test everything kid friendly.  From Chess Grandmaster to checking out the new Transformers Age of Extinction Movie Collection and even colour your bike in the Pop Bike Balance booth, it’s all fun and games at the Olympic Park.

Enter a chance to win a trip to Paris with the Days of Wonder Board Game booth or grab one of 30 places left in the Settlers of Catan Championship Tournament. Yep, this is the expo that beats all other related events in the area so make sure you have your A-game ready because there will be a TON of kids elbowing you out the way to view traditional and new technological products.

There are also a bundle of stage shows, a games library, activities for adults and kids, and awards. Presented by the Boardgames Australia committee, the awards include Best Australian Game, Best Children’s Game and Best International Game.

When it comes to the Spotlight Stage Shows, make sure you see AlakaSam, the performing magician who was the kid winner of the Australian Street Entertainment Championships 2014. Geared for kids and adults, his comedy brings magic to life so make a point to take a peek on the 5^th at 12pm and 2pm or on the 6^th at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

Tickets are $15AUD per day for adults, $10 for kids and rugrats (under 4’s) get to toddle along for free. The 2 day pass is $20, kids are $15 and again, under 4 year olds dribble in at no cost. The site also features family day passes at $40 (single day) and $60 (both days).

If you’re in the mood for volunteering and obviously have a free run of the venue at off times, you can check out their submission details for signing up.

Only a 30 minute car drive from an affordable Sydney hotel or 90 minutes by public transport, what a great way to spend a day if you’re on a budget: $15 per ticket and one of the lowest accommodations in the Sydney area. Need more inspiration? Cremorne Point Manor’s website home page shows the incredible Harbour views from the hotel and as a final nudger towards booking a room, they’ve been awarded the Certificate of Excellence by TripAdvisor, for the 4^th year in a row!

 

 

Jazz it up for the Australian International Music Festival

From the 6^th to 13^th July, an event not to miss is the 25^thanniversary of the Australian International Music Festival. As one of the most popular events in the Sydney calendar, you’ll be dancing alongside up to 1,300 other groovers who watch performances by artists from New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the USA and obviously Australia.

The genres are vast, fast and furious including Orchestra, Choirs, Jazz and Wind Bands. Naturally, the Sydney Opera House is a major host venue but you can also check out other concerts at the City Recital Hall (Angel Palace) and Darling Harbour’s flurry of wine and music bars.

Over these seven days, several museums and cultural hotspots also share the music scene with sound so you can enjoy live performances at the Enmore Theatre and The Basement.  Dance along to Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Simply Red and Diana Krall who perform regularly and maybe groupie star-spot famous artists along the way.

Hosted by World Projects, the festival also awards each ensemble Gold, Silver or Bronze plaques based on their performance. If you’re a budding artist and have generated huge kudos in your field, there’s the Showcase Award category for groups that aren’t competing. It’s enough to dust off your recorder, triangle or glockenspiel, right? For more details, you can email the organizers and maybe you’ll be ready this year or be inspired to compete next year.

Tickets can be purchased at the Opera House with standard prices at $30 AUD which is a pretty good deal since you’ll be watching a huge range of musicians – some famous and some up and comers. At nearly 3 hours per performance, it’s a truly great experience that won’t melt your credit card. Additionally, nearly every music group that enters the festival has the amazing opportunity to play for 20 minutes at the Oprah House or Victorian Town Hall.

On the subject of cash flow, If you’re a backpacker or visiting on business and feeling a slight money crunch, instead of staying at overpriced downtown accommodations, there’s an affordable Sydney hotel just a few minutes ferry ride from the Opera House. At Cremorne Point Manor, boasting four years of TripAdvisors ‘Certificate of Excellence’ Award, you can march to the beat of your own budget drum.  If you also take a look at the Manor’s home page, you’ll see the new tour video and yes, the incredible views of the Opera House from the hotel. Now this is really jive talking!

 

 

Wanna Be In My Gang, My Gang, My Gang?

Well you wish can come true… if you’re aged 11-26 years old and live in North Sydney!  The Hornsby Gang Show is the coolest, most creative annual event in the city where this age range auditions every February to be in the Gang to perform a series of shows. The other stipulation is that they are active local Scout and Guide members and the production includes 150 volunteers who get their prepping act together so everyone’s ready for the 27 June - 5 July shows.

These volunteers hang banners, organize costumes, create the show sets and if you’re a local friend or family of the cast, then volunteer away.

Each year, the Gang creates a completely new show from scratch. This includes forming the original idea of the sketches, the writing, design and production along with rehearsals. Bonding these Gang members over the months leading to the show creates amazing hype in the Sydney area. They’ll meet every two weeks for months and brainstorm ideas, formulate the ideal music to compliment their show and once this is finalized, they’ll start assembling the cast and crew.

The production crew, choreography, singing and acting team then rally together with the orchestra so their extravaganza is rehearsed to a fine art, just in time for you to attend the shows.

Starting out in 1973 as a small concert, they now have progressively accumulated 90 cast members for shows in the past 41 years as popularity has risen. The original concept of the show dates back to the London Gang Show in 1932 by Ralph Reader  who’s produced over 19 Broadway, 34 London West End and 50 Royal Albert Hall performances.

Some of the shows are staged around Australia, inspired by the core Sydney team which has turned into a scouting tradition, worldwide.

There are eight total shows in Sydney this year so if you’re in the area, you can potter down to the Asquith Boy’s High School Theater, Asquith and hope to get a ticket at the door, or go to their booking website and secure your seat. Tickets range from $10.70AUD for kids to family packs (4 people) at $53.80 or individual adult tickets at $20.70 and concessions (students, seniors and disabled) at $15.70.

The show venue is only 30 minutes North West by car from an affordable Sydney hotel. Also remember that Cremorne Point Manor’s just received its FOURTH CONSECUTIVE Certificate of Excellence Award by TripAdvisor. Take a look at our new hotel tour on our website home page… it’s a brilliant performance in itself!

 

 

Shuttlecocks galore in Sydney

If you’re a huge ‘flick of the wrist’ type of sports fan because tennis is way too exhausting to watch, then you need to be in Sydney 24-29 June. Yep, it’s that time of year for the Australian Badminton Open!

This isn’t just the top Aussie players taking part in this annual competition. It attractions serious movers, shakers and major eye candy including the best-in-their-game competitors from around the globe.

With $750,000 as the winning prize, you bet that the crème de la crème of sports stars will be showing up and knocking each other out, one shuttle cock at a time, to win the tournament. Taking place at the incredible Sports Center in the Sydney Olympic Park, you can also see a buildup of epic games from players who originate from Europe and Asia.

The website is seriously snazzy and shows real time social media activity, details on buying tickets, current news, events related to the Open and relevant badminton hype around the globe.

The ticket are actually quite reasonable ranging from $20 AUD (adults) and $10 for kids for one match or you can buy a 6 day pass for $160 and get ready to watch a major slam dunk of feathers.  A multitude of other price options are available including 3 day passes and remember to account for the ‘inconvenience’ fees for ticket transactions when you’re budgeting on tickets. For anyone on a business trip to Sydney and need to go all-out on entertaining corporate clients, contact the hotline to get corporate/business rates and wow your colleagues with VIP seating.

If you’re slightly running late and miss the opening ceremony games, then the website also has live updates on who’s heading to the next round. The real time results feature how well these international players are doing, including big names such as Lee Chong Wei, Simon Santoso and Nozomi Okuhara.

A really nice element to point out is that if you’re driving, within 27 minutes on the M2 and A3, you can be back at a really affordable Sydney hotel and have a cocktail while you check out the Harbour skyline. Oh, and a finale comment – do you know TripAdvisor has given us a Certificate of Excellence Award FOUR years in a row? Also just check out our new video tour on the home page and you’ll see why Cremorne Point Manor is so popular. Pat on the back to us, right…and watch that birdie fly!

 

  

Lights, Camera, Action & Awards!

If you’re looking for a flash, bang, wallop of a blog post – you’ve come to the right page. Not only is the Sydney Film Festival  (4-15 June) lighting up the celebrity hype in the city shortly but also Cremorne Point Manor would like to thank the (TripAdvisor) academy for awarding us their ‘Certificate of Excellence.’ This is incredible for us since it’s the FOURTH year in a row of being a recipient! Yes, nearly half a decade worth of consistent awards so gosh, you’re in good company when you come to stay at our affordable, Sydney hotel.

Now back to the Film Festival and 12 days of talent that brings in a huge crowd from locals and global creatives. Since the Festival’s grown so rapidly since mid last century after inspiration from the Edinburgh Film Festival, film makers showcase their movies over several venues. These include documentaries, family films, animations, short films and retrospectives. By the 1960’s and the sheer volume of budding Martin Scorsese’s, the subscribers exceeded 2,000. Originally located at the University, the Wintergarden in Rose Bay became the new home and by 2007, live gigs, shows and cabaret screenings at Metro Theater saw the Festival start to sweep around the whole region.

With a flip flop effect of ‘should we make this a competition or just a showcase’ over the years, the consensus now validates that audience members can vote for popular awards alongside industry prizes. With 10 awards up for grabs (we nabbed the TripAdvisor 4 years in a row ‘Certificate of Excellence’ so that’s taken. Oops, we already mentioned that!), these include the Sydney Film Prize, Peter Rasmussen Innovation Award and the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Think the Award’s only for up and comers? Well take into account that past participants/winners include Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) who won the Sydney Film Prize for ‘Hunger.’  This year’s lineup includes Danny Boyle, Zach Braff and Gia Coppola -  granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola so you’re seriously in good company at this Festival. Gia’s showcasing Palo Alto featuring James Franco and Emma Roberts so you may see a few stars in the sky and on eye level, accounting some films are showcasing from 10pm.

You can buy individual tickets per movie or purchase Flexipass for 10, 20 or 30 movies so for the 30 movies, at $360, you’re paying $12 a film. That’s not a bad deal when you think about the cost of a standard cinema ticket and for die hard film buffs, this is like heaven in the Southern Hemisphere, right?

Oh no, the orchestra’s playing. A finale thank you to you, you and you!

 

Feeling Vivid? Then get to Sydney

If you’re visiting Sydney from May 23 to June 9^th, then you’re in for a serious gallery treat! Vivid Sydney is an elaborate annual event that focuses on ideas, music and light with an outdoor gallery of incredible lighting sculptures. Enjoy from contemporary music programs and the mind blowing illumination of the famous Sydney Opera House that lights up the city like you’ve never seen before.

As one of the most visually creative events of the year in Australia and Asia-Pacific region, you can watch the city turn eyeball after eyeball with a hub of activities. This event is ideal for entertaining clients, showing off to visiting friends if you’re a local, and truly hits a new spot for kids who are bursting with creative ideas.

Since 2009, the creative industry movers and shakers, artists and innovators have transformed this prime city into a canvas where technology, commerce and art meet…and blast you with colour.

Some of the world’s most influential creative forums alongside free public exhibitions (and outdoor lighting sculptures and installations) truly is a showcase of how ideas can blast through a city. From live performances, lighting that blows the Olympic ceremonies out of the stratosphere, it attracts thousands of attendees, so this is the show not to be missed.

Over the 18 days of eye candy, you can check out the Harbour Lights, Martin Place, Aquatic Nights and the Star on 23 May amongst a flurry of others installations. With the Light the Bridge (the most popular installation) and The Star (at the Astral Tower, Darling Hotel and Sky Terrace), if you thought New Years Eve in Times Square blew visuals out the water, then you’ve not seen Vivid in full glory.

Also put your sunglasses on as the University will host an eight day celebration for the first time. The University will be transformed into an interactive canvas of light and performances from May 27 to June 3. From workshops and entertainment to music , live performances and seeing local artists work with students to produce ideas that absolutely hits the left and back brain, this is something you want to mark in your diary.

With around 15 events a day throughout the city, where better to rest your retina than at an affordable Sydney hotel, a short ferry ride from the Harbour. From there, you can view the Opera House at sunset, lit up in an array of colour that even a camera can’t capture so make sure you Instagram video it and share socially. Your friends seriously won’t be able to believe their eyes that you saw this first hand!

 

 

Get Your Pen and Creativity at the Ready...

From the 19^th – 25^th May, the annual Sydney Writers' Festival brings some of the biggest names in literature to NSW for a whole week of performances, talks and panel discussions. With over 300 events and 400 participants, this is the event that will get your left and back brain into gear. Inspired to move, stimulate and provoke creativity, you can book tickets at their website and check out the line up.

The festival launched in 1997 and by 1998, there were over 169 participants in venues around the city, which proves that the intellectual in us all can be enhanced through the power of knowledge and collaboration. With further expansions from interest by locals and tourists, the event has grown to multiple venues in the Walsh Bay area (the renovated piers) near The Rocks, Sydney alongside the Sydney Theater, Town Hall and Opera House. 

The popularity of this event’s 17 year success has also spread to include venues at Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and Campbelltown.The best part is that at least 50 percent of the events are free of charge! Maybe this is why the attendance has reached over 80,000 attendees annually in the past seven years. As a not-for-profit organisation that has an independent Board of Directors, the board members and steering team have included Meredith Curnow, Caro Llewellyn and the most recent Executive Director, Ben Strout. You can also like their Facebook page and interact with them on Twitter. 

The website is quite intense and includes information about purchasing tickets, event updates, festival nights and search for participants by type, gender, location, writer and date. Absolutely no stone is left unturned on this website which will no doubt, rattle your inner IQ to hunt around the site (and blog posts) to help schedule your attendee calendar. 

Take into account that the free events book up fast at Walsh Bay and seats can’t be booked, so they fill in quickly for first come-first served. The festival suggests that if you’re on a tight budget and looking to attend a free event, then arrive early….seriously early. In addition, there are other free events in various venues around the city which you can book, but you need to check the individual listings and reserve your seat. 

Naturally, if you’re visiting the city for the festival, and on a tight budget so looking for the most affordable accommodation in Sydney, you’re a short ferry, train, bus or car ride from many of the event venues. Now that you’ve grabbed a free seat and staying at Cremorne Point Manor so your budget is in check, you can optionally donate to the Festival - every penny helps. Just click on the ‘support us’ page on the website and not only will you enjoy an intellectual event but also have the opportunity to pay forward. It’s that simple!