22nd August – Saturday
Another glorious, clear and hot day – 29 degrees seems to be the norm.
Not much doing during the morning, mainly cooking and catching up on some reading.
This afternoon we headed for the Esplanade in Cairns and the Festival’s activities for the afternoon and evening. There are supposedly eight brightly painted pianos scattered through the CBD, just waiting to be played by anyone who feels the urge. However, these were rather elusive and we just had to pretend. There were a few buskers about, some quite good, some not so good. The boardwalk area was home to a multi-cultural food fair, with the usual Thai, Indian, Middle East and Chinese food, plus some more local type food on offer.
Also in this area were a number of artistic works depicting the artists’ associations with Australia, together with their “feelings.” These included a group of inflatable crocodiles on the small patch of sand, pink washing on clothes lines, plastic items nailed to furniture and a tree, little red houses, a shark fin made of old bits of car bodies, a giant cupcake and some beautiful little sculptures fixed to the stainless steel wire of a fence.
As the sun started to set, the crowds started to arrive in force for the street parade. This was much larger than we really expected (no fire engines!) and took well over an hour to pass by. Nearly all the floats/participants were local community and school groups, with three high schools entering marching and stage bands. A unicycle dressed up as a seahorse was really well done. Following the parade, we headed to the seats along the edge of the boardwalk to watch the fireworks – a wonderful display fired from barges anchored in the mud!
Another glorious, clear and hot day – 29 degrees seems to be the norm.
Not much doing during the morning, mainly cooking and catching up on some reading.
This afternoon we headed for the Esplanade in Cairns and the Festival’s activities for the afternoon and evening. There are supposedly eight brightly painted pianos scattered through the CBD, just waiting to be played by anyone who feels the urge. However, these were rather elusive and we just had to pretend. There were a few buskers about, some quite good, some not so good. The boardwalk area was home to a multi-cultural food fair, with the usual Thai, Indian, Middle East and Chinese food, plus some more local type food on offer.
Also in this area were a number of artistic works depicting the artists’ associations with Australia, together with their “feelings.” These included a group of inflatable crocodiles on the small patch of sand, pink washing on clothes lines, plastic items nailed to furniture and a tree, little red houses, a shark fin made of old bits of car bodies, a giant cupcake and some beautiful little sculptures fixed to the stainless steel wire of a fence.
As the sun started to set, the crowds started to arrive in force for the street parade. This was much larger than we really expected (no fire engines!) and took well over an hour to pass by. Nearly all the floats/participants were local community and school groups, with three high schools entering marching and stage bands. A unicycle dressed up as a seahorse was really well done. Following the parade, we headed to the seats along the edge of the boardwalk to watch the fireworks – a wonderful display fired from barges anchored in the mud!
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