Concrete Playground

Picture this - Greece, rattling along the dusty, unsealed roads of a sleepy village in the north of Zakynthos. My driver is a fisherman who can barely speak English, and yet we manage to start a conversation. He's very excited to learn that I'm from Sydney:

"Oh, you must know Mary Quill!"

Mary Quill?

"Yes, Mary Quill, very famoos, very big, in Sydney!"

I tried to explain that I didn't know everyone in Sydney, because you know, I'm a jerk who thinks that all people in villages are backwards. And that was when the Euro cent dropped... this heavily accented man was talking about Marrickville.

It is no wonder that Marrickville has become a global phenomenon, cultural melting pot that it is, and likewise it's not stretching the imaginary friendship too far to say that it's the perfect place for a Cultural Festival.

Come and join Mary Quill and her worldly friends throughout the month of September; revel on the rabble streets, fight censorship with underground films, save the world with homemade sustainability and burn your rubber soles for gypsies and nightwalkers.

Remember, the more you do, the greater your chance of immortality in a Greek fisherman's tale.


Photo of Lolo Lovina, performing September 25th
Video of "Red Frogs" by Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers, performing September 27th