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6 things to try this Festival de Luxe at Chadstone – The Fashion Capital
Warm up your funny bones and get ready to laugh till you cry Melbourne. Festival de Luxe has returned to Chadstone – The Fashion Capital for the month of April delivering side-splitting comedy, awe-inspiring acrobatics and eye-widening performances. This year the festival has teamed up with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to bring some incredibly funny comedians to the southeastern suburbs. We love a laugh, so we went along to the first day of the festival and found out exactly what you need to experience at this year’s Festival de Luxe.
Warm up (and cool down) this footy season at Transport Bar
In Melbourne, most locals can hardly wait for summer to end each year. No, it’s not that they’re fed up with the hot weather – it’s because the end of summer each year means one thing: the start of the footy season. Because the return of the AFL (and NRL if that’s your thing) isn’t just about the games. Oh no. It’s also about the atmosphere – the ability to bond over a few drinks with a couple of strangers before a match or commiserate with other fans after a loss. And for locals, Transport Bar epitomises all that’s good about the footy season with free-flowing beers, pub food and friendly crowds. The appeal of Transport isn’t just its location. To be fair, the location is a big drawcard for fans headed to the MCG, with Transport right next to Flinders Street Station and only a 15-minute walk to the ‘G (ten if you’re really keen). You can even catch a tram from Transport to Marvel Stadium in Docklands for free (catch the number 75 or 35 from Flinders Street). But the bar has also won over fans from all sporting codes for its impressive list of beers, wines and cocktails that help make match day just that little bit better. We challenge any beer lover not to find something they like at Transport Bar. The venue rocks 15 beers on tap (including Furphy, Little Creatures and Guinness) as well as a huge number of bottled beers from Melbourne and around the world. Prefer a vino before the big match? Transport has six different wines on tap and a whole lot more by the bottle. And f
The Miser
Theatrical storytelling, with all its heightened, fictitious elements, relies on a suspension of disbelief. It’s all the more necessary in a farce, with its exaggerated situations unravelling in deliciously ludicrous measure. Bell Shakespeare’s take on French playwright Molière’s The Miser hits such delightful and superficially pleasing notes with its uniquely thrumming rhyming gait, as it opens up on a 17th century social and familial circle. At the centre of this circle is stingy skinflint Harpagon (John Bell), but he isn’t just any ordinary money-hoarder: he’s a butt-sniffing, nose-picking Scrooge-type so depressingly frugal that he puts the miser in miserable. He cares more for the 10,000 gold crowns in a tightly screwed money pot in his garden than he does about his children, Cleante (Damien Strouthos) and Elise (Harriet Gordon-Anderson). So it’s not exactly a surprise that he misses a key piece of personal, important news: both of them are in love – Cleante with Mariane (Elizabeth Nabben), and Elise with Harpagon’s own servant, Valère (Jessica Tovey). The problem with their lovers? They’re not exactly to Harpagon’s economic standards – and Cleante and Elise must then conceal their planned betrothals. What plays out is a mismatch of cheeky scenarios filled in with dramatic irony, as Harpagon reveals his plans to marry Mariane for himself, and meanwhile setting up Elise to marry the old, wealthy widow Signor Anselm (Sean O’Shea). This is Australian writer Justin Fleming
The Wharf Hotel is launching a guilt-free garden party
Inviting riverside pub the Wharf Hotel has answered everyone’s prayers — they have taken the concept of bottomless brunch (where you would usually get sugary drinks and indulgent treats which definitely don’t pass for breakfast) and have flipped it on its head with healthier low-sugar cocktails so you can treat yourself without the calories. Every Saturday afternoon from 2pm-4pm, grab a few mates and settle yourself on the garden deck where for $49, you will be served up unlimited jugs of cocktails with a healthy twist — they are made with a ‘shrub’ starter (a mixture of fruit, vinegar, and sugar). The shrub syrup is used as the base for some tempting tipples, especially when you know they contain less sugar than the bevvies usually found in your typical Saturday sesh. There are currently some pretty enticing cocktails on offer, like tequila, watermelon and basil, or Bacardi, mint and cucumber. Also looking good are the dark rum and spiced pineapple or a Vodka and berry bliss option, and you’ll be able to enjoy any and all of them with a healthy grazing platter to share between you and your mates. Flavours will change seasonally, and you’ll have to book ahead in order to snag yourself some prime real-estate on the banks of the Yarra for a couple of hours. To check out the details on the Wharf Hotel's website and book a table click here.