While some harbourside partiers will be celebrating Bastille Day with warming cheese dishes and gallons of fancy French wine, Sydneysiders longing for hot summer days could be racing to this man-made beach in Circular Quay. It’s being shipped in as part of Bastille Festival Sydney as a nod to France’s cousin here in the Southern Hemisphere: New Caledonia.
They’re calling the whole sandy set-up on the eastern side of the promenade Kanak Beach Village, and it’ll be open for four days and nights of chilly island parties. The main feature is 'the island’ (the sandy bit), which comes fully equipped with a cocktail bar, a barbecue restaurant grilling up fiery pork and seafood, European-style beach lounges, beach umbrellas and cruisy tunes. The Kanak people are the Indigenous Melanesia inhabitants of New Caledonia, so we’re hoping this theme inspired by their culture is all achieved in an ethical, considered manner.
If you’re willing to brave the cold and dunk your toes in the sand, you may as well play a round of pétanque, which is like French lawn bowls, or sign up for a treasure hunt starting at the beach. For a sweet end to your adventures, Messina and Koi will be making special Nouméa-style ice-cream flavours for dessert and the bar will be mixing up rum and coconut-heavy drinks.
You can stroll along the transplanted sand from July 11-14.
Warm up at these bars and pubs serving mulled wine in Sydney.