Sunday 28 June 2009

Winter Magic

Last weekend we headed up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, for the annual winter solstice festival.
Previous years have had good clear sunny winter days, but this year it was bleak, grey, foggy and the rain kept up all day in light splashes.

It was looking very bleak as we reached the outskirts of town:
Looking bleak

but it didn't stop the crowds, Katoomba Street was packed:
MSH - Human nature

The Fashion Police were writing tickets for anyone dressed in beige:
The Fashion Police
The Fashion Police

The Grand Parade was interesting as always, lots of characters and colours
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

and bellydancers who didn't look the slightest bit cold
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

and zombies (there was to be a Zombie Ball that night)
MSH - Because you only live once...

and very cool steampunk
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

and a very sweet Mad Hatter serving coffee
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

and this is Bandit in her dragon costume:
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009
I've met up with Bandit over the last three years of festivals, in her outfits, unfortunately her owner thinks this may be her last year as she has leukemia and is not responding to treatment, she is such a lovely patient dog.

There were several local issue groups, one protesting the closure of Katoomba Hospital - the maternity ward has already been closed then re-opened from public pressure then closed again, nearest hospital is Nepean, which is a 45 minute drive away (that's on a good day, with no accidents on the one road out of town which can tie up traffic for hours)
Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba 2009

Another issue that we learnt about during the parade was the plan by a developer to install two koalas in a BASEMENT room at the Echo Point tourist centre for photographic and petting opportunities:
NO KOALA PRISON at Echo Point
I'm going to make another post just about this, it is appalling treatment of our native animals

After the parade, we wandered up and down the street stalls, then headed off home pleased to be leaving the cold wet mountains behind:
this would turn anyone off but...

Here's my video of part of the parade,

3 comments:

sion said...

oh, thanks for that. Sometimes I really miss living up the mountains.

Erica said...

I didn't realise you'd been a mountains girl, all that fog and sleet must have been hard to leave (LOL)
I've always had a yen to move to the mountains, but now it's just that bit further away from the kids

sion said...

yeah, I was a big old hippie artist mountain girl there for a while (after being a big old hippie artist inner city girl heh). Lived in Mt Vic for a while, then moved down the hill to Little Hartley (where it was truly horrible sleety winter for 2 solid yrs heh). Loved the vibe up there. One of the things I love about my current abode is that when I first walked in the door it felt like walking into one of my friends' houses in Blackheath or Katoomba or Mt Vic.

Related Posts with Thumbnails