The Fringe Backyard

Oct 97

It's as if the city had lost a favourite toy. Then one day we found it, right there in our own backyard.

Fringe Backyard is at the back and side of the Melbourne Town Hall. Just last month it was a car park, now it's filled with foodstalls, stages, art spaces, crazy lights and music from 11am till late daily.

Even before the official opening on Grand Final Eve, the food stalls were already doing great lunchtime business and pedestrians and city workers seemed to just gravitate to the space to sit, watch, eat and listen. It was as if they have all been waiting for a meeting and fun place like this to happen, for playtime to start again and they're now making the most of it.

And the Fringe Festival artists and performers are enjoying the new playground until the Festival ends on October 19. Fringe started in Fitzroy, moved to St Kilda and has programs all round Melbourne. It’s good it now has a focus in the middle of the city. With the City Square being closed for building, the little outdoor Tivoli car-park which is owned by the Melbourne City Council, seemed a perfect solution.

But car parks generate easy revenue which Fringe Festivals don’t so it was a most enlightened move by the MCC to fund the Fringe temporary take over. And it has given the city back a bit of public space which it lost when L’Incontro cafe was built on Swanston Street. Let’s hope that other Festivals, markets and special events can provide more reasons more often to move the cars out. Or maybe a bit of space could be left permanently for events to co-exist with cars and occasionally take over from them.

The man who had the job to spruce up the car park, recruit the food operators and make it all happen in a very short time is Gilbert Rochecouste and his team at Dolphinium, a company which specialises in creating community spaces. Gilbert received interest from many food operators and some 200 performance possibilities to program. He would love to see some permanent food stalls and programming of events in the space but warns that it would need "water protection . . . and a strong marketing budget, currently it's a bit lost in the bigger Fringe picture. Lunchtimes are working well but nights need more promotion."

The people working there now are mostly happy. Francesco of the Hairy Canary is singing its praises. From his "backyard" stall he can still see his customers sitting in the windows of the "Canary" on the corner of Royal Lane and Little Collins Street just opposite. Indika of the Sigiri food stall is selling huge plates of curry, vegetables and rice for $5 and would be interested to continue beyond the Fringe. Owners of the Victoria Vista Hotel enjoy all this activity on their doorstep. They've put in the Vegie Patch (juices and vegetarian meals) tended by deputy manager, Adrian Ennis, who is keen to hear more music coming into the hotel, maybe during the inaugural Melbourne International Jazz Festival next January.

This new festival has recently appointed Adrian Jackson as artistic director, a position he also holds with the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. It developed out of the passion for jazz shared by the Lord Mayor Ivan Deveson and the Minister for Education, Phil Gude and built on the previously very successful Montsalvat Jazz Festivals. Local and State governments don't always agree but both leaders want this new festival to be a uniting force and to break down the trad-jazz versus contemporary jazz community factions and rivalries. It is hoped to bring together a more broadly based program, some of which should happen next January and will probably be within ear shot of the Town Hall. Hopefully Adrian will be able to program a big concert there and also to use the "backyard" and a number of city venues nearby so that jazz lovers will be able to walk easily around between events.

One city venue which works wonderfully well for jazz and is known the world over is The Capitol, the amazing old cinema on Swanston Street with its extraordinary geometric detailing and lighting in the ceiling. The Capitol building was designed by famous American architects, Walter Burley and Marion Mahoney Griffin. From its original creation in 1924 as grand picture palace with live shows, it's been a specialist cinema, a venue for Comedy and Film Festivals and some very successful music events. When the Australian Art Orchestra led by Paul Grabowsky played there the reaction was overwhelming. But at the moment the theatre's future ownership and its use is uncertain so Adrian might not be able to secure a jazz festival booking there.

But before the Melbourne Jazz festival happens in January, go to Wangaratta Oct 31-Nov 3 for a fabulous program of music. There are also some special regional food and wine events. The Jazz Dinner on October 31 is sponsored by Brown Brothers and will feature local trout, yabbies, lamb, fruits and cheeses from the Milawa Cheese Factory. There is jazz and lunch at several local wineries (Auldstone, John Gehrig, Brown Brothers)and the Reid Street Free Stage events are supported by those wineries as well as Ciaverella, Reads and Avalon vineyards. The inaugural Reid Street Muscat is being released this year in celebration of the Festival. For more information on the Wangaratta Festival, contact Robyn Golder 9816 3225. For the Fringe Backyard program, contact Monica Vandenberg at the Fringe info caravan on 96540146.