Byron Bay

Electric Forest will be bringing Trance back to the bay for this year’s Byron Earthdance. This will be a historic milestone in the Byron Trance movement as the first legal all-night dance party ever to be held in Byron Bay. Since 1997 Earthdance THE GLOBAL FESTIVAL FOR PEACE has been uniting people in over 250 locations in 50 countries through music and dance in celebration of peace. (www.earthdance.org)
This year with full support from Byron Council and Mayor Jan Barham this event will take place in the recently established Byron Entertainment Centre in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate. This year the event will inject 100% of it’s profits towards it’s nominated charity the Aunty Project.
After a night [...]

PLAY> has reggae guests Redda Red soundsystem from Melbourne at the INA DE DANCE night on Thursday. The dancehall duo will play alongside Byron’s Rub a Dub, with each soundsystem taking an the decks an hour at a time. On Friday PLAY DIRTY has Foxxy and Teapot with resident Nick Taylor and on Saturday it’s GIRLS-IN-HIOUSE … and the princesses will be out to PLAY>

Thursday: INA DE DANCE - Redda Red (Melbourne) meets Rub A Dub
DJs > Binghi & Red Belly > Krazy Dave & Lennox Dread
Sweet reggae music ina dancehall stylee Redda Red reggae dancehall nights in Melbourne feature selectas Binghi Fire and Redbelly. With their combined 6 years reggae selecting experience, both Binghi Fire [...]

According to news reports, a plan to build 117 tourist units at Byron Bay has been approved by NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor.
The Belongil Beach site, now occupied by a small cabin resort, has been at the centre of controversy since Club Med bought the land in 1991.
After almost a decade of fighting, Club Med sold it to developer Becton in 2001.
On Wednesday, after five years of negotiations, Becton got approval from the NSW Government for stage one of its resort, with accommodation including beach villas and units.
Apparently, almost two-thirds of the 89-hectare site would be reserved as conservation areas under the consent conditions.
What do you think of this development? Have your say.

Keep your eyes peeled to the horizon - you may be lucky and spot a Southern Right Whale and calf.
The pair was spotted earlier this week at the Wollongbar wreck, stunning environmental experts.
The sighting is believed to be the most northerly record for this species in NSW.
The Southern Right Whale is on a journey, recovering from near extinction.
Apparently, Southern Right Whales were considered the “right” whale to hunt because they float when dead, yielded many barrels of oil, and long baleen plates. The also come very close to shore and move slowly.
Whale watchers are being urged to respect the regulations on approaching the whales, and observe them from the beach or headland.

Hybrid Percussion (HP) is a company aimed at bringing innovation to the ancient art of percussive sounds. Interest in percussion throughout the western world has been steadily rising over the past 15 years. Hybrid Percussion taps into and invigorates this new beat movement. Many of the instruments being sold have their roots in rich traditional cultures.
Mat Ledgar starts this great percussion company. He works with famous drummers and musicians from all over the world. Check his hybrid percussion website out >>

Anyone who has been to Byron would have enjoyed the impromptu dusk gatherings at the Main Beach carpark by musicians, drummers, and fire twirlers. It is definitely one of the regular events that make Byron what it is.
And for Phire Kat, it was life changing.
She came to Byron for a 3-week holiday in 1999, and stayed for six years – a familiar story.
Phire Kat she spent her time learning new skills – particularly the art of fire twirling – and now she travels up and down the east coast perfecting her art.
Since taking up fire twirling, Phire Kat has also learnt acrobalance, stilt-walking and aerial stunts.

Dust off your dance shoes on and strike a pose, because the annual Byron Bay Tango Festival is about to kick off.
The festival began in 1998 and invites dancers to journey together through an intense set of workshops under the guidance of a master teacher from Beunos Aires - the capital of tango.
The tango dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
The festival is on from September 8 - 10 and the public is invited to attend functions on Friday and Saturday night. Check out the details here.
Art and tango lovers will also want to check out the Cape Gallery from September 9 to 11, where artist Jan Rae is showing her tango paintings.

There’s some exciting news for local school leavers who want to stay in the area and study in the medical field.
Southern Cross University, based in Lismore, has a new course – a Bachelor of Clinical Sciences.
The three-year course, which starts next year, offers students a path to graduate medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, osteopathic medicine and other allied health profession training.
In order to practice as an osteopath, further study at Masters level is required and a Masters course in osteopathic medicine is currently being developed at Southern Cross University.
For more information on the degree, checkout the university website, call 66203383 or email clinicalsciences@scu.edu.au

In this current flat spell we’re experiencing on the east coast, we may all need a surf fix, and there’s one coming our way - at least visually.
The Australian Surf Festival Take 5 is showing documentaries Flow and First Chapter.
Dane Reynolds’s “First Chapter” surf film features some of the most revolutionary surfing ever caught on film as Dane goes to places and spaces on waves and in the air that no one has ever seen. The loose, “movie within a movie,” structure of the project is also noteworthy as is its soundtrack which is filled with Dane’s favorite bands. The film was shot on location in Morocco, Portugal, France, Australia, Hawaii and California.
Flow focuses on Channel Islands [...]

The 2006 Byron Bay Writers Festival was held from Friday, August 4 to Sunday, August 6. Those who missed out on the festival may want to read an anecdote, sourced from ABC North Coast, from award-winning Australian author Robert Drewe, whose initial involvement with the festival brought about a remarkable set of events, involving a high-spirited actress jiggling her breasts across the stage, causing the matriarch of the Anthony family, of National Party fame, to faint:
“In 1989, the then young theatre director, Peter Barclay, the first director of the festival, invited me to turn my book The Bodysurfers into a play, backed by the Northern Rivers Writers Centre. Well I wasn’t a playwright and what resulted could only loosely be [...]