A brand spanking new food and wine festival is going down as part of Vivid Sydney this year – and you are not going to want to miss it. Created by P&V co-owner and booze legend Mike Bennie, Chat Thai’s Palisa Anderson, and Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham of Mary’s, Here Now is a celebration of all the good things in life – food, drinks, music and art.
Here Now is happening on Sunday, June 11, from 3-9pm at Macquarie Place Park (that little sliver of green space behind Circular Quay that Mary's CQ backs on to). The full-to-the-brim line-up will see Sydney’s top restaurants and chefs, alongside winemakers, brewers, distillers and producers from around NSW come together for one mighty day. The chefs have created three snacks each for the festival, so you can gobble your way around yumtown and try them all (or, as many as the tightness of your pants will allow).
Highlights include plates from Bar Copain’s Morgan McGlone; Viand’s Annita Potter; Icebergs head chef Alex Prichard; Taiwanese chef Jowett Yu (formerly Ms G’s, Mr Wong); Berowra Waters Inn pastry chef Lauren Eldridge; Josh Lewis and Astrid McCormack from stellar regional restaurants Fleet and La Casita; Porcine’s Nicholas Hill; and Coyoacan Social, Kabul Social and Colombo Social founder Shaun Christie-David. You’ll also be able to get your hands on dishes from Chat Thai, and fried chicken burgers from Mary’s. Plus, sustainable food producers from all around the state will be there to chat about their practices and produce.
This is an event co-curated by Mike Bennie, so of course you can expect tip-top tipples. His line-up features “artisan winemakers, brewers, distillers and drinks producers to enhance our worlds and deliver colour to Here Now”. On the pour will be the likes of P&V Baller Bar; Marrickville Brewery Wildflower Brewing; Blue Mountains Winery Frankly By Bob; Hunter Valley Lo-Fi Winemaker Sabi Wabi; Inner West Distillery Lily Fields Distilling Co; and non-alc brewery Heaps Normal and others.
Live music will play a big part of Here Now – musicians will perform acoustic and stripped back live sets within the park and DJs will be spinning bangers. Keep an eye and ear out for experimental artist Danté Knows; South Sudanese musician Gordon Koang; dreamy pop band Egoism; Australian born DJ producer Eluize; groovy Wollongong DJ Chelsey Dagger and more. Contemporary and interactive art will also be seen throughout the festival, bringing colour and life to the grassy field.
“Here Now is a real coup for Sydney,” says Bennie. "A distillation of progressive and dynamic culture, an action packed one-day event that draws tight on the best assets of contemporary Sydney and NSW in the form of producers, growers, artists, educators, and thinkers, with a distinct bent celebrating diversity and future thinking."
“In the end, we are delivering a festival that will offer up delicious, wild and beautiful things woven through story-telling, talk and music, unlike any seen before in Sydney-town.”
Tickets for Here Now start from $55 and it includes one drink. Want to keep the party going? Mary’s Underground will be hosting an official afterparty from 9pm with sets from the above artists, as well as punk rock three-piece Antenna and Kaurna Land post-punk band the Empty Threats. Dance on.