Fire dancers, live music, food trucks and bottomless barrels of mulled wine - Melbourne's urban oasis Abbots Yard will be the best place in Melbourne to relish winter nights next weekend.
Free festivals don’t come much more alluring than this; the Fire & Wine Weekender is going to ignite Abbots Yard on July 16 and 17 in a blaze of fire performers, mulled wine and live jazz, soul and house music. It’s all about warming yourself up this winter in one of the city’s best new urban spaces; the organisers are promising a ‘neon-lit dreamscape of auditory, visual and sensory stimulation…dark, spicy and alluring.’
This will be in no short part due to the mazy abilities of the fire dancers and twirlers, who will provide the ideal performance art to accompany two nights of Melbourne’s best underground jazz acts and DJs.
What you need to know
- Event date and time: July 16-17, 12pm-10pm
- Location: Abbots Yard, 329 Victoria St, Abbotsford
- Saturday lineup: The Rookies (live), O Honey, Mike Gurrieri, DJ Friday
- Sunday lineup:Cofi (live), Roth|Zimmer (live), fivefours (live), Genki Tanaka, Pietro, Bec Bartlett, Kgomotso.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
The live music lineup is top notch, with a touch of mysterious flair. On night one, Abbots Yard have managed to lure Melbourne jazz rebels The Rookies out of their home turf The Rooks Return, with the modern jazz and soul outfit set to play two sets on July 16, supported by the smooth funk and soul of O Honey and PBSFM’s Mike Gurrieri and DJ Friday. The Rookies are particularly famous for blurring the lines between jazz club and nightclub with their respectably raucous sax and double bass-infused drunken revelry. Perfect.
Night two sees six-piece instrumental outfit Cofi – a favourite of Melbourne’s growing live dance music scene – drop the combination of acid jazz, house and breakbeat that won them a lot of fans at Strawberry Fields. This boisterous live collective are veterans of the Melbourne scene now, and they’re pretty darn famous for their electric live chemistry. In short, they’re very Melbourne – we thoroughly recommend checking them out.
They’ll be supported by Roth|Zimmer (live), Melbourne’s meme jazz aficionados fivefours (live), the unique Shinjuku Kabuki-Cho stylings of Genki Tanaka, Pietro, Bec Bartlett and Kgomotso.
Then there’s the rather exciting drinks menu. You’ll get to savour the warming custom cocktails that Abbots Yard is becoming famous for, or dive into the barrels of mulled wine and steaming cider. Melbourne’s winter will be over before you know it, so the Fire & Wine Weekender is the perfect opportunity to dive into all the delectably warm ways to get tipsy that you can only truly experience for a couple of months each year.
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Just when you thought you were fully sated, that’s where the hot, gooey, oozing post aperitivos come in. There’ll be Greek doughnuts and desserts courtesy of St Gerry’s, crepes with a conscience from Crêpes for Change, paninis and woodfired pizza straight outta Puccia. Expect sultry, smouldering and smoky winter delights all over.
Did we mention tickets are free? Abbots Yard and City of Yarra, you rippers.
Fire & Wine Weekender is taking place at Abbots Yard on Saturday, July 16 and Sunday, July 17 from 12 pm-10 pm each day. Tickets are free and available via RSVP HERE (Sat) and HERE (Sun).
This article was made in partnership with Abbots Yard.
