ICE ICE BABY!
I love winter. I love ear-muffs and mittens and scarves, big blankets, snuggles, hot chocolate and the way our beloved Lake Burley Griffin looks in the morning. Sometimes the frosty season gets a bad rap but not in Canberra this year. Some of you may have noticed the new ice rink in Garema Place underneath fairy lights and surrounded by trees holding onto the last of their autumn leaves. What you may not have known about is the music festival, URBANICE, accompanying Civic’s chilly attraction.
One of the festival organisers and performers, Jonty Hall, explains that the whole idea of the ice rink works by embracing Canberra’s notoriously cold weather. “I hope that the middle of Civic [will be] buzzing in July more than it usually would… I think people expect to see Canberra as kind of cold and unpleasant in winter so hopefully we’re making a virtue of that by having a skate rink.”
Every Friday and Saturday night of July, punters will be able to skate while they jive to hip-hop and electronic based groups from Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and also from overseas. Jonty says, “We were trying to go for something that has a reasonably broad appeal but is still kind of interesting and a bit unusual for Canberra, so we decided to go with more progressive genres… we have mostly selected things that we think will complement the ice skating… you know? Music that will get people wanting to move.”
He also says that booking acts wasn’t too tough. “Most of the artists have been really excited by the idea of something different that hasn’t been done before.”
The festival began last weekend with Jemist, The Dark Horse, The Rock Steady and ELECTRO Latino. For the rest of the month you’ll be able to catch acts like DJ Soup, Shifty Business and Convaire, among others.
Jonty mentions an early festival highlight planned for Friday June 8, where D’Opus and Roshambo will follow MoneyKat, featuring Omar Musa and Mighty Joe. The closing night of the festival will be another big one, presenting Magnifik (Ashley Feraude’s new project) and James Curd, creator of Greenskeepers.
But you don’t have to skate to enjoy some of the cool attractions and sounds. With cafés, markets and a licensed bar, Garema Place will certainly be a bit livelier. As far as the music is concerned, Jonty says, “It’ll be loud enough so that if you’re out in civic you’ll hear it… we’re hoping to create an atmosphere really, if nothing else. Whether people stay or not - we want them to take notice of it.”
The UrbanIce music festival is on every Friday and Saturday night of July in Garema place. Tickets are $20 for concessions and $25 for adults. They can be purchased online at www.inthecitycanberra.com.au/skate or over the phone on 0400 505 284.
