Happening at Melbourne's Birrarung Marr and Alexandra Gardens area across both banks of the Yarra River, the Moomba Waterfest is one of the longest running festival in the City of Melbourne which has been celebrated since 1955. Pitched at securing community involvement and celebrating Australia's multi-cultural identity, the celebrations are apparently Australia's largest free public event. Those of you who are keen to read more about the history and background of the Moomba Festival can check out this paper by the City of Melbourne.
Happening from 6 to 9 March, Moomba promises fun for everyone with activities for families, the musically inclined and the sporty. A major street parade, free concerts, thrilling watersports and exciting theme park rides at the carnival along the river promises participants a spectacle of sight, sound, sweat and sizzle.
Here's a snapshot of Moomba's carnival and fireworks show for your viewing pleasure.
The first thing which greeted us was this sign warning partygoers against consuming alcohol during the event. Probably a good way to minimise loutish behaviours in the massive crowd.
Lovers of theme park rides have lots of high thrills and spills to choose from as you can see.
Some of the rides like these aerial acrobatic spinning things are definitely vertigo and nausea inducing.
Others like this mini roller coaster is probably better for the stomach, but perhaps not for the nerves!
I remembered this ride which Ethan and I used to take way back in September 2007. However, this area was a lot more quiet then.
For those keen to try their luck, there are lots of huge soft plushies to be won at the carnival game stalls.
All you need to do is to toss, shoot or throw as accurate as you can to win those fine furry friends. Often, we realised that it was easier than it looks!
After all that riding and gaming, food is available to fill those famished tummies.
They include hot dogs, chicken dogs, fried dogs and other non-canine inspired delights like candy floss, french fries and burgers.
At the other bank of the river (Alexandra Gardens), I spotted this huge slide which reminded me of East Coast Park's Big Splash back home. The only difference is that this ride is dry.
This "Magic Circus" playground looks like great fun for kids, with twirling and swirling doors, slides, and lots of interesting rooms to explore.
Those who wanted to experience moderate G-forces could hop onto this ride, which is guaranteed (I think) to send your dinner, lunch and maybe even breakfast straight out of your anterior orifice at extraordinary speed.
The highlight of the evening must be the fireworks display, which was dazzling with lights, colours and patterns.
Here's one that I took which looked slightly more decent.
The grand fireworks finale... well maybe not quite as huge as national day celebrations, but still something to marvel at.
To keep the party grounds clean, bins like this could be found everywhere. Notice how obsessed with recycling the festival organisers in Melbourne are.
And if you ever got lost in the thick crowd, you can hop over here to ensure that others will pick you up. Well, maybe we don't quite fall into that category...Labels: festivals, melbourne, Moomba Waterfest