This year marked the debut for the Cockatoo Island International Film Festival. Ah, what fun we had! Festival organisers Allannah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis have been running a very successful film festival in Dungog (Hunter Valley) for the past 5 years and decided this year to branch out to this maginificent island on Sydney's harbour.   Past arts events I've attended on the island have seemed desolate and lonely but the enormous turn out for this festival (36 000 people) meant the island was anything but deserted. No doubt due to extrordinary events such as Paul Thomas Anderson coming to introduce his opening night film 'The Master', the international debut of the American comedy 'Family Weekender', David Michod talking about Animal Kingdom and plans for his next film 'The Rover'...   or even Matt Dreamy Eyes Corby singing at the Saturday night concert...   Unfortunately a bit of bad press put a grey cloud over the opening night of the festival, where thousands turned up for the opening night screening and, unfortunately, some missed out. Look, if you were going to have the best of bad problems, too many people supporting the event would have to take the cake, yeah?What the bad press also failed to mention was that those who missed out were drinking and chatting to Paul Thomas Anderson (the writer and director of the film). I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have been out there with him. Short trip to the DVD shop versus stimulating conversation with a critically acclaimed screenwriter? Ah, hello...   All in all, what a fantastic beginning to what I hope will continue to be a sensational event for many years to come; it's almost a shame the festival isn't on a couple of weeks later- like now, the weather is so beautiful! The festival itself included screenings of more than 80 feature films, concerts, talks, play readings, parties and even a yacht race. The sheer numbers the festival brought in is incredibly encouraging for an industry where nowadays so many people resort to illegal downloads and burnt discs.   A great addition to Sydney's cultural landscape. Looking forward to our second date.   Emily Eskell emilyeskell@gmail.com

Culturally specific film festivals are all the rage in Sydney at the moment - Koreans, Germans and Canadians have all had a poke. But this September Latin America has its time to shine with the 7th Latin American Film Festival, taking place at Dendy Circular Quay and across Sydney. Opening night kicks off with live music and traditional food plus a screening of MIA, a drama following the story of a transvestite living in the slums of Buenos Aires. Uplifting stuff. On the rest of the program - critically ill people visit the shamans of the Amazon, a teenage love story exposes the murderous tactics of the Colombian military and a there's even a special screening of Cuba's first ever zombie film. WHAT: The 7th Sydney Latin American Film Festival WHEN: 6th to 16th September 2012 WHERE: Across Sydney Dendy Opera Quays - Shop 92 East Circular Quay, Sydney Addison Road Centre – 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville Mu–Meson Archives – Corner Parramatta Rd and Trafalgar St, Annandale Bankstown Arts Centre - 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown HOW MUCH: Tickets and session information available from www.sydneylatinofilmfestival.org/2012/

As a regular contributing artist for group shows around Sydney, Kitti will be holding her first solo exhibition in July. “Before Battle” (link http://www.kittigould.com/before-battle-kitti-gould-solo-exhibition/) is a series of watercolour illustrations of beautiful girls ready to tackle the world head-on. Based on empowerment and triumph, the tribal themed works have an underlying Americana influence, inspired by her upcoming trip to the States. Natural textures including feathers, leather, horns and bone, are an representation of using animalistic instincts to overcome obstacles, and as a life-long vegetarian is the only way that Kitti gets to wear fur. Born in Paris but very much a Sydney gal, Kitti experiments with every imaginable medium including illustration, photography and mixed media, and has an obsession with food (she even writes a food blog, www.thescreamingartichoke.com). With a background in advertising as an Art Director, her personal works are refreshingly down-to-earth. Watch this space for details of her next exhibition in 2013. When: 6-9pm, Thursday 5th July Where: Fernside Coffee Shoppe, 401B Cleveland St, Redfern RSVP to info@kittigould.com

The weekend is long, the forecast is for cold and drizzle by Sunday, but that doesn't mean you have to sit at home and sulk like Aung San Suu Kyi. Saturday! Eveleigh Markets - fresh produce and food, flowers, plants and other direct-from-the-farm goodies at Carriageworks  Glebe Market - winter clothing, books, art, music, food and a family-friendly atmosphere at Glebe Primary School  Paddington Markets - gorgeous jewelry and design nick-nacks from upcoming talents + over-priced vintage clothing and gozleme on Oxford Street  Homebush Swap and Sell - if you're further out west, head to Homebush, opposite Flemington station for the giant Swap and Sell market - vintage clothing bargains ahoy, and less hipsters to battle if you get there early Rozelle Markets - another all-weekend stop for furniture, books, a small range of clothing and stacks of general useless/weird/awesome shit over in Rozelle - they have a snazzy website too! Incu Sale - They're smashing up to 40% off most of their autumn range and winter, so step into their Galeries stores or other locations and grab a nice cardigan before everything is gone. Saturday night, check one of these films at the Sydney Film Festival. Otherwise, the definite highlight gig is The Jezabels @ Hordern Pavillion - tickets still available for an easy $50/pineapple. After that, pop into Halfway Crooks for some deluxe, ultra-fine hip-hop @ Phoenix - just $10 bones on the door for GUARANTEED good times. Sunday!  Da BOM say it be raining, so you should watch Mad Men/Game of Thrones or cuddle your bf/gf all day. If you're a twit who likes to keep busy on Sunday, why don't you go to: Dear Pluto Garden Market - Awesome vintage books, movies, clothes, shoes and (no doubt) superfluous baked goods from the Dear Pluto girls in Surry Hills back lane Kirribilli Markets - picturesque shopping with harbour views, this monthly market is on Sunday and chockers with designer samples and extras. Get down early. Sunset People - a free party afternoon party at the Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills featuring Brian Chase from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Expensive Looks from NYC and Emma from the Holy Balm - chin-stroking good times. Strange Fruit Queens Birthday Bazaar - Fredas in Chippendale 'aving it large, funky and FREE this Sunday from midday to midnight with beats and turkish deliciousness featuring Canyons, Smokey LaBeef, Silky Doyle (Dynamite Sounds), Flash & Crash (Route 66, Wolf Call), Kate Jinx (FBi) and Jack Shit (FBi), HEAVEN - GoodGod Danceteria is going hard in the paint from 9pm til dawn with an all-star cast of techno/disco/weirdo journeymen to keep you grinding til bedtime featuring: Radge / Angus Gruzman / Dreamcatcher & Junglesnake (Slow Blow) / Marcus King / Jimmy Sing / Joey the Saint Enjoy the long weekend but don't forget the reason for the season: drink heaps of gin.

  Sundays, what would we do without 'em. A Sunday spent sipping the best Italian wine varieties grown on our home turf with gelato and a few live tunes? Now this sounds like something we could wrap our lazy weekend heads around. Nine Australian wineries will be setting up shop at the Global Gallery in Paddington for Sip Your Modo on Sunday April 22 pouring sangiovese, sagrantino, vermentino, prosecco, nebbiolo, moscato, arneis and pinot grigio for you to try (in swanky Riedel glassware), with some savoury snacks and gelato to help while the afternoon away. Tickets are just $30 which includes entry, all wine, Santa Vittoria water and Italian snacks. Sip Your Modo April 22 2pm-5pm Global Gallery: 5 Comber St, Paddington Tickets $30 from HERE Here's a little video which may get you in the mood. watch?v=re4JV4FSLrY

National Youth Week is a country-wide celebration of youth culture and achievement. Across the city, young people (12 - 18 is the demographic range, we're told) will find activities, workshops and events that go far beyond the usual 'here's a band at the school gym plus a free sausage' paradigm of the government sponsored youth 'initiatives' we remember growing-up. A short film festival, dance party at the Opera House, open mic night, calligraphy and sewing workshops, drinking in the park (unofficial Youth Week fringe event), youth awards night and an open sports day are all on offer. WHAT: Youth Week In The City WHEN: Between Friday 13 April and Sunday 22 April from 09.00 to 23.00, Dates and times vary depending on the event WHERE: Sydney City LGA, Sydney 2000 HOW MUCH: All events free with registration Check out the full event listing at the City of Sydney's What's On site 

Header image blatantly nicked from Festival Girl The Love Vintage Show and Sale takes over the Hordern Pavilion all weekend - the site will groan beneath a monstrous collection of retro, vintage and limited edition apparel, footwear, jewelry and assorted knick-knacks. Swing dancing, boogie bands and fashion parades will distract you from the omnipresent odor of mothballs and workshops will limber you up for bouts of high-speed credit card desecration. Shop hard, ladies, this is going to be a big one. WHAT: Love Vintage Fashion Show and Sales WHERE: The Hordern Pavilion WHEN: 23rd March - 25th March HOW MUCH: $14 bucks on the door. The rest depends on what you feel like spending, dear! Who will be there? All of these legends and more, that's who: * My 50s Closet - retails original vintage fashion from the 50's. * Nelly Bligh - Vintage sewing accessories, jewellery, patterns, fabric, linen & clothing. * OK Wow - Vintage clothing, accessories & fabrics. * Kaleidoscope - Vintage & retro fashion, accessories patterns, jewellery, textiles. * Kathy Gaffney Vintage Linen -Antique & vintage linen, lace, christening gowns, jewellery. * Leigh's Collectables -Unique antique, vintage & collectable jewellery. * Love Me or Leave Me -Gorgeous vintage dresses and accessories from the 1950s. * Magik Eyes - Vintage Sunglasses - Original, designer-brand vintage sunglasses, never worn. Caps & scarves. * Miss Parasol -Ladies, gents & children's vintage umbrellas & parasols for the sun & rain.

The wholesome ravers behind Future Sound of Yoga are holding a weekend-long yoga retreat for the nocturnally minded. Held at Mangrove Mountain, the Phoenix Weekend is in it's second year and promises spiritual enlightenment, meditation, self-discovery and rave. You can camp, sleep in a dormitory or enjoy twin room cabin accommodation, munch on organic food and attend all workshops as part of their all-inclusive ticket. From the organisers: The lineup includes leading international artists Mark Whitwell, Katy Appleton, Gwyn Williams, Daphne Tse; renowned Australia-based yoga teachers Simon Borg-Olivier, John Ogilvie, Kriyavidya Saraswati and Anna Phillips; inspirational speaker Heather Swan; and finally the The Future Sound of Yoga, who will up the tempo on Saturday night with an evening of yoga, dance and cutting edge electronica, where fans of festival dress up will be able to let loose with an anything-goes fancy dress theme. WHAT: The Phoenix Weekend WHERE: Mangrove Mountain (1.5 hours out of Sydney) WHEN: Friday 3rd Feb - Sunday 5th Feb 2012 HOW MUCH: Final release from $365 

Set to launch in late February 2012, The Dollar Shop is a designer retail experience with a slight twist - everything on sale is under $20. The Dollar Shop is a pop up space with a six month rolling lease agreement, one of many creative enterprises selected by the City of Sydney to breath a new life into the vom-stained pavings of lower Oxford St. The store curators are seeking designers, artists and other creatives to submit a wide variety of work to be sold in-store, including but not limited to clothing, jewelry, bags, stationery, self-publishing, photography, posters, instruments, kitchenware and craft. There's talk of workshops to be held at the space too - so if you don't have anything to sell now, pop in and work it out ya dummy. No more shall you be buying stained summer dresses for $80 from a bearded twenty-something musician at the Surry Hills Markets, or regretting that $10.50 you paid for plastic-fantastic piece of kitchenwares from Paddy's. WHAT: The Dollar Shop WHERE: 58 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney WHEN: Opening late Feb 2012 - submit your goods for sale now! Email: submit@dollarshopsydney.com.au http://www.dollarshopsydney.com.au/    

Australia’s premiere one-day festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures is back at Victoria Park on the 26th of January and celebrating its 10th birthday Yabun showcases the breadth of indigenous creative talent in our own backyard, with performances, exhibits, food, workshops, traditional displays and forums This year Jessica Mauboy, Dan Sultan and Christine Anu take to the stage alongside the best of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait performers More info on Yabun's Facebook page. WHAT: Yabun WHEN: 10am - 6pm, Sat 26th January WHERE: Victoria Park, Broadway HOW MUCH: Free and open to all Here's a short teaser trailer:

So Matt, you've been putting this together since 2004 and the festival itself has seen an incredible evolution... What are the changes and transformations you're most excited about this year?  There's lots of great new stuff this year, we’re launching a new outdoor fully decorated electronic stage at the Festival which will feature cutting edge sets from some wicked producers and DJs, we’re organising it in conjunction with the crew from Noisy Chicken. We’re also launching a new mobile Eco hub at the heart of the Ecoliving Village. It’s an amazing structure that we’ve designed with a team of architects and which is manufactured out of recycled Aluminium agricultural pipe. We’ll be taking it around to other events to educate people about sustainability. Our arts programme is always a highlight, rich and diverse and kooky, this year we’ve partnered with Alchemical Cabaret and will be bringing a full black-out Theatre dome, with full theatrical performances during the day and which we’ll be turning it into a fully themed nightclub at night. The Children’s Festival has a great headliner this year, the Drumming Monkeys and we will be improving ‘The Swamp’, which is our area dedicated to teens, with lots of workshops and live performance. And of course over 140 musical acts, with an outstanding line up of Australian and international acts. Gotye will be playing the midnight set, that’s a real coup, and we have an amazing selection of up and coming Australian talent to give everyone a chance to discover a new favourite act. It’s going to be wicked this year! Tell me where the inspiration for you to create a sustainable music festival sprung from. I had wanted to organise a Festival since 1994 but it wasn’t until I took a Permaculture design course in 2000 that the concept of marrying sustainability and a Festival together emerged. I had felt an obligation up until this point to work within the field of sustainability as I could see from a logical point of view that we were heading towards issues with resources on the planet, but I wasn’t sure how to implement this obligation. I had competing pulls between the urge to work in sustainability and the passion to create a Festival. Once the idea of combining both came to me everything just seemed to flow naturally, although I have to say at the time everybody thought I was mad.   When we made the choice in 2005 to run the event entirely on renewable energy (100% biodiesel fuelled generators) nobody had done this before and a lot of people said to me you’re crazy to take the risk, but from my information there wasn’t such a risk and it was something I really wanted to do. We’ve run the Festival on renewable energy ever since and to be honest we’ve never had any problems. We’re still the only Festival that’s 100% run on renewable energy and we’re constantly looking for new technologies to decrease our impact on the planet. We report on everything we discover through our Model Event program which is all the information we discover about running a sustainable event that we give away via our website. Why Glenworth Valley and why the illustrious dates over New Years Eve? Well, it’s stunning there. Driving down into the valley is an experience in itself with the Festival appearing below you. Also it’s really close to Sydney, which is a definite plus. New Year’s Eve – because it’s the only time of the year where pretty much everybody takes at least a week off and you can get everybody into the most relaxed frame of mind. Who are you most excited about hearing play in this year's line up (I'm personally going numb with excitement over Gotye)... LTJ Bukem, is my personal hero there is no better DJ for stepping out big time on the dance floor, also Oliver Tank will be wicked. Stanton Warriors and Dum Dum Girls will also be well worth checking out. I see you very much as a pioneer in this field, particularly leading the way in terms of generating sustainable and viable ways to create events and festivals globally, I have to ask though, (it must get hard at times) what keeps you motivated to bring about sustainable changes in attitude in other people?  Good question, probably at the end of the day I’m a stubborn bastard and I rise to challenges. There’s no doubt at all that organising Peats Ridge has been a huge challenge - emotionally. physically, mentally and financially but what I do makes people smile and creates positive change in the world. The Festival is an inspiration to many and it teaches people great things and even in the hardest moments I have never lost my enormous faith in what the Festival stands for in this world. PEATS RIDGE FESTIVAL WHEN: 29th December- 1st January WHERE: Glenworth Valley (1hr north of Sydney) HOW MUCH: For 3 days of music with camping included, it's a steal at $350 per person Emily Eskell emilyeskell@gmail.com

The faces of young, poverty-stricken children are often used as subjects in photography. Kabul Kids, opening next Friday 18th November at China Heights Gallery, shows the images that emerge when these children take hold of the camera.This collection of photographs were taken by six young Afghani orphans who show the Kabul through their eyes; an alternate perspective to the war-torn images shown on the news.It's the result of the hard work of ShutterSeed, an project initiated by Palwesha Yusaf who travelled to Afghanistan in 2009 to teach these six children the art of photography through a series of workshops covering all the basics. The kids were then handed a camera to go out and express their own experiences creatively both within the orphanage and out on the streets of Kabul.The aim of ShutterSeed is to show the 'positive effects of "photographed" communities representing themselves through their own photography.'The collection ranges from intimate scenes of friendship to raw photos of the street outside, all are from an innocent and honest perspective.On the 25th November the exhibition will move to Parramatta for a week-long installment at the Information Cultural Exchange. The opening night will play host to a panel discussion with Palwesha Yusef on topics ranging from the universal experience of the child to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which the event falls upon.Throughout the entire exhibition artworks may be purchased, with all proceeds going towards the Hope House Orphanage in Kabul.Be sure not to miss this incredible chance to see Afghanistan through the eyes of the children that live there, sure to be an insightful and eye-opening experience.Opening Night - Kabul KidsWhen: 6-9pm, Friday 18th NovemberWhere: China Heights Gallery, 3/16-28 Foster Street, Surry Hillswww.chinaheights.comPanel Discussion @ International Cultural ExchangeWhen: 6:30pm, Friday 25th November (Exhibition runs here until 1st December)Where: 8 Victoria Road (Switch Digital Arts Centre), ParramattaLiz de Fegely: liz_defegely@hotmail.com