The Light in Winter Festival Winter Solstice
Its the shortest day in the year here in Melbourne!
So, what should we do? Celebrate, of course!
The Light in Winter is Federation Squares annual, month-long program of free events, exhibitions, film screenings, forums. Every year for the last 3 years, we have made it to this festival for the Solstice Celebration.
Held on the Saturday night closest to the true winter solstice, the Solstice Celebration brings together more than twenty of Melbournes culturally diverse communities with a night of music, performance and food.
There were quite a few thousand people in the crowd
..wouldnt you know it? I ran into Zaccy and her family! Well
..Zaccy saw me. I did want to take a picture of us, with the impromptu DisMeet but it just didnt seem appropriate at the time. We chatted for a couple of minutes and my boys were keen to keep going.
There were quite a few treats and offerings on this night
Turkish Delight, Hot Chocolate and Apple Tea. And just as they have done so every year, there was soup on offer
.providing you managed to score one of the special mugs that were handed out; first come, first serve.
We got into Fed Square a little later this year and missed out on the Cup-a-Soups!
The feature of this years celebration was Bruce Ramus Helix Tree.
The LED lights made for a very colourful centerpiece.
The tree spiralled 13 meters into the sky!
This Helix Tree was equipped with advanced sound-responsive technology designed to respond to both volume and pitch of the voice with a colourful light display. I was lucky enough to catch a choir sing and they did light the tree up into multiple colours!
Elsewhere in the Square, there were free street performances going on. This group of performers flash mobbed out of the crowd, carrying those colourful crystals which they placed on the ground.
Their gyrations and movements were rather esoteric; but I think that was the whole point of it all. It was all rather free-flowing.
The same cannot be said of the group that followed
.the Tai Chi performers were graceful and a little more in-sync with each other.
This group I didnt get at all. They were doing a fan dance
.
..and were completely all over the place! Everyone seemed to be out of sync but were supposed to be following the same actions.
We spent about 2 hours at Fed Square last night. We never quite made it to the main stage; but there was abundance live entertainment happening everywhere.
Towards the end, we found our way to the quiet end of the square, near the river. I think we found something else to entertain me!
Ghostly time travel, anyone?
Yup, another great way to pass the shortest day in the year! And now that Winter Solstice is over, the good news is that we can start to look forward to the longest day
..and the promise Summer!
you are pretty much all set and I REALLY hope the currency exchange works very well in your favor
we're getting closer to the Dis Re-Meet 
Love reading about your progress
Shes hilarious. We went last week and they should arrive in 4 weeks. 
did they find out why? Is he okay now ? No problems? As a parent I can't begin to imagine how you both felt....Travelers Insurance a MUST from this experience
and probably the paramedic and doctors too Its a fairly common thing here, I had several friends that their children had to have them and a few younger cousins too (here they are just referred to as "tubes" and everyone seems to know) see once again opening up the world to me with new words/phrases 
Your first dSLR? How's it going? What did you get? 
