Following the initial announcement, Mary’s Presents HERE NOW today releases the full lineup of NSW’s renowned talent and contributors taking part in the day-to-night festival of food, wine, art and music as part of Vivid Sydney. Held at Macquarie Place Park on Sunday June 11th as part the festival’s brand-new pillar, Vivid Food, tickets including combined festival and after party tickets, are now on sale.
Co-curated by drinks journalist and P&V Wine and Liquor Merchants co-founder Mike Bennie, and acclaimed farmer and restaurateur Palisa Anderson, HERE NOW will honour Sydney’s diverse array of communities that have made the city an exciting culinary destination. “The Here Now festival is aiming to be an intimate and inclusive event with a diverse array of food and drinks offerings that celebrate our sustainable food system in NSW” notes Anderson.
Mary’s Co-Founders Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham have worked closely with Palisa Anderson to bring together a collection of chefs from Sydney’s esteemed restaurants to showcase three smaller snack sized dishes each at the festival. The concept will allow attendees to experience all of their favourite venues in the one place, paired with masterclasses, producer talks, live music and interactive art.
The stacked food lineup includes modern Thai specialist and Founder of Woolloomooloo restaurant Viand, Annita Potter, notable Taiwanese chef and former Ms. G’s, Mr. Wong, Jowett Yu, Surry Hills’ Bar Copains Co-Founder, Morgan McGlone, award winning pastry chef and Berowra Waters Inn’s Lauren Eldridge, Brunswick Head’s two-hatted restaurant Fleet and modern Mexican restaurant La Casita Founders, Josh Lewis & Astrid McCormack, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar Head Chef, Alex Prichard, Paddington’s French bistro Porcine Founder, Nick Hill, Colombo, Kabul & Coyoacán Social Founder, Shaun Christie David, award winning Chat Thai by Palisa Anderson and legendary fried chicken and burgers by Mary’s.
The day will also include food producers including Palisa Anderson’s own Byron Bay Hinterland Boon Luck Farm, FishTales Director and commentator, John Susman, Hunter Valley’s Little Hill Farm, dynamic family enterprise ALTO Olives, Marrickville’s Whole Beast Butchery, NSW’s Smoketrap Eels and 100% Aboriginal owned social enterprise Bush To Bowl.
For the drinks component, Mike Bennie has curated a lineup of Sydney and NSW’s “artisan winemakers, brewers, distillers and drinks producers to enhance our worlds and deliver colour to Here Now”. Attendees can experience P&V Baller Bar, Marrickville Brewery Wildflower Brewing, Blue Mountains Winery Frankly, By Bob, Narrabri Agave Spirit Black Snake Distillery, South Coast NSW Winemakers Benson & The Mooch, Hunter Valley Winemaker Wine By Mem, Hunter Valley Lo-Fi Winemaker Sabi Wabi, Inner West Distillery Lily Fields Distilling Co, and non-alc Brewery Heaps Normal and Marrickville non-alc winery Ghiddy.
With HERE NOW presented by Mary’s as part of Vivid Sydney, a core element of the festival will be supporting emerging artists, something that has always been prevalent in their live music venues Mary’s Underground and Liberty Hall. Reinforcing the interactive component of the day-to-night party, musicians will perform acoustic and stripped back live sets within the park. Smyth and Graham have brought together a music lineup that showcases the most exciting names in the industry including genre-bending musician Danté Knows, South Sudanese Neur speaker and musician Gordon Koang and dreamy emotional guitar pop duo EGOISM.
There will also be female DJs spinning tracks throughout the festival, including Australian born and previously Berlin based DJ producer Eluize, Ukrainian-born and NSW-based producer Champs, Wollongong’s local disco punk disc jockey Chelsey Dagger and eclectic percussionist Reenie.
Interactive art will be roaming and displayed throughout the festival park for guests including an hour-one art experience presented by UnitePlayPerform. Founded by contemporary artist and experience designer ØFFERINGS (Missy Gilbert), it is an award-winning arts health organisation, pioneering radical new pathways for enhanced community radical embodiment practises incorporating play, making, moving and participation.
UnitePlayPerform will include 12 performers in Utopia Playkit Suits moving throughout the space, engaging with guests in different ways with percussive instruments and through the use of 12 object art pieces from the Hyper Temples Playkit. Designed to be stacked, changed and built upon within group building experiences, these large-scale object artworks exude high vibrational energy through colour form and size and will encourage audience members at HERE NOW to become involved.
For those wanting to kick on post the festival, Mary’s will be hosting an official after party at Mary’s Underground from 9pm with live sets from Gordon Koang., Dante Knows, Egoism, 50s soul and punk rock three-piece Antenna and Kaurna Land based noise post-punk band The Empty Threats. HERE NOW DJs Eluize, Reenie, Champs and Chelseydagger will continue the party late into the night. Tickets will be available to purchase separately or in a combined package with HERE NOW tickets.
HERE NOW will bring a new flavour to Macquarie Place Park as part of Vivid Sydney, encouraging the community to celebrate our state’s food, art, music and culture in the heart of Vivid Sydney the festival on June 11th from 3pm to 9pm.
HERE NOW
Vivid Sydney
Macquarie Place Park
36 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
11 June, 3pm – 9pm
