Enjoying Darwin's Cultural Life

We've taken advantage of life in a big city (well, a small town really, but it is the Territory capital) to enjoy some live shows. We've been twice to the Darwin Entertainment Centre, particularly enjoying a musical duo called Loop the Loop. This hugely entertaining show featured an amazing variety of instruments, not just an assortment of drums, guitars, a baby grand and saxophone, but things such as squeaky toys, carved carrots, celery crunching and a tiny toy piano. The sound was layered using a loop machine, with snippets of music recorded and played back over and over again, building up to a surprisingly tuneful crescendo.

The other show at DEC was a more standard piece of theatre, a play about aboriginal life in Victoria in the 1950s. We were booked to see a third show as well, but got a phone call a few days beforehand to say it had been cancelled, they didn't say why but it sounded like we were almost the only people booked.

The Darwin Festival started last week, and we have managed to fit in a couple of shows before we head off again. We saw Casey Donovan (of Australian Idol fame) and a circus cabaret troupe called Cantina. Both shows were at an open air theatre constructed in one of the city's parks, with the starry tropical sky above. It must be a lot easier organising events when you know for certain that there is no chance of rain or cold to interfere!

We've really enjoyed our 3 months in Darwin, and the warm, dry weather has certainly been better than what we would have experienced almost anywhere else in Australia this year. But we're starting to look forward to getting back on the road again and continuing our adventures.