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European Masterpieces from The Met

Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art is showcasing 500 years of iconic and spectacular paintings in ‘European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York.

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Featuring 65 breathtaking works from The Met’s prized collection, walk in the footsteps of Europe’s greatest painters: Rembrandt, Renoir, Monet and more in a once-in-a-lifetime and exclusive Australian experience you won’t want to miss.  Tickets on sale. Open daily until 17 October.

Spanning 500 years, ‘European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’ offers a breath-taking journey from the 1420s and emerging Renaissance to conclude at the height of early twentieth century post-impressionism. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity also allows visitors to experience works by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Monet, direct from The Met’s collection – one of the finest collections of European painting in the world, the majority of which rarely leave permanent display in New York.

Highlights of the exhibition include Fra Angelico’s finely painted altarpiece The Crucifixion c. 1420–23; Titian’s poetic Venus and Adonis of the 1550s; the immediacy and drama of Caravaggio’s The Musicians 1597; Rembrandt’s painterly Flora of c.1654; Vermeer’s beautifully observed Allegory of the Catholic Faith c.1670-72, and van Gogh’s idyllic The Flowering Orchard 1888.

‘European Masterpieces’ includes portraiture, still-life, landscape and figure studies and will be a must-see for audiences of all ages, art-lovers and anyone with an interest in history, society, beauty, religious iconography, mythology and symbolism.

To find out more, visit Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art

The Departure Lounge
In Experience, Explore

East Gippsland Winter Festival

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East Gippsland will come alive this winter with the first-ever East Gippsland Winter Festival which celebrates all things art, food, music, beer and wine.

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The festival kicked off from Saturday, 19th June and is on till Sunday, 11th July and showcases the region’s villages through a series of pop-up events, cultural activities, workshops, exhibitions, winter feasts, tours and family activities. There’ll be night time activities too so be sure to pack your winter woollies.

The festival commenced on Friday, 19th June in Bairnsdale where the laneways sprung to life with an art and light projection at the Laneway Launch illuminating the town and creating a merry-festival-vibe with live music, roaming performers along with food and wine offerings.

There are some great collaborations between some of the region’s food and wine heavyweights. Lightfoot & Sons Wines and SARDINE eatery + bar paired up for the Pinot Picnic in Calulu near Bairnsdale to celebrate all things Pinot Noir. You can also snuggle into Lightfoot’s barrel room for a masterclass, then bask under the wintry skies on the deck or lawns with a picnic box.

26th June left viewers spellbound by the Lakes Light Festival in Lakes Entrance with a parade of lanterns, weaving around lit-up sculptures that pay homage to the region’s flora and fauna along with laneway light projections and a jetty-side virtual reality installation.

Lantern Making Workshop at the Great Alpine Gallery on Tuesday, 29th June in Swifts Creek was a hit with participants creating a beautiful star lantern to hang in the street and lighting up the charming village along the iconic Great Alpine Road.

Over the past weekend (3rd & 4th July) there was a deep winter event at Sailors Grave and the Bruthen Fringe Cafe. In Lakes Entrance, guests enjoyed a night of hearty winter foods, sourced locally and served with Gippsland wines and beers at the Slow Movement Community Dinner. There was also live music, performances, woodfire pits and spectacular light displays.

Over the last weekend, Friday, 9th to Sunday, 11 July there is a Laneway pop up event in Bairnsdale. On Sunday, local chef Rob Turner of Northern Ground will host a long table style event at Kings Cove, Metung to celebrate local food, wine and cooking. Ticket holders can tour the Metung Hot Springs site and have the opportunity to try the pop-up bathing tubs. Also, on Sunday there will be a Quasitrad Music Concert at the Marlo Hotel.

The Departure Lounge
In Experience, Explore, Featured

The Phillip Island Whale Festival

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The Island Whale Festival taking place 2nd – 4th July at a range of venues across Phillip Island.

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Local community members and visitors alike have the opportunity to engage with a range of activities that will not only entertain, but also allow you to appreciate the wildlife and natural habitats of Phillip Island and the Bass Coast region.

Phillip Island welcomes the annual whale arrival. Witness the annual arrival of some of the ocean’s most majestic creatures as our coastal waters play host to humpback and southern right whales and even the occasional killer whales from May to September.

The Festival events are spread across the Island and San Remo. Please check the venue for your event and plan your travel time. Many events require bookings to maintain COVID safe approaches and venue capacity please book tickets online.

You can download the festival program here!

The Departure Lounge
In Experience, Explore, Insights

Qantas flight to the Supermoon

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On Wednesday 26 May 2021, Qantas’s exclusive one-off Supermoon Scenic Flight will depart Sydney for a two-and-a-half-hour sojourn through the southern sky.

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Travellers can join in for cosmic cocktails and supermoon cakes onboard a B787 Dreamliner night flight to view the rare ‘supermoon’ phenomenon as well as a total lunar eclipse.

After taking in the Sydney Harbour nightlights on departure, the aircraft will climb above any cloud cover and head east out over the Pacific Ocean.

Onboard Qantas B787 Dreamliner aircraft, featuring the biggest windows on any passenger aircraft, enjoy mother nature’s night lights at 40,000 feet, followed by a viewing of the rising of the supermoon which also happens to be a total lunar eclipse, a highly unusual double act.

CSIRO astronomer Dr Vanessa Moss will work with Qantas pilots to design the optimal flight path and also join the flight to provide insights into supermoons and all things space and astronomy.

What’s included
Flight QF1250 departs Sydney Domestic Airport (T3) on Wednesday, 26 May 2021.

Arrive at the Qantas Business lounge from 5.30pm for a pre-flight cocktail party including surprise entertainment. Then take off on your Supermoon Scenic Flight at 7.30pm, get up closer to the supermoon and lunar eclipse before returning to Sydney at 10.15pm.

Passengers Will also enjoy:

  • Private charter Qantas B787 Dreamliner flight with large windows ideal for viewing,
  • Inflight commentary by expert CSIRO astronomer, Dr Vanessa Moss,
  • Guaranteed to get above any cloud cover for supermoon viewing,
  • Exclusive merchandise,
  • Inflight food and beverages,
  • Gift bag for all passengers, and
  • A commemorative certificate.

*This flight has now sold out and the waitlist is closed.

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In Explore

Illuminate Adelaide: The newest fest in Oz

A celebration of innovation, music, art, light and technology. Illuminate Adelaide Every winter, for two weeks and three weekends, Illuminate Adelaide will light up the city’s streets, laneways and architecture with a program of free and ticketed events by local, national and international artists and companies.

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  • Illuminate Adelaide

Fri 16 July – Sun 01 August 2021

Starting July 16 and continuing for two weeks, Illuminate will showcase some of the best multi-sensory experiences from around the world, which will include collaborations with cultural institutions, innovation hubs, civic spaces and gardens. Illuminate will present a huge program of ticketed and free lighting installations, projections, music and art.

The Adelaide Zoo will also be participating – opening after dark with a series of large scale lanterns inspired by zoo residents such as its pandas rolling around the lawns.

The festival will also include a “winter market” serving food and beverages.

Illuminate will run from Friday July 16 to Sunday August 1, for details visit:  illuminateadelaide.com

The Departure Lounge
In Experience, Explore, Reviews, Spotlight

Three more reasons to head to Tasmania

Tasmania wine fest

Just head to Tassie and stay there.. if you need any more reasons than you already have, here are three fabulous events lined up to ensure soaking up the island spirit!

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  • Tasmania wine fest

Vibrance Festival 2021

Vibrance Festival celebrates Tasmanian street art and culture.

Vibrance Festival is Tasmania’s first and only street art festival, dedicated to the painting of large-scale murals and offers a program of music, local food and beverages, street art tours, film nights, skateboarding demonstrations, public spray wall, markets and more.

In its third iteration, Vibrance Festival 2021 will paint 20+ murals, dotted along the length of Elizabeth Street, Hobart. Expect one of the town’s busiest streets to come alive with Tasmania’s best mural and street artists painting as you wander along the festival trail. Who knows what else you might find as you explore? Expect music in alleyways, pop-up events, tiny bars tucked away, as well as family-friendly spots to sit and watch or join in with some painting.

Vibrance aims to educate people on street art as a legitimate artform and activate the many unused spaces in Hobart’s urban environment. Largely free, Vibrance aims to be an accessible and inclusive event with something for all age groups.

For more details: https://www.vibrancefestival.com/

 

Tasmanian Wine Festival 2021

The second edition of the Tasmanian Wine Festival returns to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens February 26 – 28, 2021!

Explore the beauty of the gardens, whilst discovering and tasting the finest wines Tasmania has to offer. Follow the trail to find Tasmania’s best winemakers, waiting to give you rare insights into their wine and the winemaking process.

Some of the vineyards include Frogmore Creek, Observatory Hill Vineyard, Derwent Estate, Clover Hill Wines, Pooley Wines, Domaine Dawnelle, Wobbly Boot Vineyard and many more!

But what’s a great wine without great food, music and company?

Perhaps an oyster to enjoy with your sparkling, a burger or pizza with your red or some seafood with your white? Tasmania also welcomes some of the state’s best food producers and vendors.

The main stage will welcome local musicians, including Jay Jarome, Uncle Gus and The Rimshots and more yet to be announced. Dance the afternoon away or make yourself comfortable on the grass.

For more details: https://taswinefest.com.au/

Ten Days on the Island

Ten Days on the Island is Tasmania’s statewide international arts festival. Since 2001, Ten Days on the Island has celebrated Tasmania’s island culture, offering a platform on which to profile and promote Tasmania’s innovative, creative, and resourceful character and unique cultural identity. Every part of Australia is, always was and always will be, Aboriginal land. As a community gathering-place, a festival of arts, cultural exchange and celebration and as a site for the sharing of ideas and stories, Ten Days on the Island pays respect to the palawa – original owners and cultural custodians – of all the lands and waters across lutruwita (Tasmania) upon which our Festival takes place.

In 2021, they celebrate 21 years of Ten Days on the Island’s 20th anniversary. The new Festival model, curated by internationally renowned Artistic Director Lindy Hume, will deliver an epic 10-day adventure over three weekends in the three regional heartlands of Tasmania. Local projects and artists will intersect with a dynamic national and international program, designed to complement and amplify bold Tasmanian creativity.

The organisers’ commitment to regional Tasmania is strong and proud, bringing artists and communities together to share arts experiences in familiar and surprising environments right across their extraordinary island.

For more details: https://www.tendays.org.au/

The Departure Lounge
In Destinations, Explore, Featured, News

Tourism Australia launches $5 million week-long campaign

Tourism Australia

A week-long tourism advertising blitz will kick off across the country, aimed at getting Australians to book their next domestic holiday and boost visitation to those regions that need it the most.

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The $5 million marketing push is the first major activation of Tourism Australia’s Holiday Here This Year campaign for 2021 and aims to inspire people to take a well-deserved break and provide much-needed support to tourism operators and communities around the country.

Tourism minister Dan Tehan says the campaign was part of the Morrison Government’s ongoing support for the tourism industry.

“We want Australians to get excited about holidaying in Australia,” Tehan says.

The campaign, which runs from January 31 to February 6 has been developed with Tourism Australia’s creative agency M&C Saatchi and media agency UM.

It is the latest burst of activity as part of Tourism Australia’s ongoing domestic marketing initiative Holiday Here This Year, which aims to stimulate demand throughout the sector by getting Australians travelling safely across the country and booking holiday experiences.

It will feature Australian destinations, tourism products and experiences, including areas impacted by last summer’s bushfires.

Tourism Australia chief marketing officer Susan Coghill says the campaign taps into strong consumer sentiment to travel domestically.

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In Explore, Featured, News

NGV Triennial brings AI & Machine Learning to Art

NGV Triennial 2020 Installation of Refik Anandol

Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has officially launched the “NGV Triennial” exhibition, showcasing artworks by more than 100 artists around the world.

  • NGV Triennial 2020 Installation of Refik Anandol

To bring together more than 100 artists, designers and collectives from more than 30 countries, featuring 86 projects, in the era of COVID, was always going to be a tall ask. It has happened and it has a huge “wow” factor with a mixture of major household names as well as completely unexpected, quirky discoveries.

The Triennial 2020 is built around four broad themes with porous borders: Illumination, Reflection, Conservation and Speculation. Even after wading through the voluminous catalogue — more like a piece of bulky furniture than a read-in-bed book — the themes are more like general conceptual props than clear categories.

The concern is with the ability for art to challenge assumptions about the status quo, alert us to impending disasters, suggest alternatives, dazzle us with unexpected inventions and inspire us with wondrous creations of undreamt-of beauty.

Based in LA, Turkish digital artist Refik Anadol brings his signature style of AI and media-enriched works to explore the relationship between technology and art. His futuristic piece Quantum Memories draws upon a dataset of more than two hundred million nature-related images from the internet processed with quantum computing software, followed by machine learning algorithms.

The natural landscape is converted to a digitalized collective memory in an audio-visual form, where it presents an alternate dimension between generative algorithm and the natural world – exploiting the possibilities of art with AI soon by the transformation of rigid data into a flexible art piece with emotions.

Visit the NGV website to learn more. The “NGV Triennial” exhibition is on display until April 18, 2021.

The Departure Lounge
In Destinations, Explore, Featured, News

Crown Towers Sydney – Redefining luxury

Crown Towers

Redefining bespoke luxury in the heart of the harbour, Crown Sydney has officially opened its doors. Crown Towers rises majestically above the vibrant Barangaroo precinct offering globally renowned service in an unparalleled harbour side location.

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  • Crown Towers

Take in the mesmerising panorama of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the outdoor pool, bask in pure escapism at Crown Spa, and explore the many acclaimed restaurants, bars and luxury retail stores located within the unrivalled urban resort.

Australia’s most luxurious hotel, the 349-rooms (and 22-villa) Crown Sydney, lives up to all its six stars with glamour and aplomb.

As expected from a Crown property, fine food with exemplary aesthetics and theatrics, is at the forefront of the new Sydney branch.

The glittering, twirling facade looming high above the Barangaroo fold is so high it is officially Sydney’s tallest hotel. The Crown Towers Sydney is also the city’s first-ever six-star stay.

While the Crown Tower’s Villas and Level 26 venues are still experiencing final touches, the hotel is very much open for business, and creating vibes at that.

The wow-factor of the towers is apparent as soon as step inside — starting with a breath taking custom-made, six-storey chandelier in the lobby, featuring a coiling display of 396 crystals that put on a light show every night.

Already nine of 14 dining venues have launched — Californian export Nobu, of the wildly popular Japanese-fusion chain, is already booked up until April.

The hotel boasts 349 rooms, including 20 yet-to-open villas that come with a private butler.

Crown Towers Sydney villas and venues open by April, but there is no doubt the newest Crown offering has met the six-star brief. It is already the city’s hottest dining precincts and in a food scene like Sydney’s, that is hitting the brief out of the park.

The Departure Lounge
In Explore, Featured, News

Bring your car for free on the Spirit of Tasmania

Spirit of Tasmania

If a trip to Tasmania on board the Spirit of Tasmania ferry is in the pipeline, you will now be able to take your car for free.

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The Federal Government has temporarily increased the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme making it possible for you to set sail into your dream road trip and bring your car for free.

“COVID-19 has significantly affected tourism in Tasmania and the number of passenger vehicles travelling across Bass Strait which is why we are moving to increase the rebate,” Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said.

“This is a critical and targeted boost for tourism, as visitors who travel to Tasmania by sea are among the most valuable to the industry, they spend more, stay longer and travel further into our regional areas,” he said.

This offer is available for new bookings for travel between 1 March and 30 June 2021, unless sold out prior. Availability is limited – book now so you do not miss out.

For your peace of mind, you can amend your booking online without incurring any amendment fees, and if border restrictions prevent you from travelling, cancellation fees will also be waived, giving you the confidence to book now.

 

*Conditions apply. Offer available for new bookings made between 14 January 2021 – 30 June 2021, or until the allocation of $6 million worth of tickets has been sold. Offer applies to eligible passenger vehicles for travel between 1 March 2021 – 30 June 2021. Vehicle discount only applicable when booked with a standard Spirit or Flexi passenger fare. Vehicle must be booked prior to travel. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount offer. Free vehicle fare based on a standard car, campervan/motorhome less than 2m wide and up to 6m in length, motorbike or pushbike. Vehicle greater than 2m wide and 6m in length (i.e. caravan) will receive a discount equivalent to that of a standard car. $10 booking fee applies per person each way when booking via the Customer Contact Centre and Reservations Counter. Card payment fees may apply.

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