Colors of Melbourne - traditions, festivals, mentality and lifestyle

Local people are of cheerful disposition, perfect sense of humor and positive attitudes towards life. They are used to high tourist traffic in their city that is why they meet foreign guests rather distantly but welcomingly. When talking to local folks they may seem to be careless and irresponsible as well as light minded. The matter is the passion of local people to epithets and lambent humor usage in all spheres of their life no matter it is business or friendly circle.

Actually the city residents are rather responsible and dutiful and their simplicity and ease in attitude towards sufficient matters solution is one of the remarkable ethnic traits of the local folks. The same impressive and remarkable trait of the character of local people is their individualism. Notably this character trait finds its reflection in any sphere of life. No matter it is gastronomy preferences or personal look and style, personal attitude towards certain problem or life ambitions – one can be sure that every Australian will have his or her own unique point of view on the matter. This character trait is highly appreciated by local folks in their companions. That is why one should not avoid sharing his or her point of view in a discussion and offer one’s own suggestions on this or that matter in any dialogue considering any business problem solutions.

Passion and respect towards culture and ethnic traditions is a result of such bright individualism in natives. No matter how respectfully a local resident feels about other cultures the ethnic one is considered by native people to be the best one. Despite the distant and respectful attitude to foreign guests the city residents are indifferent towards foreign culture and will hardly perform any interest and curiosity asking a new acquaintance about his or her way of life at home. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

However Australians feel extremely passionate of talking about ethnic traditions. They are proud of ethnic culture and justly consider it to be unique one. Local people do not consider any authorities as hard working and responsible people of middle class are of higher esteem among natives than those pompous successful moneybags.

Speaking of ethnic identity the climate of Melbourne is worth mentioning and attention. The matter is that it controls and edits in a way the life of the city residents. During a day the weather in Melbourne can sufficiently change. Thus many local residents are literally forced to have several outfits in the car in case of weather emergency. Thus in hot mornings shorts and t-shirts are agreeable to appear in the offices, however it is quite of norm to go home in a warm jacket after extra cold showering rain at noon. Such weather circumstances are of great interest among tourists and are considered rather remarkable and exotic.

The concentration of interesting events taking place in Melbourne is unbelievable - locals know how to enjoy life and celebrate any events, whether public or traditional, forgetting about troubles and everything else. Stand-up comedy is particularly popular in Australia, as evidenced by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival widely celebrated in the capital of Victoria. Thanks to this event, Melbourne is considered the “comedy capital” of Australia. The Comedy Theater hosts great shows throughout the month, beginning at the end of March and ending at the end of April (about 2-3 performances every day). A warm family atmosphere helps bring together spectators and comedians. The opening of the festival begins with the large-scale AllStars Show.

Fans of colorful performances will be delighted with the Melbourne Cup Carnival when races are held at the Flemington Racecourse. Apart from sports, the festival organizers arrange great activities for children, fashion shows, dance performances with parties. The event program also includes local food tastings. Records are often set at the event - for example, Kingstone Rule was recognized as the fastest horse. In 1990, it ran the track in 3 minutes 16.3 seconds, and another horse - Makybe Diva - won the race 3 times (2003, 2004, and 2005). The colorful festival is held in early November, lasting a whole week.

No less colorful event is held at the beginning of March - this is the Moomba Festival, the venue of which is the waterfront of the picturesque river Yarra. The festival's opening day starts with a costume parade, accompanied by musicians, dancers, and actors. At the carnival, one can't do without the election of the King and Queen of the festival, street parties, a gastronomic program, and Birdman Rally, during which visitors create paper planes and launch them over the river - an incredibly amazing sight. The end of the festival is marked by colorful fireworks over the Yarra River.

For one day (or rather night) in mid-February, Melbourne is buried in light at night - the reason is the White Night festival taking place on the central streets of the city. The illumination of the night city by hundreds of mirror balls creates a mystical sound. Visitors to the festival dance in Federation Square like there is no tomorrow. Flinders Street Railway Station turns into a real theater where you can watch great shows. Among gastronomic events, an outstanding is the one held in the middle of March - the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival taking place on the waterfront of the Yarra River where eminent chefs gather to present their best dishes. Masterclasses, picnics, seminars, thematic tours - the list of all the festival events is actually much longer.

They also love art in the capital of Victoria, otherwise, the Melbourne International Arts Festival wouldn't take three weeks in October here. The event program is so extensive that it is not possible to fit all the actions in one place. Therefore, interesting events are held in indoor and outdoor venues throughout the city. Its visitors have the opportunity to enjoy fine art exhibitions, music concerts, dance and theatrical performances. Artists performing here are mostly Australians, so this is a great chance to discover new names in the culture of the Green Continent.

The city hosts three major film festivals, during which one can enjoy premiers before everyone else. So, the Melbourne International Animation Festival that is held in mid-July offers short films, the Tropfest Australia is dedicated to short feature films and is held in early February in all major cities of “Oz” (the short form for Australia in informal language). This open-air festival is held in Centennial Park, which allows visitors to spend time outdoors enjoying both picnicking and movie watching. The largest film event is the Melbourne International Film Festival, which starts at the beginning or in the middle of August. Mainly Australian-made films are presented at the festival.