Jumpers and Jazz at Warwick

I stayed in Brisbane overnight with my daughter and grandchildren so was up early to set off for Warwick and the Jumpers and Jazz Festival which has been running for ten years now.  It certainly brings visitors from both sides of the border!!!

It was cold - actually that is why it is held in winter as prior to the festival the town was pretty quiet.  It certainly works well - groups of well rugged up visitors trudged back and forth looking at the entrants.  They do hold a competition and are waiting to hear who the winners are.  I note that some of the entrants came from Brisbane and NSW - so there is a lot of interest around Australia I would guess.

I only saw the exhibits in the streets, and some in some stores.  I noted that there were many craft shops (patchwork, sewing, etc) in the town too, and some "pop up " shops for the festival were busy too.

I had coffee and a very high calorie (but wonderful) dessert at the Joie de Vivre Restaurant - which had an eclectic collection of art, tables and chairs and other things of interest.  They are an active retailer in the Festival.




I took nearly 200 photos - but won't post them all here.  Well not at once.  I walked from one end of the main street to the other, crossed the road, and kept taking photos - and then went up several side streets and ......................kept on taking photos

I went to the Art Gallery which had a great exhibit of "knitchen" - see photos below.




(The above photos are at the Art Gallery)







The knitchen is above - all items made by knitting or crochet.  Even the floor "tiles" are knitted.

The streetscape is different.  The theme for the year was Zen - so there is a wide variety of interpretations of the theme - some extra ordinary clever pieces too.  The town hall pillars are covered with coloured squares, and in the middle of town the local celebrity is suitably dressed.

A statue of the 12th Queensland Premier Thomas Joseph Byrnes is located on the corner of Palmerin and Grafton Streets, Warwick.   (Wikipedia)
I went back to Joie de Vivre Restaurant  for another coffee but they were closed (having some sort of event there), so I made my way to The Coffee Club and had "linner" as I had not really had lunch and I figured I would need to have dinner if I had the "hot pot" which was great.  

I was booked into the motel at Aratula, but had a phone call from them that they were in Brisbane and hoped I didn't get there until after 4.30 pm, which worked out for me.  I arrived just before 5 pm after a lovely drive through Cunningham's Gap (wishing I could stop and take some photos of the rugged scenery - but no where to stop), and into Aratula.

It was the coldest night I had endured for a while.  When I woke up it was 0 degrees and for the first time every I had a warning on my dashboard about "icy roads."  

I arrived home safely at Beachmere after a detour to Ikea and Spotlight at Logan.



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