Festival of Carnivale evening gig

It was a funny old day, weather-wise. Rain one minute, sunshine the next, and a hailstorm about an hour before we were due to play. Should have known the Welli Weather God wasn’t going to let us down, because it had cleared up nicely by the time we gathered in Courtenay Place Park at 5pm.

We entertained the after-work crowd of a few hundred for an hour or so, and judging by the amount of subtle jiggling around from our audience – and the loud and enthusiastic applause after each piece – I think they enjoyed it.

Courtenay Place Park gig - RWC 2011 Festival of Carnivale
Photo by Geoff Infield

Special mention must go to the drunk guy in the blue shirt who insisted on helping Tim with his directing duties and wanted to dance with every single dancer …and an even more special mention to his mate (or perhaps he was simply a helpful stranger giving us a hand) – who not only got his groove on majorly throughout the whole show, but from time to time would dance over to the drunk dude, gently tease him away from Tim and the dancers and take him back to the sidelines out of harm’s way. Drunken guy would remain there for a while before drifting back towards us – at which point grooving guy would come back out and rescue him again. Very cool.

Batucada dancers at Courtenay Place Park
Photo by Geoff Infield

Here’s a video we found on YouTube that insists our surdo player, Bill, is actually Terry Serepisos! Who knew? Maybe he’s got a bit of time on his hands these days… Enjoy!