Jumpers and Jazz 2019

This year was our fourth visit to the Jumpers and Jazz festival in Warwick, and this time we stayed a week! It is one of the best festival, probably only second to the Parkes Elvis Festival in January. It started as a 'yarn bombing' festival back in 2004, and has grown from there. This year it didn't disappoint. As in previous years, we stayed at Clifton Showgrounds as it is a great central place to explore the area. Clifton is approximately half way between Toowoomba and Warwick and is situated on the Sunflower Route along the Country Way. Click to read about the history of Clifton.

Each year there is the tree jumper exhibition, and pop-up craft demonstrations. There are arts exhibitions at various venues. Two that we go to each year are the Art Exhibition at St Marks Parish Hall - with lovely scones at the cafe; and the Art Gallery. The Art Gallery is located where the old Tourist information centre use to be. The garden beds outside the gallery are always decorated.

Inside there is a large installation for Jumpers and Jazz, this year it was a cabin "Off the Grid".

In the Gallery itself this year was a display of art made by using plastic bottle caps. I really liked the hanging screen and wanted Peter to make one for our verandah. They were tied together with cable ties. Very clever, and very effective.

This years theme was "We are all connected" and we did see a couple of yarn bombing trees from Yorkshire in England.

Photos will tell the story better than I. We walked around three days in the 7 days we were there, two during the week and Sunday.

We found a car park in the main street. This hasn't happened before.

This great display was at the top end of the street.

Peter liked this cup of coffee.

Some people are just so clever.

This one was in the side street near Aldi. It won first prize. So clever.

Sunday Vintage Car display has been a highlight for Peter each year. This year it not only took up two blocks of the main street, but also a large section of the park, which also had a concert stage set up.

Each year we always have lunch in the Belle Vue Cafe on the Sunday, and this year there was also a jazz stage set up not far away, so we could hear the music.That makes three jazz stages this year, the town hall, up near the statue, and the bottom park.

As well as the stages there were buskers at different locations in the main street.

There were people displaying and demonstrating their craft at different stalls and venues. Peter was fascinated by the spinners and ask this lovely lady so many questions.

One sad event that we did witness was a fire in the oldest school in Queensland. Luckily no one was hurt, but a little of Australian history went up in smoke.

As we were leaving Warwick to head back to Clifton, we saw a new structure in the park, so stopped to have a look.

 This is a memorial in John Simpson Park that was opened 22 June 2019. It was a dream of artist John Simpson to give the community of Warwick a sculpture to pay homage to the pioneers and to celebrate the part that the horse has had in the growth of the area. The sculpture stands 15 metres tall and is 23 metres long. Certainly spectacular.
So much to see around Clifton and Warwick. We were fortunate to see the polo again at the Clifton showgrounds. See you next July Warwick.