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.

Short few days to visit Jumpers and Jazz

Last year was the first time we were able to attend the Jumpers and Jazz festival after many years of wanting to go but no free time on the weekends, especially at the beginning of school terms. Jumpers and Jazz takes place every year in Warwick, on the Darling Downs. It runs for 10 days at the end of July. This year was the 14th year the festival has been on. It is amazing how creative others are with their yarn bombing.

Jumpers and Jazz was the aim of the weekend and this year, as last year, we stayed at Clifton, a 20 minute drive from Warwick. Warwick is a place that we often stay at either at the beginning or the end of a trip as it is only 3 hours from home. We love it there. We have been lucky to be there on football gala days and horse training, but this time we were fortunate to see many polo games, from the comfort of outside our van. We arrived at Clifton at lunchtime on Thursday, and relaxed. On Friday and Sunday we went into Warwick to see the displays. On Saturday we enjoyed the polo. You can read about the history of Clifton here.

On the Friday we drove into Warwick and walked along the two main streets of yarn bombing. They had not judged the displays yet, but they were amazing. Although the Festival offically started Thursday, there was not a lot of Jazz going on. We only saw one busker outside a cafe, but it was Friday. One the up side, Friday didn't have as many people taking photos - most visitors come on the weekends. We had decided to have lunch at one of the many cafes, and had heard a lot about the Bluebird Cafe, so thought we would have lunch there. We were very disappointed. It was about 1.30pm and there were a few people sitting outside, and two couples sitting inside. There were only two tables that were clean, the other vacate tables still had plates and leftovers on them. We waited almost 10 minutes and then went up to the counter to see if we needed to order there. We were told no, it was table service. O.K. We waited a few minutes more and another couple came in, sat down, and was given water and glasses. We were still waiting. Some of the tables were then cleared, but we were ignored. We watched a server apologise to a couple that was there before we arrived, about their food taking a long time, and after a total of 25 minutes waiting (5 minutes discussing if we should stay or go), we got up and left. I doubt if they even knew were were gone!

BUT..... things always work out right? We had walked past many cafes earlier in the day, and even what appeared to be a pop up cafe, so knew we would not go hungry. We came across the Belle Vue Cafe, where Peter had bought his coffee from numerous times last year, so that is where we had lunch. It was so good, and the best chocolate milkshake I've had for a long time.

Saturday, as I wrote above, we stayed at Clifton and watched the polo, then on Sunday we went back to Warwick so Jonnie could see the old cars. The main street is closed and moving traffic is replaced by some pretty good looking cars. While Peter and Jonnie were looking at the cars, I went to the art gallery, craft shops and displays. I sat for a while watching and listening to the jazz outside the town hall, but again not much jazz going on elsewhere. When we all met up again we had a late lunch of asian food, which was ok, but not as good as Friday's Belle Vue Cafe.

Monday we came back home to pick up our daughter and two granddaughters who arrived from England for a month. Sad to leave Clifton but great to see our family.

Quirkiest Jazz Festival in Queensland

Warwick is known as the Rose and Rodeo city, but I always associate Warwick as the home of Tiddilik and the Jumpers and Jazz Festival in July. It is situated on the Condamine River, part of the longest continuous river system in Australia. Tiddilik is the frog that swallowed all the water causing a drought.
Warwick has a rich and varied history dating back to 1840, which I will write more about another time.

The first Jumpers and Jazz in July Festival was held 2004. I'm not sure when I first heard about the festival, but I have wanted to go for many years, but as it was always the first or second week back to school I was always busy preparing lessons and making resources for the term. So now that I have retired, the first thing to do was to come to the festival. I believe it was originally a weekend event, but this year it is running for 10 days from 21-31 July. It is a festival of visual arts including unique tree art and covered poles.

We even saw displays on ground level.

Most were bold and beautiful, I took so many photos I must apologize for so many in this post. The theme this year was Bohemian and there were many workshops and buskers and bands in the streets and the cafes.

We didn't go to the info centre until the second day and there was an exhibition in the Warwick Art Gallery from the Alice Springs Beanie Festival, but sadly we were unable to take photos. 50 Years of Flower Power @ Art Gallery was on display outside the Gallery. We saw Dezzie D and the Stingrayz at the Downtown Lounge outside the Town Hall in the main street on the first day and again at the Art Gallery.

On the Sunday was the RACQ Grand Historic Auto display, including live jazz in the streets.

The Downtown Lounge had the Memphis Moovers, who were very good.

We spent a total of 6 days out of 7 visiting Warwick and the JJJ festival. We also spent time visiting surrounding areas, some of which I will post about later.

Found this hexie lady :)

This is a pantree.

 Even the statue of Thomas Joseph Byrnes was dressed for the occasion.

Such detail...

There was a 'Yarnbombed Your Pet' Parade.

Loved the covered van.

... and still on the caravan theme...

I took so many photos, it is hard to choose what to include here.

These two would have to be my favourite photos.

There were many streets with decorated trees.

Next year we will come come for the second half of the Festival to see the Jazz in the Park.