With Rosebud’s long history as a great place to enjoy summer beach holidays, where better to revive the fun-filled 1950s and ‘60s?

Foreshore RockFest, from November 17-19, will feature a fabulous array of music, dance, movies, cars and vintage shopping all based in Rosebud and Dromana.

The fun starts on the Friday evening with Rock’n’Bowls at Rosebud Bowls Club, a car cruise along the back beaches and a dance at Rosebud Primary School.  On Saturday morning the town centre will rock with hot rod and ‘chrome bumper’ cars on show, ‘50s bands and dancers along the footpath and a ‘50s and ‘60s Market at Rosebud Primary School with Who Was That Cat playing.  The market will include clothing, food, DJs, live bands and dance demonstrations (gold coin entry) while the vintage shops in town will pump with music, fashion and bargains.

On Saturday evening multiple dance venues will host bands including the Rockin’ Daddies, Itchy Fingers, I.C Rock and Fender Benders. For swing dance enthusiasts there’s the amazing Pearly Shells and Lady Fox, along with a movie and dance at the Dromana 3 Drive In.

Sunday will see a pre-1970s hot rod and classic car show on the Village Green, featuring the Jump Devils. For the fashionistas, a vintage clothing and ‘pin up’ contest will be held in the Memorial Hall next to the car show. The market will continue at the primary school from 9am, and all events will culminate at 3pm.

Tickets are essential for many events and are selling fast through foreshorerockfest.com.au, where you can also get full details of the festival, or like the Facebook page Foreshore Rockfest for all the latest news.

The weekend of October 27-29 marks the 39th annual Mount Eliza Art & Design Show hosted by Mount Eliza North Primary School. This year’s show is shaping up to be a sensational event showcasing the amazing creative talents of artists, designers, sculptors and jewellers from the Mornington Peninsula and beyond.  The feature exhibitors are artist Nicole Haerberle, photographer Liza Clements, jewellers JUMP and glass designer Leisa Wharington.

The Grand Opening Gala on Friday, October 27, from 7.30-10pm offers the opportunity to experience the exhibition with boutique wines and beers from Foxeys Hangout and the Mornington Peninsula Brewery and delicacies from Café on the Mount, while over the weekend Café D’art will be serving refreshments and light lunches. There will be stalls run by Mount Eliza North students as well as a scavenger hunt of artworks to keep the children happy while you enjoy the exhibition at your own pace.

Tickets for opening night are available now on trybooking.com/310470 and tickets for the family over the weekend will be available at the door on Saturday, October 28, from 10am-5pm and Sunday, October 29, from 10am-4pm. See mtelizaart.com for further details.

MOUNT ELIZA ART & DESIGN SHOW
A: Mount Eliza North Primary School, Moseley Drive, Mount Eliza
W: mtelizaart.com

It’s time to emerge from our cozy cocoons and cease being homebodies. Now is the time to be that social butterfly that you transform into every year when the days get warmer. And Frankston certainly has options galore.

Spring has well and truly sprung in Frankston and that marks the start of the events season, so you can look forward to spending your days exploring our gorgeous parks, blossoming gardens, colourful cultures, compelling art and enticing markets.  Frankston Events invites you and your family to be a part of the fun and excitement of the spring calendar of events, and it all begins on Sunday, October 8, with the Pets’ Day Out at Ballam Park on Cranbourne Rd.

From 10am-3pm, come and celebrate your furry, feathered, finned, scaly and slithery friends, and you’d be barking mad not to get your pet ready to enter the Best Dressed Pet Parade and Owner-Pet Lookalike Contest, hosted by Nine News’ Peter Hitchener.  Join like-minded animal-lovers as you find out about responsible pet ownership, enjoy demonstrations, learn new information and visit displays. And you can also take the opportunity to check your pet’s registration and de-sexing details or even give them a free microchip check.

But the Pets’ Day Out is not just for our furry or feathered friends - there’s also plenty of fun for their devoted owners, including face painting, entertainment, pony rides, an animal farm, workshops for the kids and much more.   You’ll get to meet the charities that can help you adopt a pet and discover what type of animal would be best suited to your family. You’ll be dazzled with the lowdown on the newest trends in pet training and grooming that will have your treasured friend looking and behaving their best in no time.

This popular, fun-filled annual community event is sure to delight animal enthusiasts of all ages with its jam-packed program of pet-related entertainment, activities and giveaways - and it’s all free! Yes, this is certainly not your average day in the park.

Frankston comes to life in spring and events are the ideal way to get involved and get outdoors. Make sure to stop over at visitfrankston.com to find more exciting outdoor activities for the whole family to enjoy as well as to view the full events calendar and learn more about your own backyard.

FRANKSTON EVENTS

W: visitfrankston.com

INSTA: @frankstonevents
FB: @frankstonevents

Frankston’s seniors are invited to see what’s on offer at this year’s Seniors Festival at Frankston City Libraries.

The sessions include Frankston Folklore, where you’ll be able to hear 10 Stories of Frankston, inspired by a series of banners from the Kananook Creek Association.

During Stories For Seniors you’ll be able to revisit some of your favourite childhood tales, while Social Media for Seniors will walk you through the internet’s most popular social media applications and show you how to protect your privacy while using them.

Zsuzsa Toth will present Freedom to Feel Good, a fun, insightful and interactive workshop designed to increase awareness of how to turn negative thoughts into positive thoughts, while

How to Stay Safe Online covers the basics of internet security, things that can potentially go wrong and the simple steps you can take to avoid them.

These are free events for seniors but bookings are essential, and bookings open on Monday, September 11. Phone 9784 1020 or visit library.frankston.vic.gov.au/whats_on

Around the World in 80 Days is theatre at its most magical - a new adaptation of the classic story told in a completely unexpected way.  This production is one the whole family can enjoy together, so if you can’t get away for the holidays, at least travel around the world with Phileas Fogg and his band of quirky adventurers. This charming show will be performed on Friday, September 22, at 8pm. Tickets are $27-$55.

 Horrible Harriet may be horrible but she sure will make your school holidays wonderful. The kids can join in the mischievous fun with the peculiar Harriet and share in plenty of songs and laughs. And they can even ask Harriet any horrible questions they have after the 2pm performance. Horrible Harriet will be wreaking havoc on Tuesday, September 26, at 11.30am and 2pm. Tickets are $20-$25.

Tickets can be booked on thefac.com.au, in person at Frankston Arts Centre or by calling 9784 1060.

 As the token Australian in the Great Big Story team, Julianne Wilkinson is the producer from Bittern making it big in Manhattan.

While a Bachelor of Film and Digital Media from Deakin University and a Certificate of Documentary Video Production from RMIT set her on her way, Julianne credits her Year 12 media class at Padua Mornington as a major influence on her career.
“While working on my VCE media film it really hit that this was what I wanted to do for my career,” she says.  “I wanted to make film. I found myself staying back after school and trying to get my edit just perfect, and that was when I realised it didn’t just feel like a class I needed to pass for my VCE, and it didn’t feel like work, which is the best kind of job to have.”

Great Big Story was founded as a social video network in 2015.  It makes short documentaries about incredible people and places and releases two or three new videos a week on social media.  As a producer, Julianne is responsible for pitching, filming and editing. GBS started with a dozen staff and has grown to a team of more than 40. Its motto is ‘Tell me something I don’t know; show me something I’ve never seen’. That being said, her team endeavours to focus on the unknown and the curious while concentrating on creating beautifully made video productions. They’re adamant that social media platforms deserve as much effort and quality put into their videos as larger scale productions do, since these platforms tend to be the most accessed place to watch short videos.

“It’s an exciting time to be at the company and we’re fortunate to have a corporate parent (CNN) that has such high hopes for us,” Julianne says.  “I have had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people and see parts of America I would never have visited otherwise. I’ve seen more rural towns of America than I’m sure a lot of Americans have.”

Previous work as the assistant editor for Broadway Video gained her experience in working with such high-profile clients as CNN, CBS, NBC, Comedy Central, VH1, MTV and Tidal. This followed her promotion from a receptionist’s role and internship there previously. Freelance positions in Australia for Not Half Bad Productions, All My Friends Productions and Theatrepeople gave her the encouragement to take the leap of faith over to The Big Apple.

“While I was studying at Deakin University I did a semester exchange to Hunter College in New York in 2011 and, like a lot of people, instantly feel in love with the city. I was really attracted to the amount of opportunity there is here to work in the film and digital media space and how different platforms for video were being embraced in a way I wasn’t seeing yet in Australia.”

Having settled into Manhattan after moving from Brooklyn (and ultimately the sleepy beach town of Bittern), Julianne misses our coffee. “I’d do just about anything for a latte from Local Café in Hastings and a walk on the beach right now,” she told Frankly Frankston as her home town caffeine cravings became real.

The noise and pace of Manhattan matches her days at work, but she relishes the time she’s on the road filming because it becomes her entire focus, instead of balancing several projects at various stages of production in the office.

“Mine and GBS’s biggest fan is ultimately my mum,” Julianne says. “She comments on every post.”
And finally, Julianne has some advice for anyone contemplating following her lead: “If you’ve recently graduated in a creative degree, do not be disheartened by the lack of opportunity or jobs and get out there and create your own. Make your own web show, film your own videos, put on your own play - don’t wait for someone to hire you.”
 

Fatai has a soulful voice and is an artist who looks at the bigger picture.

She’s been with her vocal coach and mentor David Jaanz for about 10 years and was lucky enough to grow up as a kid under his unique training methods that included emotion-centred singing, which built the foundations of gospel and improvisation. This was opposed to learning the standard classical training methods that focus on technique and scales.

With her signature purple hair and a voice that gives you goosebumps, Fatai is certainly someone who catches your attention and holds it. Watch her videos and you’ll understand what we mean. Her soulful voice lends itself perfectly to genres such as soul, gospel and r’n’b, but Fatai also enjoys the complexity of jazz.

“The purple hair signifies royalty,” she says.  “It represents who I am as a child of God before anything else.”

This spirited young lady would spend her summers at Mordialloc beach with her family where her creative juices flowed as smoothly as a refreshing drink on a hot day.  “Nature speaks to me like nothing else. I’m always inspired by what the ocean has to say to me through the waves about life and its unpredictable ways of crashing on you when you least expect it.”

Chicago is now her physical home, but as she prepares to embark on her second tour of the US her heart still beats for Melbourne. She explains that in her opinion Melbourne has some of the best and most unique talent in the world, but the Australian community could do a better job of supporting the homegrown talent in our own backyard. Instead, as a collective, Australians are so heavily influenced by the international markets. 

“Uniqueness is power, and we need to realise this, recognise it and take risks once in a while.”

Music is both a portal for self-expression as well a tool to tell stories. In that respect she draws inspiration from her own journey - from painful experiences to joyful moments - to inspire her music. This she believes is the connecting point for the listener when they are able to relate to the situation that the artist sings about. Fatai’s belief in this is so concrete that she prefers to not listen to music for inspiration, instead gaining creativeness from the life happening around her.

“Life speaks to me when I’m living in it, and not listening to it through headphones.”

As she applies her passion in the studio working on a single that should be out before the end of the year, she added some fantastic advice for our Frankly Frankston readers: “Just be you. Work hard but stay humble. Use your voice to make a positive change, and remember that music is always bigger than you.”

2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road made an unlikely action star of Charlize Theron and her ice-queen performance here in Atomic Blonde further solidifies Theron as being more than capable of such roles. Adapted from the graphic novel The Coldest City, director David Leitch serves up some of the most brutal hyperstylised violence available to us on screen today.

Set in 1989 during the last days of the Berlin Wall, Theron plays MI6 operative Lorraine Broughton, sent to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and retrieve a list that will save the lives of a number of double agents that were active during the Cold War.

Throughout the course of her mission she encounters David Percival, a former Berlin bureau chief gone feral. Played with vigour by James McAvoy (Split, X-Men: Apocalypse) it’s clear he’s enjoying himself and Sofia Boutella’s French spy Delphine who serves as a love interest.

What Atomic Blonde lacks in plot and character depth, its complex choreographed fight sequences more than make up for. Beautifully lensed by cinematographer Jonathan Sela and backed by a killer 80’s soundtrack. There’s something to savour in every shot.

Scott Jackson - Three Stars (3)  

For every great musical act enjoying the limelight of success, there are thousands that bubble below the surface just waiting for their big chance. While it's never been easier to write, record and publish things yourself, many artists will never have the opportunity to develop their talents in a professional, nurturing yet challenging environment.

Enter the latest instalment of the GRID Series.

GRID Series 2017 is an artist development program that equips musicians with the essential skills and recorded material to create a sustainable career in the music industry. This year’s series, supported by Creative Victoria, will be focusing on developing artists from Frankston, the Mornington Peninsula and the outer southeastern region of Melbourne, home to some of the most exciting emerging talent in Victoria.

Eight artists will be selected to take part in a free, three-month intensive program that includes a full weekend of mentoring with music industry professionals at Music Victoria; songwriting development sessions; recording/production/mixing/mastering of one track for each of the eight artists courtesy of El Perro Productions and video content courtesy of Baked Goods; and live shows at Frankston’s Pelly Bar, the Ferntree Gully Hotel and ALH Group venues.

GRID 2017, supported by the State Government through Creative Victoria and run in partnership with El Perro Productions, ALH Group, Music Victoria and APRA/AMCOS, is an amazing opportunity for bands from this region to build a supportive network around their music.

Applications close on August 31. For more details, go to gridseries.com.au, facebook.com/gridseriesmelbourne, Instagram @grid_series or Twitter @gridseries

Stampeding elephants! Raging typhoons! Runaway trains! Unabashed slapstick! Hold on to your seats for the original amazing race - the bet is on!

Frankston Arts Centre presents a thrilling new production of Around the World in 80 Days that will take you from London to Bombay, Yokohama to San Francisco, through typhoons, out-of-control trains and into the deepest reaches of your imagination as it’s all done with just three actors playing a multitude of roles.

The pressure is on and time is running out for Phileas Fogg and his band of quirky adventurers. At their heels is a relentless Scotland Yard detective. At stake is beating the clock and winning the bet. This is no movie - this is theatre at its most magical. Wayne Scott Kermond, Sharon Millerchip and Ian Stenlake bring this adventure to life in a new adaptation of the classic story told in a completely unexpected way.

Around the World in 80 Days will land at Frankston Arts Centre on Friday, September 22, at 8pm. Tickets are $27-$55 and can be booked on thefac.com.au, in person at FAC or by calling 9784 1060.

FRANKSTON ARTS CENTRE
A: 27-37 Davey St, Frankston
T: 9784 1060
W: thefac.com.au

Captivating virtuoso soprano Merlyn Quaife, accompanied by Andrea Katz, will thrill concert-goers with her recital hosted by the Peninsula Music Society on September 9 at 7.30pm at the accessible Peninsula Community Theatre.

Merlyn, who received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours, has been described by The Age critic Clive O’Connell as having “a no-nonsense style and razor-sharp exactness … in observation of dynamics, care of phrasing, (and) textual clarity”.
A full house is expected for her repertoire, which will include Mozart, Alma Grande K578, select Schubert and Schumann lieder, the romantic Strauss with a crescendo into Roger Heagney and Christopher Willcock, and a finale of the Love Song Medley.

This will be a sparkling evening. Tickets are available online at pmsmusic.asn.au, from Farrell’s Bookshop in Mornington and Robinsons Bookshop in Frankston, or at the door an hour before the start of the concert at 91 Wilsons Rd, Mornington.

Australian Dance Theatre has thrilled sell-out audiences around the world with performances of cutting edge dance. Now the internationally acclaimed company brings Be Your Self Redux to Frankston Arts Centre on Friday 8 September, 8pm. A distilled version of the original Be Your Self, Be Your Self Redux fuses Garry Stewart’s audacious choreography with spoken word to create an exciting dance work that leaves audiences questioning the underpinnings of who they are. The athletic dancers of ADT are transformed into erupting, powerful, and emotional entities, projecting startling physical images.

Tickets are $27 - $45 and will include a unique opportunity to step behind the scenes and observe the dancers’ daily training regime, watch the meticulous rehearsal process, see how the stage is set ready for a performance and understand the technical aspects of the show. You can also attend the pre-show talk and Q&A session with ADT Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Old about the making of Be Your Self Redux and the unique way in which this extraordinary contemporary dance company creates its works.

Members of this elite ensemble will also be teaching a contemporary dance workshop on Thursday 7 September, 4pm – 6pm at Mechanics Institute. A workshop ticket is $30 but only $20 if purchased with the performance ticket.

Tickets can be booked on thefac.com.au, in person at FAC or by calling 03 9784 1060.

Looking for a place to sit back and relax while listening to some cool Peninsula-style jazz?

Then head on down to Patterson Lakes Community Centre where Peninsula jazz lovers can lounge around to the sounds of music that soothes the soul.

The Peninsula Jazz Club began back in 1978 when a dedicated group of ‘jazzers’ formed to present jazz music on the Mornington Peninsula. The venues have changed over the years, but the same devotion to this style of music hasn’t wavered. Now with over 300 members, The Peninsula Jazz Clubs holds regular monthly get-togethers in Patterson Lakes (usually on the third Friday of each month) where both well-known local and interstate jazz musicians play. This means there’s always a different style of jazz to be enjoyed and there’s even space for a bit of boogying too. Sunday afternoon speciality concerts happen four times a year, an annual dinner dance is held every May, and New Year’s Eve gets off to a bang with jazzed-up celebrations every year. Doors are open from 7.30 pm and close at 11pm and tickets can be purchased at the door or pre-booked by calling Jude Brown on 9558 2801.

The Peninsula Jazz Club will be celebrating its 40th birthday in 2018. Pencil it in and get ready boogie-woogie with the best.

Groovy.

THE PENINSULA JAZZ CLUB
Patterson Lakes Community Centre, Patterson Lakes
T: 0422 657 634 (Harry Daniels, club president)
W: peninsulajazzclub.com.au

Are you a budding young singer, an aspiring adult performer or a senior with a passion for entertaining?

If so, then you need to enter the Voice of Frankston 2017. This is your chance to be the voice of Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. The Voice of Frankston is a solo artist singing competition with three age group categories: Junior (up to age 12), Teen (13 to 20) and Adult (21 plus).

Join all the action at the official Voice of Frankston 2017 Launch at Bayside Shopping Centre (opposite Target) on Saturday, July 15, at 1pm. Hear about the competition, meet the judges and witness the amazing talent of past applicants.

Category winners will receive a cash prize and a sensational marketing package including: a song personally written for the winner; a single CD recording and video performance; an interview with RPPFM; opportunities to perform at local community venues and events; and more.

To enter, register at themusicindustry.com.au and upload your audition video. Applications open July 15 and close September 29. The Semi Final is on Sunday, October 15, at the Frankston Arts Centre and the Grand Final is on Sunday, October 22, also at the Frankston Arts Centre.

The Music Industry is a music school, the first of its kind on the Mornington Peninsula. The philosophy is to offer students music tuition with a difference. More at themusicindustry.com.au

NEWS FLASH: The Voice star and local performer Adam Ladell (pictured) will be a special guest Grand Final judge for The Voice of Frankston 2017! Adam will also perform live at the launch.