Splendour in the Grass, Mullumbimby, Nimbin, ET AL!

[apothecary]

Hello!

O.K. It looks like my boss wants to keep me at CSIRO next semester (woohoo!), so I've had to cut my original month in Mullumbimby concept short.

21st Jul: Leave during the night on bus, so as to arrive at Nimbin the following morning.

22nd Jul: Wander, meander and mope around Nimbin for a day, buying as many drugs as my teensy hands can carry!

Leave Nimbin for Byron Bay that night.

23rd/24th Jul: I want to go to Splendour in the Grass! I want to camp out there! I have nobody to camp with It's $125 for both days and $75/head for camping ticket.

Does anyone feel like camping out with poor little me for one or two nights listening to the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Living End, Willy Mason, Interpol?!

If nobody does, then I'll probably take CS' suggestion and set up camp at the Arts Factory and run wild at Splendour during the day.

25th-29th Jul: Maybe spend a few more nights in Byron, then head up to Mullum for some peace and quiet, and a visit to Wandjina (Mesq can we still doof? :D ).

So yeah! If anyone wants to join me, please let me know soon, 'cos all this stuff has to be booked!

Tix for Splendour go on sale on May 9th.

EDIT: Does anyone have a good idea on how to get to Nimbin from Sydney?

[ 29. April 2005, 06:53: Message edited by: apothecary ]

[Torsten]

from sydney you can go to Lismore or to Byron. No direct connection to nimbin. I reckon go to Byron, check into arts factory, take an early morning tour into Nimbin (there are tours running from Byron that do Nimbin and a few other worthwhile sights), back to Byron in the evening. Next day splendour.

Personally I don't think you have any other possibility to get all this done in that timeframe. It's not like Nimbin is all that well connected to the public transport network.

The other option is to hook up with someone who is going to splendour and has a car (doesn't have to be from sydney). That way maybe you can spend the day before splendour cruising round the area.

Make sure that whatever you decide to do that you book it well in advance (incl arts factory, tours etc). Splendour is a busy time for Byron.

btw, splendour is held on a campground. Not sure if they allow camping during the event though. If not, there is another campground almost opposite. If you intend to stay at speldnour most of the time you may want to have your stuff closer to the venue than it would be at the arts factory.

[apothecary]

eerghghghghg yeah the more I think about it the more my time frame sucks.

I'll be booking everything on Monday.

Yeah it looks like I'm gonna have to sit down and try and come up with another, better, itinerary.

If it was anywhere but my dream job, I would've said fuckit and spent the entire month wandering around in a drug fuelled haze

[everywhen]

yeah I've been meaning to start a thread about Splendour. I am definitely keen on going, getting my ticket for my birthday and in the process of convincing more friends to make the trek (from adelaide).

I'd be looking at the camping option, possibly spending a week or so beforehand in Byron to enjoy the local culture...

It all sounds like a good excuse to come and check out Byron to me.

I'll post a bit more coherently when I get more time, gotta head off to my birthday bbq thingy now...

[The Dude]

Unemployment sucks major dogs bollocks.

[mesq]

apothecary.... U pretty much miss most of the parties that are already on the calander but no doubt some will pop up much closer to the date... If there is a doof I wil let you know.... by pm

[apothecary]

Well all the booking has been done...

My itinerary has changed again.

I'm leaving Sydney on the night of the 22nd to arrive on the morning of the 23rd.

I've booked the Arts Factory for 5 nights starting on the 23rd, which leaves the 28th-30th for visiting Mullum and maybe Nimbin again (depending).

If I have more cash, I'll go to Splendour in the Grass for just the 23rd (tix go on sale on the May 9th).

So yeah. The 23rd will either be occupied by Splendour or going to Nimbin to purchase goodies.

I sent the booking form for Arts Factory, the email they sent back said they'll get back to me to make sure it's free around then. If it isn't I'll just sleep on the beach or something

So that's the itinerary, booked and set in (softish) stone.

I'm looking forward to it, despite it having been cut down to a quarter of the size I had originally planned. If I like it a lot, I'll probably try and spend an extra 3 nights in Byron, I don't think my boss will mind all that much.

[Benzito]

I made my first visit to the Byron shire in February this year, and I miss it every damn day since!

Well, when I was up there, I had driven my own car. So, all transport was undertaken by me.

I actually heard a few little rumours or comments floating around while I was up there, that the cops supposedly search the tourist buses sometimes, as they LEAVE Nimbin.

Maybe you want to be careful of this? Or maybe Darcy, T, or someone else local can actually give us something a little more than rumours?

I heard that the cops randomly pull over the tour buses as they leave, and search every person on the bus. Wow, it must have taken a whole team of detectives to come up with that plan!

So, they turn a blind-eye in town, but as soon as you leave, they bust you.

I didn't see cops waiting outside town anywhere, but it could really ruin the great holiday you got planned, to get busted for possession half way through.

T, Darcy, you guys heard about this happening?

[Torsten]

never heard of it, but definitely possible.

darklight might know more.

[AndyAmine.]

I dont know about whole busses getting searched one by one but they are known for making an example every now and then so it could have happend, the breathalyzing of all 53 Kombie convoyers at the MardiGrass was a good show of that.

I have bussines interests in Nimbin (NO not the kind thats drug related) and have been a regular there for a few years now, on average probabaly visiting a couple of times a month and have never been searched inside or comming in our out of town but then again I never give them a reason to.

I have however rarely seen people searched in town or pulled over comming out of town a few Km's down the road but only when going towards lismore via Nimbin Rd. (but dont get me wrong, I have seen plenty of cops on the Mur'bah/Kyogle Rd.)

If you speak to someone reliable you can usually get a feel for the vibe around town, they have regular crack downs (bi-monthly?) where they make their presence felt but thats about it and after all thats their job. if your not blatant and dont give them a reason to give you a hard time you should be fine.

Ive found they wait on the byron side of Lismore to do RBT's every now and again.. I got done there a few months back and while they were reasonably calm with me despite my expired licence and not having my current rego sticker up they were litterally ripping this other guys car apart that had pulled up after me, the back seats out on the ground and all.. whether it was because they were a group of koori fellas or not I dont know but it just goes to show how the way you look and deal with them can make a big diference.

If your going to be there around a major event or holiday like Splendour the place to really watch out is the QLD boarder line, for the last couple of years they have been doing 2/3 day blitzes using RBT's, undone belts and sniffer dogs as excuses to get into search people cars.

They cut right along the border line usually from Warwick to the water including all backroads and sometimes beyond, once they even checked all boats crossing the border via water!

They did it again this passed weekend over MardiGrass and busted something like 80 cars for 130+ drug offences.

The only reason I didnt get searched was because that truck weigh in station thing just before the Mur'bah turn off (heading Sth) was already full with diverted traffic and I didnt come back until lastnight.

[Darklight]

Torsten:

never heard of it, but definitely possible.

darklight might know more.

Not me, I don't go into Nimbin much, except for pizza. We went into Mardi Grass for the first time last year ( it's a bit like living in Tamworth during country music festival... you want to leave ) but not being dopesmokers for 10+ years its more politically relevant than entertaining

Can't believe they RBT'd all the kombis this year! Last year they had an RBT set up north of Nimbin on Blue Knob Rd near the turnoff to the motel, can't recall which day, but there was a bit of a queue. Dunno where else.

In former years they've set up snifferdog/ RBT stops near Lillian Rock Rd and other points around town for ten days in advance tho not full time, and they pull up fucken everyone, fruit truck, business vehicles, the works. Doesn't make them too popular with the locals.

Had heard the jacks were being hard on Nimbin town for the leadup to MG as well as the expected roadblocks on the border, and there was an RBT on at the Blue Knob/Mur'bah Rd turnoff on Friday, but didn't hear much more specific info than that. There's usually trouble around town in the leadup to MG, Xmas, and can't recall what other seasonal times cos its 20 years since I lived there.

I wouldn't risk it, though in terms of attendance numbers the risk is probably relatively small. With so many lovely legal entheogens around, and so many people selling contraband in town for those days, why carry it in or out if you can avoid it?

What did interest me about MG this year is that the media profile was abysmal... no PR on any news, local or national, that I could see. There's usually something... still have to check this weekend's Northern Star to see if they did anything. If this wasn't the fault of the organisers ( and I'm not sure why this happened ) then I'd be watching this space over the next few years: with media coverage being limited MG could well become re-marginalised. Might be a good thing because it could return the parade etc focus to the original political protest. Might be a bad thing cos its easier to go hard on the event if it doesn't have a warm glowy public face.

[apothecary]

Uh...Darklight...is that a yes or a no?

[2b]

quote:

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I've booked the Arts Factory for 5 nights

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LOL , I was banned for life from the Arts Factory in 1989 :D It all started when we got into the mushrooms that were growing in the paddocks behind the place , went back to the dorm late at night and this bloke that i was sharing with kept scaring/suprising me (basically trying to spin me out), as a consequence i would nearly jump out of my skin (litterally)As i kept trying to sit on the top bunk , every time this guy went out of his way to scare/suprise me i fell through the bunk landing on the bottom bunk (in my defense they were poorly designed and made) any way from memory three of the top bunks suffered the same fate and i consequently was baned for life wonder if after all this time i could sneak back in ?