Sydney Film Festival (10th-14th June)

So after much deliberation whether I wanted to go, and having missed the first train, I was off to Sydney Film Festival. I was going as a volunteer and I barely had a clue where I was going, or know Sydney well enough to really be able to find where I needed to be. I hadn't received much information about what I was doing or where I needed to be going and trains to Sydney and hostels for a week were not going to be cheap, but I was going.

Now without checking I can't remember the names of anything I saw. I'll look them up later at some point. But I really did have a great time as was so glad I actually went.
The shifts I was working could consist of almost anything: scanning tickets; manning entrances with a torch; running around with a mic for audience questions at a talk or; just standing and pointing people in the right direction.
The shifts would start about half an hour before a show and often extend over 2 shows or films. Instead of being paid (we were volunteers), we were given vouchers to see a film for each shift we worked.

Unfortunately for me the festival lasted a full 2weeks, so most of the films I wanted to see just weren't on while I was there. I did get to see some very interesting 'cult' films, which I will again recap when I've refreshed my memory.

The people I was working with were quite brilliant, and a real mix: student; the people who planned and organised the event; people who had just been volunteering for years. The couple of evening I went out for meals with other volunteers probably provided me with all the proper food I ate that week. The restaurant/pub, whose name I will never remember was just across the street from Events Cinema where I worked most of my shifts. It was very nice; cheap meals, and reminded me a lot of Varsity in Aberystwyth, right down to the animal skin covered bar stools.

The few evenings out and seeing films were about all the time I had off. I generally didn't have much time between shifts. My only free time was generally first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening and that time was spent watching films with my free vouchers. The exceptions were the day I arrived where my free time was spent working out where my very cheap hostel was, how to get to the main cinema from there, and where the other cinemas and theatres I was scheduled at were.
Or it was raining, which always took me by surprise because I would go into the cinema on a lovely morning and walk out into rain, having not realised the weather had even changed.

The one day I had off, well not starting until 5pm, I of course started with a nice lye-in. Well as nice as you can get in a hostel, then I went for a walk. Me being me, my walk terminated when I found a nice treed park in which I could lie down in the sun and read... I will never be a city girl.
Continuing my walk at about 3, I found my way to Sydney Sky Tower which had the most amazing views of the city. Unfortunately I missed the sky walk (where they basically hang off the top rim of the tower) by about 5 minutes and since they lasted an hour I couldn't do the next and get back in time for my shift =(






And the other thing worth mentioning of course is the cupcake stall I chanced upon. Well it would have been very hard to miss being in the foyer of Events Cinema. Now if I'd picked up one of their clubcards straight away, I would have had a free cupcake by the end of the week. Who can resist a cupcake/coffee deal. Was my stop before and after every shift. I was very unhappy on the nights I finished my shifts after closing.

All in all a brilliant week, and I never got my key deposit back from the hostel, my train left before reception opened. I hope the Italian guy I entrusted my key to enjoyed it.