HERE NOW

HERE NOW is a day-to-night festival of abundance, smashing food and wine with music and art to celebrate our most important voices, artists and makers from the connoisseurs at Mary's. Co-curated by drinks journalist and P&V Wine and Liquor Merchants co-founder Mike Bennie and acclaimed farmer and restaurateur Palisa Anderson.

For its inaugural party, HERE NOW will bring together our most exciting names, cult favourites and the emerging artists who are forging the new paths for food, wine and art to keep flourishing in our country. Eat, drink, dance, collide at HERE NOW, taking over Macquarie Place Park for a block party with a bright Vivid Sydney spirit.

Expect the state’s most exciting artisan winemakers, breweries and distillers serving drinks alongside leading food producers, chefs and more.

On the food front, enjoy dishes from Thai specialist Annita Potter (Viand), Taiwanese chef Jowett Yu (Ms. G’s, Mr. Wong), Morgan McGlone (Bar Copains, Belles Hot Chicken), pastry chef Lauren Eldridge (Berowra Waters Inn), Fleet and La Casita founders Josh Lewis & Astrid McCormack, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar Head Chef Alex Prichard, Porcine founder Nick Hill, Colombo, Kabul and Coyoacán Social Founder Shaun Christie David as well as dishes from Mary’s and Palisa Anderson’s Chat Thai. And our state’s finest producers will also be on hand, including Palisa’s Boon Luck Farm, Fishtales, Little Hill Farm, ALTO Olives and Smoketrap Eels.

On the drinks side, try tipples from the P&V Aussie Baller Bar, Marrickville brewery Wildflower, Blue Mountains wine Frankly, Wine By Bob, Narrabri Agave Spirit Black Snake Distillery, South Coast wines Benson & The Mooch, wine maker Mem Hemmings from MEREDITH, Hunter Valley lo-fi wines Sabi Wabi, Inner West gin distillery Lily Fields Distilling Co, non-alcoholic beer Heaps Normal and Ghiddy, Marrickville non-alcoholic winery.

As for entertainment, expect energetic live performances from genre-defying musician Danté Knows, Sudanese pop-star Gordon Koang and dream-pop duo EGOISM. Plus DJ sets from Eluize, Champs, ChelseyDagger and Reenie, and interactive art throughout the park. Interactive art will be roaming and displayed throughout the festival park for guests including an hour-one art experience presented by UnitePlayPerform.

And for those keen to keep things moving, Mary’s Underground is hosting the official afterparty from 9pm, with sets from the above DJs and performers, as well as punk rock three-piece Antenna and Kaurna Land post-punk band The Empty Threats.