How to Survive the Caxton St Seafood Festival
After making the effort to go to the Caxton Street Seafood & Wine festival last year, I vowed not to go again this year. But a combination of a friend who’s new to Brisbane and free tickets was what convinced me to give it another go. This guide applies to just about every street party/festival that’s fueled by specialty food and excessive alcohol consumption, not just this annual event.
- Dress comfortably! This is not the place to wear anything too revealing or your new high heels. It’s crowded and on a street in Brisbane city, which means uneven footpaths, unexpected gutters, rubbish everywhere and rowdy people who have no manners. Chances are your heel will break or you’ll twist an ankle when you stumble on uneven ground. And once the night wears on, anything you wear that shows anything more than a little bit of cleveage or leg will get your harassed or groped once the sun goes down.
- Make sure you’re tolerance levels are at their peak. Guaranteed 90% of the people attending will be the types of people that you never normally deal with or even pretend to tolerate. We’re talking bogans of every type, families with kids who are tired and grumpy from all the excitement, girls who wear high heels regardless of any good advice and break your toes when they stamp on your feet in the crowds, kids who just hit 18 and are out to PAR-TAY etc. Aside from some of the friends you bump into, most of these people are not the types of people you want to spend any times with. And you better believe they’re gonna get in your face! So make sure to be tolerant and try to smile and go with it. No one likes a party-pooper, especially at a huge street party!
- Make sure you’re cashed up. Drinks are expensive and not too easy to come by. If you don’t have much cash (like I was this year AND last year, as it turns out) then have a few pre-drinks because you’re probably going to need a decent amount of booze to deal with the crowds, and $50 is not going to get you very far at all.
- Take cash and cigarettes with you. Unless you’re keen to wait in a line ffor an ATM for 45 mins plus, you should have all your cash withdrawn in advance. If you smoke, get a packet or two in advance because you’ll have nowhere else to buy them but the expensive machines at the pubs. It’s also likely that both ATMs and cigarette machines will run out by the end of the day/night.
- Find a good spot and stay there. Once you’ve done your wandering, you’re best off finding a spot that’s not too busy, has a bar nearby and (if you have smoker friends) has a smoking area nearby. The street becomes chaotic pretty early on, but nowhere near as bad as when the sun starts to set and people are well and truly wasted. If you find a good spot, claim it and enjoy it for as long as possible. If you’re lucky it’ll even have good music (in our case it was pub rock which was horrifying at first, but as we drank more it was kind of fun). If you can find a place with decent toilets then you’re clearly better at this than I!
- Leave earlier rather than later. Hanging around for the sake of hanging around means you will just get shittier as every minute passes and all your hard work at getting drunk and being tolerant will fly out the proverbial window. If the party starts to drag, get the hell outta there! Parties are only ever good when you leave on a good note so don’t stick around without good reason.
There are many more tips I could give you, but these are the main ones that will get you by. By skipping these steps you run the risk of having a terrible time. This festival is very hit and miss and usually tends to disappoint more than it engages. It’s a highlight on the social calendar of Brisbane but you must be prepared if you’re going to enjoy it in any way. Chances are you won’t enjoy it much anyway but it’s a bit of generally harmless fun and should be experienced at least once in your lifetime!
(The worse example of a street festival is the Notting Hill Carnivale in London. Holy shit was that intense. Fun, but very very full on. I’d like to go without a recently done tattoo though…man was I hurting by the end of the day)
