IT’S SHOW TIME

JAY FIELDING

TICKETS for FraserPop Pop Culture Festival have gone on sale as the local event calendar begins ramping up.

The annual event has become one of the biggest pop culture experiences in Australia, even attracting visitors from New Zealand.

The event will feature more than 50 stalls, celebrity guests and popular special sessions, which this year will include a cosplayers ball, zombie hunt, Mad Hatter’s tea party and lightsaber training.

Entry to the festival is by gold coin donation but tickets to the special sessions need to be booked and paid for online.

This year’s celebrity line-up includes actor John Jarratt, Lord of the Rings and Avatar costume technician Sanit Klamchanuan, Simpsons and Futurama animator Dean Rankine and Star Wars actor Matt Doran, who is returning after also appearing last year.

FraserPop will be held at Maryborough State High School from 10am to 3pm on Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16. For more information, visit the

Fraser Coast Show

Program of Events - page 9

Relish Food & Wine

See page 10 for details

FraserPop Pop Culture Festival page on Facebook.

Other upcoming events include the Fraser Coast Agriculture Show, the Relish Food and Wine Festival and the Mary Poppins Festival.

The theme of this year’s Show, on Thursday, May 25, and Friday, May 26, is “Roads to Rural”.

The program is packed with things to see and do, including the wood chop, bull riding, cowboy races, sideshow alley, antique tractor pulls, freestyle motocross shows, agricultural,

- 7 days art and cookery sections, the Dino Larious puppet show and fireworks at 8pm on both days.

For more information, visit frasercoastagshow.com.

Relish is being held on Saturday, June 3, at the Portside Precinct and Queens Park, with live music from two stages.

At the Food Lovers Marquee, there will be five demonstrations, by Hervey Bay restaurateurs Dan and Steph Mulherin, celebrity chef Alistair Mcleod, Kingfisher Bay Resort’s Arpan Sharma, Butchulla and South Sea Islander chef Kym

Watkins, who incorporates native ingredients into dishes, and Queensland Cake Decorators Association Maryborough branch member Damien Symes.

Attendees will be able to enjoy a glass of wine and stock up from wineries including the local Lychee Hill Estate and Ohana Winery, Hill of Promise and Vintner’s Secret in Childers.

Something stronger will be on offer from brewers and distillers including the Fraser Coast’s Spirit Collective and Matilda Distilling Company.

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