• Home
• System archive
• Articles

Articles

Laura J, Roving reporter

NYW Blog 7 - 10 days of youth lovin' (Part 1)

Ministers, juggling balls, Parliament House, fairy floss and a pink gorilla. What's the link? They were all part of my 10 days of youth lovin' during National Youth Week 2011.

In a three-part series, I'll be blogging about my Youth Week experiences travelling around Victoria meeting young people and attending some amazing events. So here is my first instalment, giving you a rundown of days one to three of National Youth Week 2011.

Day one - Friday 1 April

I'd never seen playback theatre before so I was pretty excited to attend Playback West at Phoenix, run by Western Edge Youth Arts (new window). Playback is an interactive style of theatre where the audience tells stories that the actors then act out (or play back... get it?). At Playback West everyone was a storyteller, and the young actors were absolutely amazing at bringing the stories to life.

My favourite stories were the tale of the couple who secretly killed their neighbour's aggressive sheep and buried it on their farm, only to have the dogs dig the poor sheep back up, and the story of the little girl who dropped her lunchbox and then punched the boy who stopped to help her because she thought he was going to steal her lunch.

Highlights included:

• Quite possibly the funniest ever impersonation of the ghost of a sheep
• Hearing stories from the audience, from punching a Good Samaritan to wrapping a spider in a jewellery box as a birthday gift
• Listening to Young Member Torres making some impromptu music with the young actors after the show

Day two - Saturday 2 April

National Launch! This year the National Launch was held in Melbourne at Birrarung Marr. I had an awesome day chilling with Young Members Torres and Chris, chatting to the youthbeyondblue and headspace guys, and hanging out with the celebrity ambassadors (new window). We had a stack of young people attend the launch to hear some awesome music, score some free stuff (including Beiber tickets!) and enjoy a day celebrating what it means to be a young person in Australia.

Highlights included:

• Chasing down the Hon. Peter Garrett, Federal Minister for Youth to get this photo
• Being interviewed onstage by Fuzzy and Dylan from Video Hits (check out the video on my Facebook page (new window))
• Moshing to The Vines, Jebediah and Tim & Jean

Day three - Sunday 3 April

I managed to find my way to Pakenham for the Cardinia Shire Council Youth Festival, which for me was an achievement. I'm glad I made it down there because the Cardinia Council's youth committee had done a great job organising a festival for the whole family.

There was free fairy floss, free rides, free spray on tattoos, free (and live) music from local musicians and a free jumping castle. Plus, the Cardinia Shire Council Mobile Youth Bus (MYBus) (new window) was also on display. MYBus is a converted passenger bus (it's literally a bus!) that's decked out with a range of cool activities, resources and entertainment.

Highlights included:

• Definitely the free fairy floss
• Checking out the local musicians
• The art and crafts tent (it was seriously going off!)

National Youth Week 2011 has come and gone, but for all the goss on what went down stay tuned here for my weekly blogs. In my next blog I'll tell you all about Days 4-7. And if you want to share your Youth Week story, add me on facebook (Laura Young Member (new window))

For more about National Youth Week, check out www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/nyw

BACK TO MORE ARTICLES

Youth Central, -System from every angle.

A Victorian Government Initiative