Once upon a time, in a far away land there was a girl who was (temporarily) living out of a bag on a very beautiful but remote farm. One day, she heard that a ball was to take place to celebrate Earth Hour. It was to be a grand gypsy affair with music and dancing, food and alcohol. She longed to go but, of course, had neglected to pack her gypsy dresses when she left the green land. So she resigned herself to spending the night listening to the crickets and the bullfrogs instead.
Suddenly, a fairy godmother appeared and asked her would she like to go to the ball and sample the food and the alcohol, the music and the dancing... Of course she wanted to go! But what could she wear? And how would she get there, and home again? So she decided to use her expert negotiation skills to strike a deal...
And so it came to pass that I spent a fantastic Saturday afternoon transforming the local Arts Hall into a gypsy themed fantasy land.
In return my fairy godmother helped me out with some gypsy clobber and a place to stay.
The Band of Gypsies were superb and had cart-fulls of passion and talent. These five stunning musicians played acoustically by candlelight until Earth Hour had passed then they whisked the audience away on a rip-roaring tour of European Gypsy/folk music with some classics thrown in for good measure. By the way they will be playing in London in July.
Right at the end they appeared to channel Leonard Cohen into this tiny hall in New South Wales, and as they lifted the roof off the place I felt a gap in my universe close.
When midnight came, the band stopped playing (they wouldn't have been allowed to leave the stage in Ireland until they had played at least 3 encores) and the hall mysteriously emptied in a matter of minutes.
Only the gypsy-for-a-night girl, her fairy godmother and a few others were left to reluctantly wipe away any trace of gypsy magic. By 1am we were sober and the hall was looking very sombre again.
By 2am, I was whisked off by my fairy godmother in my pumpkin carriage, which looked suspiciously like a VW campervan. I stayed in a 'shack' in the bush that night but felt like a gypsy princess under my mosquito net.
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