Last Saturday night a couple of friends and I meet up in Newtown to attend the launch party of Collide Magazine’s latest issue. Collide Magazine is a quarterly arts and culture briefing, centring on an array of artists and musicians from both Australia and abroad. The style of the party, much like Collide Magazine, was brimming with a distinctly ‘inner west’ vibe and colourful bohemian revelry. Indeed, the diverse and energetic crowd, which was made up of punks, goths, rockabilly types, steam-punks, fashion kids and metal heads (just to name a few), can be seen to epitomize some of the inner-west’s best characteristics.

The event was held at the absolutely awesome COMMUNE space, a converted and extremely airy bare brick building just off south King Street. My friends and I were greeted with complimentary pizza and beers upon arrival and bumbled about the space chatting to other partygoers, enjoying the music and delighting in the upbeat ambiance. Exhibiting their work were a group of artists whose photographs, paintings and sculptures could be found dotted throughout the space. I especially enjoyed a series of partially nude photographs, which were seemingly right at home amongst the carousing and soft hedonism of the party. ‘The art’ was followed by more pizza and cider, washed down with even more pizza and cider, which was topped off with a little bit more pizza and a couple more beers. Young Henry’s brewery, who have developed a habit of supporting cultural events within the region, were generous in their support of the event, and donated what was a seemingly endless kegs of beer and cider which the public most certainly enjoyed.

I’m not sure why it is exactly (probably a teenage obsession with The Devil Wears Prada), but whenever I envision a ‘magazine launch party’ my mind is filled with images of posh people, glamorous venues, expensive champagne, and pretentious attitudes. On the contrary however, Collide Magazine’s launch party was an extremely fun, lovingly boisterous and totally welcoming affair in which I felt very comfortable and had a real blast. Congratulations to the team at Collide Magazine on the great publication and awesome party!

– Yarran