Darling Harbour is always a colourful, multi-cultural melting pot on any given weekend. This was very much the case when we visited one lovely Sunday afternoon in early February.

Ben had plenty of opportunities to use his camera with two events taking place on a lovely Sunday afternoon-  the RTX fans convention and the annual Serbian Festival, now in its 5th year.

The Cosplayers at the RTX fans convention

The RTX fans convention, held at one of Darling Harbour’s main convention centres, was a time for Cosplayers to get together and do their  thing. Their shtick is to get dressed up and act as characters from a range of video games, cartoons, movies, and television shows.

This was very much a young person’s scene, and my God did the kids really get into it. The costumes, the make-up, the expressions were all wonderfully over the top.

We moved on from this bright world of fantasy to soon find ourselves immersed in the fascinating and proud Serbian culture.

The Serbian Cultural Festival 2017

A large stage/bandstand area was set up and there were a host of musicians entertaining audiences through the day and into the evening. The highlight was the folk dancing, as young women, dressed up in traditional garb, danced together.

There were plenty of stalls set up around the Festival grounds, a  large marque for people to mingle and relax and have a break from the sun, and there was even a mini tennis court which proved very popular with families. This was definitely a nod to the most famous Serbian tennis player of all, one Novak Djokovic.

All images by Ben Apfelbaum (c).