It’s a Saturday night in Sydney and the Australian Museum is holding a ghoulish fancy dress party. There are numerous other bars and dance parties in Sydney but none that have the gothic spaces, skeletons and stuffed animals of the Australian Museum.
The morbid Sydney crowd embraced the macabre theme and dressed as ghosts, skeletons, handmaidens, axe murdered victims, Red Riding Hood and her wolf, Cruella de Vil, droogs, zombies and a great variety of macabre characters. The crowd was happily terrorised by deadly, giant black birds as they entered the museum and then presented with a diverse arrangement of Halloween suitable activities.
The various bars and the silent disco were enthusiastically embraced. The bars were serving beer, wine, cider and devilish cocktails and at the disco you could choose from three DJs with a simple flick of the switch on the supplied headphones.
All of the museum’s exhibitions were open. To mix your hedonistic pleasures with some informative diversions you could take in the new whale exhibition, Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, stuffed animals, fossils, minerals, skeletons and the First Australians gallery.
More fun stuff was happening all over the museum. Dead Petting Zoo embraced the unlikely combination of taxidermy and electronic music. Raise the Dead Drummers performed energetic drumming and percussion routines. Also on offer were ghost tours, dissection and Misfortune Cookie Craft. Tyiirr Ngiyangkaraa Spirit Story had Wailwan performer Sara Khan sharing First Nations ghost stories.
The 1977 film Orca was screening in the museum’s theatre with additional comedic commentary. Orca was a disaster film produced to cash in on the success of Jaws. It involves a killer whale taking revenge on a fisherman and his village for killing the whale’s pregnant partner. This may sound ridiculous, and it is, and is made even more ridiculous by having comedians adding their insights into the film.
Jurassic Lounge: Halloween at the Australian Museum is a great night out and a fantastic use of an imposing venue. Make a note in next year’s diary.
