ANNIED SOME LIFE: // O WILDLIFE //

// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opeETnB8m8w //

Hey friends!!!

I've been a bit absent from the blogging world, but I'm glad to say I've finally found the effort to make a post! Bear with me, I have a lot of photos from the past week or so.
(PS I don't think anyone ever notices these things anyways but I updated my blog playlist with some different tunez.)

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For five days I found myself immersed in the preparation and good vibes exuding from the people of Woodford (srsly tho everyone is SO impossibly nice and laid back it really does put you in a good mood). Zoe, Angie and I camped out whilst volunteering for the special projects crew at Woodford. Shout out to Rose Broe thanks so much for this opportunity! You're the real MVP <3

super cute photo of us setting up camp // photocredz to Rose

our super cute camp setup

All the volunteers were given this cute as sparkly bracelet.

SO I guess I'll explain WHAT we were exactly working on. Last year at Woodford, a large installation called 'Woven Sky' was created in collaboration with Cave Urban. It marked the entrance point to the Amphitheatre stage of the festival. It was designed by Taiwanese artist Wang Wen-Chih and was constructed from 600 poles of bamboo. The finished product is absolutely stunning as you can see in the photos below.

'Woven Sky'

Also, I've been told it looks uber cool at night! I can't wait to see the lit up structure at the festival. We did a bit of maintenance on this old structure as well (although mostly just weed pulling and holding onto a beam on my part haha)

This year's project was another bamboo structure designed by Wang Wen-Chih. He was also on site and instructed us on what needed to be done and how he wanted the entire thing to be built. It was a truly great experience being on site; everyone was just so genuine and kind. There were several people from different countries all over the world and it was just great hearing their stories :') All together we had a team of approximately 40 people working on 'Woven Cloud'. The first day was spent slicing and stripping the bamboo poles into smooth strips. After that we began the actual weaving up on the scaffolds.

Model of 'Woven Cloud'

Let the weaving begin!

on site

action panorama

taking a break // eating an ice block

Climbing up onto the scaffolds

struggle street

hello

was fekin raining

weaving is actually SO HARD OKAY

Every single day was so jam packed. It was so much work each day, which just made meal times 100x even better. At the end of the day I was so tired; this camp trip literally fixed my sleeping pattern. I now find myself feeling sleepy at 10pm which is A LOT earlier than my usual 3am sleeping routine.

candidly zoe // so cute

he's friggen squatting on the top whilst weaving // I fear 4 ur lyf

hehe

hoeheo

'I am poncho pilot'

So much bamboo!

Slowly getting there!

WOODFORD MAKES ME HAPPY WHETHER IT'S RAIN OR SHINE

RAIN

SHINE

The sunsets were so beautiful :')

We may have gotten a couple of nice sunsets; however the weather was quite stormy whilst we were up there. On the second(?) night, there was a huge storm over Brisbane and we could actually see it from Woodford. The lightning lit up the entire sky and I feared for our little tent. Luckily it didn't really rain where we were, but we did hear the thunder (or so I was told; I actually slept through the entire storm lol). We did, however, get a truck load of rain the next day and the lightning was actually within striking distance whilst I was still up on the METAL scaffolds (I was honestly fearing for my life at this point). Luckily we all got called in because of a hail storm alert (THANK GOD IT DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAIL WE JUST GOT A LOT OF RAIN)
We had to fix up the tarp at our campsite and angle it on a downwards slope so it didn't gather water and collapse on our tent. #architecturalthinking #lol

me: 'don't remember this river being here this morning'

We spent one of the days up at 'Woven Sky' helping with the maintenance of the year old structure.

oopy it collapsed

adding in some bracing

Most of it was still intact

Pulling out weeds with Kyle-from-Manchester

entering the dome of life

Gateway to heaven

One of the best things about this volunteer trip was that THEY PROVIDED US WITH ALL MEALS, FOR FREE!! They even had a little gig on one of the nights which was cute as :)

three sisters

This experience didn't go without a couple of battle scars. First world problems, seriously. I was peeling bamboo with a Machete and went to place it on the ground; however accidentally leaned it against my leg instead. Idiotic consequences ensured, the machete cut my leg without me noticing and I ended up going to the medical centre for a CUT HAHAHA. Although that 5 minutes of air conditioning was pure bliss. I also managed to accidentally kick a ladder which only lead to a suspicious swollen bump on my leg. I've just checked my leg, and the bump is still there (should I be worried?).

ANWAYS! I head back up to Woodford straight after christmas for the festival!! It'll be super fun woo (although it does mean that I miss out on boxing day sales #sad)

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I also did check out the World Food Markets. It was pretty alright although not much food on offer really. I've definitely been to better.