On the evening of Friday 21 October 2016 Mayfield will be celebrating the Illuminate Mayfield festival. It’s a free community-based event that will take place in the heart of Mayfield business shopping strip on Victoria Street. Local businesses and community organisations will host market stalls & pop up shops.
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Event organiser Rita Dixon of This Is Mayfield says “We invite our local residents and community members to join us for a fun after-work Friday evening celebrating art, music, food and a Projected Light Show on nearby buildings and structures. There will be a live band and dance floor, as well as the light show projections created by a group of Mayfield youths under the guidance of Hobo Techno.”

Illuminate Mayfield is a partnership project between Mayfield Business Association, Newcastle Council’s Make Your Place, and creatives HoboTechno.

Illuminate Mayfield very much fits the recent Mayfield Better Block festival ethos of Let’s Reimagine The Street. “Illuminate Mayfield overarches the concepts established as the core goals of the Mayfield Better Block, being A Safer, Vibrant Community, A Connected Community, and A Cleaner, Greener Community” says Ms. Dixon.

The Light Show Projection is a collaborative sub-project of its own. Ms. Dixon explains - “We have invited local community groups such as the local Indigenous, Islamic, schools and drop-in centres to nominate 12 young Mayfield residents between the ages of 13 & 18 to attend a fully-funded Creative Technology Workshop run by HoboTechno, teaching participants about creating Live Projection Mapping (LPM). LPM is the computer generated imagery that is projected onto buildings and surfaces at events such as Sydney’s Vivid Festival.” The creative outcomes of this workshop will be used in the projections that will enhance the Illuminate event on 21 October.

Illuminate Mayfield is a free event, from 6pm-10pm on Victoria Street Mayfield on 21st October. Ms. Dixon says “We encourage everyone to come along & wear something that Illuminates, either physically or metaphorically!”.

For more information, please visit our Events page!

​This Is Mayfield have partnered with Newcastle City Council Community Assistance Grant to on a video series project called Meeting Mayfield. Rita Dixon, Coordinator of the Mayfield Business Association says that the goal of Meeting Mayfield is to introduce the general public to the people behind the counters in Mayfield businesses via 30-50 second videos.

The videos are professionally shot and post-edited by Black Sheep Digital Media. Ms. Dixon says “the quality of work already completed is outstanding. We have had an unprecedented amount of positive feedback from our community after launching Meeting Mayfield via social media last month. There has been with hits and views in the tens of thousands to date!”
 
Meeting Mayfield is a free resource the Mayfield Business Association is providing to selected members. Ms. Dixon says that “Meeting Mayfield underpins our drive to encourage our local community to support their local business precincts.” Rita goes on to say that “…our local Mayfield business owners give so much back to their community, and we, as workers, shoppers or residents of this area need to support them by shopping locally to ensure that our local small businesses, and in turn our local shopping culture, thrives”.
 
Meeting Mayfield is an ongoing series, with more filming taking place this week for video releases later in the year. Check out the “Our 2304” page at www.thisismayfield.com to see the videos released to date – have you shopped at any of these businesses yet?

Rotary Club of Newcastle Enterprise have teamed up with Newcastle Council Make Your Place to install an interactive piece of street art at Mayfield West! A pre-loved piano has been given a new lease of life, having been repurposed as Street Art to bring music and colour to the arty and multicultural little shopping strip of creative and quirky shops.

Julia Brougham, of Rotary Club Newcastle Enterprise says “We invite one and all to come and play the Mayfield Street Piano anytime! It’s located at 400 Maitland Road Mayfield West. We have provided a wo comfy chair and laminated sheets of simple music.”

Rita Dixon, Coordinator of the Mayfield Business Association says the business community of Mayfield fully supports this creative initiative. “It’s wonderful to see our community members sharing their love of music and enjoying practicing their (sometimes rusty!) keyboard skills. Creating music is a wonderful thing, and being given the opportunity to share it is truly a gift to our community”.
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Ms. Brougham of Rotary assures us that every person is welcome to enjoy the street piano, whether you are a virtuoso or have never touched a piano before. While you are at Mayfield West, why not pop into a few of the shops and businesses to see what they have - great coffee, indigenous art, treasures and antiquities. You could get a Quickcut haircut or even a tattoo removed! Of course satisfying your appetite at Mayfield West Kebabs or The Bhakti Tree is a must!