There are just 10 days to go until Fist Full of Rock – featuring the ultimate line-up in Australian hard rock, The Angels, Baby Animals, Rose Tattoo and The Poor.

The Angels are one of Australia’s most loved rock bands.  Formed by John and Rick Brewster in Adelaide, they have been on the road consistently since 1974 and this year celebrate the 45th anniversary of their debut single Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, a song that’s now an indelible part of Australian culture. Their catalogue includes thirteen studio albums, eight Top 10 albums, 17 Top 40 singles and further iconic songs such as No Secrets, Take A Long Line, Shadow Boxer, Marseilles, Comin’ Down, After The Rain, Face The Day, Fashion and Fame, Let The Night Roll On, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Mr Damage and many more.

Baby Animals burst onto the scene in 1991 with their self-titled debut album. The band was touring with Van Halen in the US when they heard the album had topped the charts, ‘Baby Animals’ spending six weeks at number one in Australia and keeping Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ out of top spot. The album went eight times platinum and won three ARIA Awards – Best Album, Best Debut Album and Best Debut Single. It was also declared one of the Top 25 albums of 1992 in UK rock bible Kerrang!, and Baby Animals performed ‘Painless’ on Late Night With David Letterman. Baby Animals later appeared in The 100 Best Australian Albums, and Suze DeMarchi was also featured in the book Rock Chicks, The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now. “Baby Animals was like a breath of fresh air,” the book stated, “a hard-rocking band fronted by a guitar-wielding, tattooed temptress who could rock with the best of them.”

Rose Tattoo, true rock and roll outlaws, rumbled into existence in late 1976 with a New Year’s Eve debut at Sydney’s legendary Bondi Lifesaver. The band was the vision of Pete Wells, his master plan embellished by bassist Ian Rilen. With Wells on slide guitar and Rilen on bass, Angry Anderson was recruited along with rhythm guitarist Mick Cocks and drummer Dallas “Digger” Royal and they set about destroying eardrums and venues across Australia. With the departure of Rilen in August 1977, Geordie Leach stepped in and the band’s classic self-titled debut album, produced by Vanda and Young, was released in late 1978 with the killer singles, Bad Boy for Love, Rock n’ Roll Outlaw and One of the Boys.

The Poor, fresh off playing to full houses across UK and Europe, are ready to showcase their new music, including singles Cry Out and Payback’s A Bitch.  They kicked off back in 1986 as The Poor Boys, hailing from Darwin. On 13 June 1994 they released debut album, Who Cares, which peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The lead single, “More Wine Waiter Please” reached No. 30 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and was a top ten hit in Australia. The Poor disbanded in 2000 but reformed in 2008 and issued two further albums, Round 1 (October 2009) and Round 2 (October 2010).

Fist full of Rock will be on the 2nd of september 2022 at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia.

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The FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships arrive in Sydney on Saturday, 15th and Sunday, 16th February, 2020.

The Gran Turismo World Tour Sydney event is the first of the 2020 season and will take place at the Big Top in Luna Park in front of a live audience and the TV cameras that will broadcast the spectacular racing around the world.

Fifty of the world’s fastest Gran Turismo racers will fly in from Europe, North and South America, Asia and New Zealand to join some home-grown talent in two competitions – the Manufacturer Series, that pits 12 teams of three representing different manufacturers against each other, and the Nations Cup, an individual competition with 24 players representing their respective countries.

Australian hopes will ride high with regular front-runner Cody Nikola Latkovski having finished second in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series at the 2019 World Finals in Monaco in December. Latkovski will be joined at the Sydney event by former GT Academy winner Matt Simmons and World Tour-regular Adam Wilk.

An esport–motorsport hybrid, the FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships is entering its third year in 2020 and continues to grow in popularity. The exciting racing is played out on racing seats on stage equipped with the PlayStation PS4 Pro and the Gran Turismo Sport game, with the action shown to a live audience on a huge screen and broadcast around the world on YouTube and Facebook.

Within one evening, the audience can be transported from watching formula cars racing around Interlagos in Brazil, to exotic concept cars on a street circuit in Tokyo or perfect recreations of Group 3 race cars on Bathurst’s Mount Panorama.

Tickets for the Luna Park Sydney event, which will run from 16.00 to 18.30 on both Saturday, 15th and Sunday, 16th February 2020, are being offered free of charge via the official Gran Turismo website.

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Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Sydney, Australia’s biggest esports tournament, is now in the history books, with Team Liquid winning the tournament and taking home the lion’s share of US$250,000 in front of a packed Qudos Bank Arena. In an intense final lasting five maps, Team Liquid took the win over Fnatic to secure themselves a spot in esports history as champions at the tournament’s third stop in Sydney, and 75th stop globally since its inception in 2006.

This year’s event, held across May 3rd to the 5th, 2019, surpassed all previous viewership records for an esports tournament held in Australia, with over 20 million viewers tuning in across the duration of the event. Counter-Strike fans across the world watched almost 10 million hours of content over the course of the event, up 16% vs. 2018.

On social media, users made over 36,000 tweets related to IEM Sydney 2019, while content surrounding the tournament was viewed over 55 million times across all platforms.

“IEM Sydney is a truly world-class event, and seeing our broadcast reach over 20 million people around the world is a testament to the quality of the tournament.” said Nick Vanzetti, MD & Senior Vice President of ESL APJ. “Between those who watched online and the 7,500 fans who attended each day of the main event, there is a growing appetite in Australia for the highest level of Counter-Strike.”

“We owe the continued success of Intel Extreme Masters Sydney to the esports community in Australia and around the world, which continues to grow at an incredible pace,” said John Bonini, Vice President and General Manager of VR, Gaming and Esports at Intel. “This community is why Intel keeps fuelling this growth with more esports, more great content for PC gamers and more innovation when it comes to performance and power.”

Attendees at the event were able to immerse themselves in the latest PC gaming technology and titles. The Intel Showcase featured the latest 9th Gen Intel Core i7 and Intel® Core i9 processors for gaming and VR. Attendees also had the chance to purchase the latest PC gaming products from Intel partners and engage in competitive gaming on Intel’s leading gaming technology, including the Intel Hades Canyon NUC at the Intel Channel Pavilion.

You can check out our coverage of IEM Sydney 2019 HERE.

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Samsung Electronics Australia has today announced its return to Vivid Sydney for the second year in a row with a technology-enabled, playground featuring not one, but two large-scale activations including the Samsung Electric Playground and Samsung Galaxy Studio in its most ambitious Vivid Sydney spectacle yet.

The two exhibitions will transform over 3000 meters-squared of Circular Quay’s First Fleet Park and the adjacent Foundation Hall as never before and includes a landmark partnership with Instagram to showcase outstanding Vivid Sydney content being shared on the platform and provide tips on how to capture the magic of the festival when the lights illuminate Sydney on Friday, 24th of May 2019.

Samsung’s Vice President of IT and Mobile Garry McGregor promises Samsung’s activation will set a new standard for ambition, engagement and interaction: “The power of technology to open up new worlds through innovation is a constant source of inspiration for us. In returning for a second year to Vivid Sydney, we’ve challenged ourselves and harnessed the power of mobile technology to create not just a memorable cultural experience, but uniquely sharable and unlike anything festival goers will have ever seen before.”

Minister for Tourism Stuart Ayres said: “Vivid Sydney is a global event that attracts 2.25 million visitors and significant media and social media attention from around the world. As the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere, Vivid Sydney continues to position the Harbour City as the hub of creative industries of Asia and the Pacific.”

The first space, the Samsung Electric Playground invites guests into a celebration of light, sound and imagination powered by advanced mobile technology. With a multitude of experiences spanning an area over four basketball courts in size, festival goers can free their inner child and explore Galaxy S10-inspired attractions. These include a field of over 320 dynamic light poles, 23 of which will they can control directly; a 6.5-metre illuminated Infinity
Slide; and an elevated view of picturesque Sydney Harbour from the Sky Walk platform amongst other must-see attractions.

The Samsung Galaxy Studio arrives from a global tour including London, Barcelona and Dubai just in time for the festival and delivers its own array of truly interactive moments. The immersive space boasts tailored light experiences that are inspired by guests own unique irises and heartbeats generating their very own installations. The Samsung Galaxy Studio also features a one-of-a-kind interactive art piece by up-and-coming Australian artist George Rose.

In addition, and for the first time globally, the Samsung Galaxy Studio has partnered with Instagram to make the space the most Instagram-able experience at Vivid Sydney.

Instagram’s specialist trainers will be on hand at select times throughout the festival to teach guests how to expertly capture and share their Vivid Sydney content. Destination NSW CEO and Vivid Sydney Executive Producer Sandra Chipchase said: “Vivid Sydney is an event that celebrates technology and innovation, so it is fitting to have Samsung returning as partner of the festival this year. The Samsung Electric Playground and Samsung Galaxy Studio will showcase cutting-edge technology in an incredibly engaging way, and we know that visitors to Vivid Sydney will be surprised and delighted by the installation in First Fleet Park and Foundation Hall.”

The Samsung Electric Playground and Samsung Galaxy Studio will be open to the public from Friday, 24th of May until Saturday, 15th of June 2019. For more information, head to the Official Website.

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Lights, cameras, keyboards!

Sydney’s Olympic Park was home to intel’s extreme eSports extravaganza, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) for the first weekend of May 2019, and STG was a guest of Intel to witness the drama, action and nail-biting gameplay from the onset to the clincher finals.

Spread across the stadium floors was hands-on with the latest and greatest gameplay for already released and upcoming PC titles making use of Intels 9th Generation i7 processors, flexing their might, crunching the fierce action as gamers from around the Globe experienced everything from VR (Virtual Reality) through to hardcore FPS (First Person Shooters).

Intel Extreme Masters 2019, Sydney Olympic Park – (Photo by Andrea Francolini)

Intel’s NUCs proved once again that being compact does not mean they are light-weights in the gaming department. Having high end games seamlessly running over the three days.

Beat Sabre being a favourite amongst the attendees for the VR experience aswell as a full motion chair setup in the Predator booth. Bethesda showcasing the upcoming Rage 2.

MSI, Legion by Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, HP Omen and more took part with the free play having multiple laptops and desktops ready for endless bouts and friendly competitions.

SteelSeries, CoolerMaster and Razer showcased their RGB and mobile peripherals across three floors, with an area almost entirely dedicated to PC Mods and some killer RIGs on display.

Intel Extreme Masters 2019, Sydney Olympic Park – (Photo by Andrea Francolini)

But it wasn’t just the free-to-play areas that the gamers had come for. IEM is all about eSports and the flavour of the weekend was CS:GO (Counter Strike).

The long standing franchise was the weapon of choice for the International Competitor teams as they played off with best out of 5 across 30 Rounds each.

In the arena the crowds were treated to some seat and adrenaline fueled action.

With a brief Overwatch contender event, all eyes were on the teams for the grand prize, strategically working as a team to take out their opponents in CS:GO, two teams faced off in the Finals; FNATIC vs. Team Liquid.

Intel Extreme Masters 2019, Sydney Olympic Park – (Photo by Andrea Francolini)

While it appeared throughout the hours of play FNATIC had it in the bag, Team Liquid rose like a phoenix and scooped the prize. Winners of IEM Sydney 2019.

A huge achievement for Team Liquid who had been suffering from a losing streak, this was a win that they sorely needed to take them to the Majors later this year.

IEM ESL 2019 was THE eSports competition of this year, so far. With the glitz, glamour and tension of any high profile sports match, the seriously engaged audience had been treated to a showdown.

With eSports on the up Intel have heavily invested not only funds, but high end equipment in to this phenomenal gaming platform. Going from makers of CPU’s through to top shelf small form factors, high rendering GPU’s and more, Intel are proving that they themselves are the masters of eSports.

IEM ESL Gallery

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FINAL FANTASY XIV Online and Sydney Gaymers are proud to announce a collaboration that will make the critically-acclaimed MMO the first video game to march as part of a float in Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The collaboration, which will see members of Australia’s 2,600-strong Sydney Gaymer community join forces with players of the title in the region, will see a unique and exciting float created under the title of “Realms United”.

“Sydney Gaymers is thrilled to be collaborating with FINAL FANTASY XIV Online for its 2019 float entry, titled Realms United.  It means so much to receive direct support, validation and acknowledgement from such a force in the industry. Not only that, to be supported by a game where so much of our community and values are represented. The FINAL FANTASY XIV Online community does not discriminate and respects everyone’s freedom and their individual values equally. For many LGBTQI+ people, online communities provide a space for the journey and exploration of personal identities They allow us to connect, and celebrate, and they reinforce that we are not alone. Sydney Gaymers could not have a better sponsor to help create the most ambitious float it has ever undertaken” says organiser for Sydney Gaymers, Peak Distapan.

“This collaboration could never have been realised without the efforts of our community. When FFXIV took part in PAX Australia, it was the FFXIV players in Australia who offered us the greatest welcome and utmost support. This led on to our community and Sydney Gaymers working together to make the collaboration a reality. To see it makes me very happy indeed, both as the person in charge of FFXIV and also as just another player of the game. FFXIV is another world that continues to grow and expand online. In that world people become adventurers, known as the Warriors of Light, and can continue to be free. I would like to continue developing this world, hand in hand with communities across the globe” states FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida.

Now in its 41st year, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is an annual two-week long festival to celebrate the power and diversity of the LGBTQI+ community, culminating in a parade through central Sydney, Australia. The bustling extravaganza brings Sydney to a standstill and shines a global spotlight on LGBTQI+ lives, culture, communities and creativity. Sydney Gaymers will be entering its fifth year participating in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade in 2019.

More information about FINAL FANTASY XIV Online’s collaboration with Sydney Gaymers and their float will be revealed soon.

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NOW CLOSED – Slay Zombies or be one in a live action funtastic action filled weekend.

It’s Call of Duty in real-life meets Tough Mudder. With an immersive story that you’re living out, characters you meet along the way to give you secret missions, while zombies are chasing you (and then you chase survivors as a zombie), and it’s all with NERF blasters.

Players take up NERF toy dart blasters and fight for their life against hordes of vicious zombies. Over the course of a four hour game, survivors are hunted down and tagged by zombies, becoming zombies themselves, spreading the virus and dooming humanity. It’s up to the remaining survivors to hold out for as long as they can, and maybe escape ZEDTOWN.

More than just a game of running and blasting, ZEDTOWN is a truly interactive event that empowers players to create their own action and tell their own stories. A call-in radio station provides up-to-the-minute immersive colour and useful survival tips while our dedicated app helps survivors communicate and play the game. Social media streams offer real-time clues, commentary and a hub for fantastic player-driven storytelling.

And thanks to the organisers of ZEDTOWN StG is giving you the chance to Win one of FOUR Double Passes (2 x Double Passes to Melbourne and 2 x Double Passes to Sydney) to become that zombie killing legend and save humanity – or just to hunt down survivors and chomp on their brains.

Melbourne Event: Melbourne Showgrounds, June 24th 2017, 2 games – daytime, nighttime

Sydney Event – Sydney Showgrounds, July 8th, 2017, 2 games – daytime, nighttime

To Enter our ZEDTOWN Double Pass Ticket Giveaway you need to answer this Question correctly:

We want to hear from you, in a few words, what makes you the legendary zombie exterminator – or why you would be the best zombie there ever was. There is no wrong or right answer so be as creative as you like and every entry goes in to the draw.

You can give us your Answer by placing a Comment below, hitting us up on Facebook, Tweet to us, or Email Us.

*ZEDTOWN is an R18 Event. You MUST be over 18 Years of Age to Enter this Giveaway and partake in the ZEDTOWN event. Age Identification will be required when entering ZEDTOWN.

You can check out more info on ZEDTOWN HERE.

* Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a physical Double Pass for the ZEDTOWN event for either Sydney or Melbourne, depending on the Winner(s) selection. Competition ends on the 21st of June, 2017. ZEDTOWN is an R18 Age Restricted event – I.D. for Age verification will be required when entering ZEDTOWN. Tickets / Passes are not transferable. Winners will be responsible for their own transport to and from the event.

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