Fortitude Valley's Valley Fiesta

It went off with a bang, Brisbane's biggest street party, the event that refused to be rained out.

Over the weekend all walks of Brisbane locals and tourists made there way to the annual Valley Fiesta. Battling the rain on Saturday and basking in the sun on Sunday the valley greeted visits from hundreds over the two day festival. The majority of the event was held in the adjacent China Town mall and newly renovated Brunswick street mall with stalls and events scattered through the streets as well as in some of the Valley's favourite nightclubs including Cloudlands and Ric's.

Saturday began with the kind of atmosphere you might expect at any niche, music and fashion markets. Hipsters and music enthusiasts foraged tents full of vintage recorders, seemingly unaware of the others presence, rough-cut crystals hung neatly from chains in undercover market stalls and an elderly lady approached me to ask if I knew what the festival was about. Concluding my answer with some information about the fashion markets she grinned ear-to-ear as she waved a canvas bag in my face and said "Oh, I know!".

Saturday plotted along at an acceptable pace but moral was visibly low until the rain began to slow and the bands began to play. Now, I'm not saying there's a direct relationship between the two, I'm just saying that the first glimpses of sun we had seen all day began when a pink-haired girl stood on the main stage and began to dance to her accompanying brass band.

Day two of the Valley Fiesta took place on a laid black, blue-skied Sunday. With the drizzle gone market tents were able to show their full flare in the centre of the Brunswick street mall selling all manor of clothing, jewelery and nick-knacks.A personal favourite for the day was the racey 'Drag Bingo' run on the LGBTI stage in the China Town Mall. The queens owned the stage, creating eruptions of laughter from the contestants with their crude lines that came with each number drawn.

 The events volunteer coordinator says the festival, which has been going for over a decade, aims to bring together the talents and eccentricities of all of the venues in Fortitude Valley as well as to attract the attention of people outside of the regular clubbing crowd.