William Street Festival, Northbridge

Following a tip-off from a woman at the Spiral Spud stall at the Claisebrook Carnivale, we got in the car and headed to William Street in search of a festival!

William Street was closed between Newcastle and Brisbane Streets on Sunday 20 March between 10am and 4pm for the Town of Vincent’s William Street Festival.

It was a vibrant atmosphere with stalls lining William Street, selling food, fresh produce, clothes and other interesting things. There were street performers and live music. Local restaurants showcased their cuisine with street food stalls and takeaway versions, and there were plenty of tables and chairs to sit and eat.

I always miss the dragon/lion dances in Northbridge at Chinese New Year, so I was quite excited to see this dragon dance and watched for quite a while.

A stall was selling different kinds of mushrooms.

I’m not sure if these gaudy Chinese lanterns were for sale – there was no sign, no price tags. it was certainly an eye-catching display.

The sights and smells of street food along William Street were all very tempting but by this time we craved to sit somewhere out of the heat. See the sign behind the jumpsuit stall below (I rather liked the mushroom jumpsuit and the sausage dog jumpsuit!) – Tak Chee House? That’s where we ended up having lunch. Read the post: Tak Chee House, Northbridge.

It was good snow cone selling weather.

Any weather is cupcake weather!

Juji bought red velvet cupcakes, which we shared sitting at a table in the shade. They were nice, but I prefer Juji’s homebaked red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

We kept walking around checking out the stalls.

These colourful lanterns brought me back to my childhood. I used to have one of these lanterns and so did my older sisters (I think we had a chicken, a fish and a rabbit, can’t remember whose was which). Mum or dad would place a birthday cake candle in the little wire holder inside each lantern, light it up and we’d walk around the garden at night with our lanterns. I remember how exciting this was. I must’ve been about 5 or 6.

Feeling hot and thirsty at this point, we stopped at Bar 399 for a drink. Their William Street Festival special cocktail/mocktail, available all day, sounded most refreshing.

Watermelon, mint and agua fresca, enjoyed in the courtyard, right at the back of Bar 399.

The last thing we did before heading back to the car was drop into New Life Bakery on William St to buy some goodies to take home. On our tray: red bean pancake, ham and egg bun, doughnut, durian pudding, sago pudding, mango pudding, BBQ pork puff. My favourite items were the ham and egg bun and the durian pudding.

A man on stilts with horns on his head and silver foil pants waved good-bye as we walked away from the festival.

We passed this resting monster. I’d love to see how our cats would react if they saw it. Pixel would probably think of it as a tent and climb in through its mouth.

And as we walked, wall art: “now with extra phys!”

Can you put names to all of these faces? I recognise Scarecrow, Dorothy, Tinman and Lion, but I’m not sure who the others are supposed to be.

399 Bar
399 William St, Perth WA 6000
Opening hours
Monday to Friday 10am to midnight
Saturday 10am to midnight
Sunday 10am to 10pm
Web: www.399bar.com/

New Life Bakery (Asian bakery)
410B William St, Northbridge WA 6000
Telephone: (08) 9328 2002
Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm
Sunday 10am to 4.30pm
Closed public holidays

Another street festival!

The next street festival coming up in the Town of Vincent is the Angove Street Festival in North Perth, on Sunday 10 April 2011 from 10am to 4pm. Check out all the details including program, activities and map showing the stalls at www.angovestreetfestival.com.au

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