TL;DR – Today I explore the University of Queensland Bloom Festival, the festival where purple was king, which should be no surprise if you have ever taken a medieval art history class before
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Every year here in Brisbane the University of Queensland turns purple as the Jacarandas come out to bloom. It is a beautiful time of year unless you are a university student in which case it heralds the coming of exams and the onslaught of rumours about what happens if you get hit by the falling flowers. We explored the flowering time last year with our walk around the UQ St. Lucia campus (see here), however, this year they have expanded on the Jacarandas with the UQ Bloom Festival, and today we get the chance to explore the Jacarandas after dark.
The sun sets over the University of Queensland St. Lucia Campus. Image Credit Brian MacNamara
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Before we start, here is a look at the UQ Lakes before the sun sets so you have some comparison of the before and after. Also, it is a sneaky little look at how beautiful the sunsets can be at UQ.
Follow the fairy lights to the purple realm. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara
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Now the sun has gone down we start our walk to the UQ Bloom Festival by walking down near the bus station where we are greeted but all the fairy lights.
The big reveal as purple waves lap against the shore. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara
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It is here where you turn around the corner, and you get greeted by all the festival in its purple glory, beautifully set off by the reflections in the lake.
The trees up close and purple. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara.
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Now that you have seen it from afar the first this you want to do is get up and close, and the first stop is Jacaranda Avenue, by day a bike path, by night an art installation.
The night sky it lit up in every shade of purple. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara
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As you approach the Jacaranda trees, you can help but walk around them looking at all the detail that the light exposes. It is at that point that you can’t help but look up and see how the light creates all these beautiful contrasting layers.
The oncoming storm. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara
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As I continued exploring the festival, the inevitable happened and a thunderstorm started to role in over Brisbane so I had to make a quick retreat.
See every crack in the bark, the flowers on the ground. Image Credit: Brian MacNamara.
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So as I made a quick retreat to the bus I managed to take one more photo of the interactions of light and dark, purple and black, night and day. With this we bid the University of Queensland Bloom Festival a goodbye, until next year that is.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
Have you visited Bloom Festival?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.
Credits – All images are by the author
Great photos! Thanks for sharing!
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