At 9am on a Friday morning in the Greenpeace Sydney office, our giant LEGO friend, Katy, received a phone call from a supporter informing her that Shell is using it’s partnership with the well-loved LEGO brand to increase fuel sales and divert attention from its Arctic oil drilling. Katy loves building worlds, not destroying them and it isn’t OK that her face is associated with Arctic oil drilling. Katy called her expert activist friend in the Greenpeace warehouse and asked him to join her in a protest outside a Shell petrol station. But first they needed to make some banners to help send a clear message to Shell – get the hell out of the Arctic! Painting banners came with its difficulties, but Katy and her friend wouldn’t let the issue of having no knees dampen their spirits. Now the banners were painted, Katy and her friend discussed how they would fasten the banners onto sticks with a drill and a spanner. Katy gasped as she remembered that they didn’t have any ear muffs!
But her friend chuckled and reminded Katy that they didn’t need ear muffs because they don’t have ears! Katy rallied in the rest of her giant yellow friends and felt so thankful for having so many caring friends who loved the Arctic as much as her. They tried to head to the Shell protest in a discreet manner so no one would bust them before they got there… but going undercover is difficult when you have a giant yellow head. Katy and her friends caught Shell by surprise and created quite a scene at the Shell station – people passing by beeped their horns and cheered in support for the protest. They felt pretty chuffed with their protest! But they told the media reporters: “We may look happy, but this is our sad face – Shell is destroying the beautiful Arctic and using our well loved face to cover it up.” When the protest was over, Katy and her friends headed back to the Greenpeace office so they could tell the world how AWESOME their protest was. — Greenpeace Aus Pac (@GreenpeaceAustP) July 25, 2014
But before they left, they couldn’t resist one last photo opp while singing “to block Shell, we’ve got to come together, right now!” You don’t have to have a giant yellow head to help LEGO break away from Shell. The Christmas season is an exciting time to be in Sydney, with a diverse range of family-friendly events, light displays and performances around various Sydney city precincts. Celebrate this time of year by spending a night in Sydney exploring these various festive hubs. Sydney’s popular fashion hub at Pitt Street Mall delights shoppers with Christmas-themed visual displays. See the largest LEGO® Christmas Tree in the Southern Hemisphere located outside Westfield Sydney. Made from 5 million lego pieces, the tree comes to life with a light show in the evenings that runs every 15 minutes between 8pm and 9pm. Nearby, a Christmas Light Forest installation hangs suspended along a stretch of Pitt Street Mall with colourful flashing trees made from thousands of LED lights.
Interact and control the tree’s colour sequences by downloading the Christmas Light Forest app on your phone or tablet device. Completing the light spectacle is the imaginative landscape projected on the buildings at Pitt Street Mall’s King Street entrance. Head to Martin Place to admire the spectacular 21 metre high Christmas tree with a modern twist: send a text message or use #sydxmastree on your social media accounts to send messages up the tree’s branches. The tree also includes a fun touchpad kiosk that allows you to interact with and control the colour settings of the tree’s LED decorations. Martin Place also comes to life with a Street Light Disco featuring sparkling banners along the promenade that reflect the plaza’s historic architecture while creating a mirror ball-effect. Sydney’s Town Hall is illuminated during the Christmas season with a dazzling light show projected on to its sandstone walls from 8.30pm nightly in the lead up to Christmas. The digital projections create a magical Christmas landscape that captivates spectators.
For a traditional celebration of Christmas, enjoy the renowned Town Hall Christmas Concert on December 16 from 8pm. This is a great family event featuring carol singing, festive music and readings brought to life by Town Hall’s magnificent grand organ. Visit St Mary’s Cathedral between 9 and 25 December to experience the Lights of Christmas, a spectacular light and sound show projected onto the cathedral’s 75 metre high facade. The show begins with a choir performance at 7.30pm and is followed by the light show that focuses on the notion of service at 8.30pm, staying on until midnight. Darling Harbour offers a sensational Santa-packed celebration in the lead up to Christmas with Santa Fest. Enjoy paddleboat rides on Cockle Bay, Santa movies under the stars, carols around the precinct and a Variety Santa Fun Run. Choose from the many waterfront restaurants in Darling Harbour and secure a prime viewing location for the spectacular fireworks display that lights up the bay every Saturday night from 9pm.
This great dining and entertainment precinct is the perfect location to enjoy fun with family and friends throughout the day or night. Sydney’s inner-city suburbs host annual village Christmas concerts. These free family-friendly events are filled with children’s entertainment, live music, fireworks and a visit from Santa. Enjoy the celebrations between 6.30pm and 8.30pm at Alexandria on 6 December and Surry Hills on 7 December.We mentioned earlier that folks were planning to build the world's largest LEGO Darth Vadar is Penrith's Westfield. Well, they've only bloody gone and done it and it looks way, way cooler than I ever expected it would. Put together by LEGO Master Builder Dan Steininger, I sort of couldn't really imagine how big it would be, or how it would look, but when you see it in perspective, it's actually pretty impressive. The Yoda's not too bad either, but that Darth Vadar is a beast. Both were built with the help of fans at the Westfield. "Usually models of this size would take two Master Builders more than three days to complete.