Soda Gembira: For a very good bouncy dance and misc
Soda Gembira is Nongkrong’s club night, ft. a stacked lineup of queer DJs and performers and Indonesian food served on the rooftop. Funkot/ koplo and Indo-bouce are three hard genres of Indonesian music that are a bit donk/ budots adjacent in that village electronica swag. Let me tell you something about partying with Indonesians: everything is a bit. Lots of ridiculous remixes to be expected, and a very good MC on the mic that adds to the chaos. Tell your Indonesian friends about this event– I cried a little last year seeing my Indo-fam sing songs that they grew up with in the club.
Saturday August 15, Rooftop from 3pm, Club from 9pm
Miscellania, 2/401 Swanston St, Melbourne
Tickets: Early Entry (before 10pm) $20, First Release $25, General Admission $30. Optional meal pre-orders available from $17–20 via Humanitix here
Gerhana: For the hangs and food
Gerhana is a festival within a festival (why don’t we make things easy for ourselves?). I would say to friends that the music leans experimental, but it’s family friendly and all ages and those labels can be a bit inaccessible. Gerhana means ‘eclipse’ and the day is framed around what it represents: spiritual realignment, convergence of our light and dark selves. It’s at Mission to Seafarers, which if you haven’t been, is in itself a good reason to go (very cheap drinks being another). There’s so much on, surprise performances happening in the courtyard, a pop-in shadow puppet making workshop, and food stalls (me and my mum are cooking :P and we’d recommend pre-ordering bc food always sells out at Nongkrong events). And a ticketed gig in The Dome.
Saturday August 22, 2pm – 10:30pm
Mission to Seafarers, 717 Flinders St, Docklands
Tickets: Nongkrong Kitchen dinner pre-orders (regular or vegan) $20 via Humanitix here.
The Dome a Gerhana: For the music heads
This event feels like a flex on how talented Indonesian diaspora artists are. All the acts are improv. I saw an early development of Ria Soermarjo’s piece for this and immediately had to book her. She’s bringing her (ridiculously epic) collection of found and made instruments for the audience to play and you’ll all make music together and it’s so special. Kavil, Rohan and Rama are doing a three piece set which is gonna be bonkers; drum and bass and everything that leads to. Sundialll we’ve also flown in for this, a Taiwanese/ Indonesian duo which has a spooky sound of dark modular synthesisers, combined with live instrumentation, percussive sounds, and meditative vocal chanting. The Norla Dome was built in the 1800s and is very transportative.
Saturday August 22, 6pm – 10pm
Mission to Seafarers, 717 Flinders St, Docklands
Tickets: The Dome $35 via Humanitix here
Fed by Made (Bali) X Suku (WA) Jimbaran BBQ: For a fun Sunday arvo of food and beer and mates
Fed by Made is Melbourne’s favourite restaurant in Bali, which makes sense since Dhanu studied here and was running pop-ups well before restaurant groups started co-opting them. He’s a dear friend and I’ve wanted him to be a part of Nongkrong’s food program since day dot and finally the stars have aligned. He’s collabing with his old childhood friends, who have a restaurant in Fremantle called Suku. They’ll be bringing the beaches of Jimbaran to you, grilling Balinese-style seafood with that famous sweet, spicy and sticky Jimbaran sauce. Think clams, prawns, whole fish over coals, snacks of fried calamari, and of course, sambal. Eating with your hands is strongly encouraged. In fact, I will give you a disappointed look if you’re using cutlery. For the Veraison stans, a spoiler that I’m getting some people on the acoustic guitars to serenade the venue throughout the day, because it wouldn’t be authentically Indonesian if ‘Hotel California’ wasn’t being played while you eat. Fed by Made has quite the following, so it’ll be busy, I’d come early if I were you.
Sunday August 23, 3pm til sold out
Benchwarmer, 345 Victoria St, West Melbourne
Suku’s Indonesian Feast: For the Indonesian food heads
Ria Zulkarnaen and Nick Mailenzun are Suku. The two started serving warung-style Indonesian menus at the Fremantle markets before opening a permanent Indonesian eatery. Modern-Indonesian sounds wanky as, but you know what we mean; it’s Indonesian food but it uses nicer local produce, is plated with a bit more swag, there’s a sous vide involved, and is split up into four courses. It’s playful, and remix lesser known dishes from across various Indonesian ‘pulaus’ or Islands. This will sell out very quickly. Probably already has. Sorry!!