Cinema Lorosa'e at Sunset Fair: Friday, September 2nd - "Rio"

When Blu, a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota,

meets the fiercely independent Jewel, he takes off on an adventure

 to Rio de Janeiro with this bird of his dreams

Starts 7pm, in English with Bahasa Indonesia subtitles

Opening Night - Sunset Fair 2011 season launched in style

The Sunset Fair 2011 season was launched on Friday, August 26^th with a fun-filled evening of live music, circus entertainers, a movie, great food and the best-yet array of handicraft stalls.

A huge Sunset Fair balloon floated over the site as revellers arrived and a sinking sun cast vivid colours across the sky at Kristu Rei, one of Dili’s most beautiful beaches, which is dominated by the famous statue of Jesus Christ on the hilltop.

The opening ceremony was conducted by Mr Gil Alves, the Minister of Tourism, Commerce and Industry, who praised the dozens of participating stallholders for the quality and variety of the local handicrafts and other products on sale at the fair.

The Sunset Fair Patron, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, also said a few words of welcome to the audience, which included her own family; the three boys are great fans of the popular Bouncy Castle, operated every week at the fair by the Venture Hotel.

Kirsty Sword Gusmao signs in 

Innovations at this year’s Sunset Fair include a purpose-built stage for the weekly live music performances and a special “mikrolet” minibus shuttle service that will ferry fairgoers every evening throughout the season between Kristu Rei and Bidau Sant’Ana (near Lita Store) for a nominal return fare of 20c.

Music from "5 De Oriente" - the first band to use the new Sunset Fair stage

Also new to this year’s Sunset Fair are movie screenings to be offered every week by Cinema Lorosa’e. The opening night movie, “The Owls of Ga’Hoole” had been dubbed into one of the local languages, Tetum, by volunteer actors based in Melbourne, to the delight of the audience. The movie-going experience was completed by Cinema Lorosa’e’s popcorn stall which was a big hit with families.

The corn's a-poppin' at Cinema Lorosa'e

Organisers were especially pleased to welcome a delegation from the Sunset Fair’s sister organisation, the famous Mindil Beach Markets of Darwin, Australia. Courtesy of Airnorth’s sponsorship, a group of four Mindil representatives travelled over to assist with the continuing process of Sunset Fair Association development. Circus performers Fairy Jill and Dragonfly Dan strutted around the site on stilts, made balloon animals for the children and finished the evening with a spectacular fire-twirling and hula hoop show.

Only at Sunset Fair: Dragonfly Dan and Fairy Jill join a Timorese croc from Anima Audian 

The Sunset Fair will run every Friday from 5pm thoughout the dry season. Later this year there will be a number of specially-themed cultural evenings sponsored by some of the various embassies based in Dili. On Friday, September 9th, Sunset Fair will be celebrating Brazil - watch this space for news on that and the welcome we'll be offering to the Tour de Timor cyclists.

Welcome to a new stallholder this season: Belle Kria Women's Sewing Group.
They make lovely fabric books for very small children, and
can pretty much sew anything else you want, too.
bellekria@hotmail.com for all your sewing needs.

Arte Moris's lovely t-shirts. Wear Timorese fine art!
They are high quality and wash really well, too.

Alola Foundation's multilingual alphabet cards.

Back again! Our beloved basket ladies of Maubara

Dili Beach Hotel. Good food, icy cold beer

Diak print shop. Get your custom-made t-shirts
here or buy one of the cool ready-made designs.

Kor Timor. Handmade paper, gorgeous packaging and lush coconut oils and soaps.

Boy Clemens' auntie wishes he was here.
He is the composer of the Sunset Fair anthem, "Areia Branca".

Gorgeous Fairy Jill
One of the guest entertainers from Darwin's
 Mindil Beach Markets

Fairy Jill and Dragonfly Dan
practice the gentle art of balloon-bending - a
big hit with the Timorese kiddies

Mr and Mrs Tony Jape with sister Pamela
take a well-earned break from preparations to open the Timor Plaza,
 Timor-Leste's fabulous new shopping mall

The Bouncy Castle. Mother's little helper.

Balloon advertising - a first for Timor-Leste, courtesy of
 Sunset Fair site management company Camara 

You can never own too many tais. These are from Haburas Cultura

Dan and Jill creating animals from balloons

"Can you tell what it is yet?"

A typical Sunset Fair scene - a fairy and a dragonfly
meet a crocodile and a monkey

Jill and Dan groove to "5 de Oriente" - on stilts

Classic magic sunset moment

Fine handicrafts from Isabel dos Santos

A religious theme - Pramidita's handicrafts

Lovely creativity in straw from Virgilia Serao

To keep up with all of the news and weekly movie and music programmes, follow the new Sunset Fair Facebook page - click “like” on the box at the side of this screen and you will receive regular bulletins in your FB newsfeed.

Looking forward to seeing you all every Friday night - TGIF!

  

August 26th Opening night: Music, dancing, a movie show, food and drink, handicraft stalls, bouncy castle and special guest entertainers from Darwin!

Friday, August 26th marks the grand opening of the Sunset Fair season for 2011 and we are certainly starting with a great, big night!  Music, dancing, a movie show, food and drink, a huge range of handicrafts and local products on sale, our beloved bouncy castle from Venture Hotel and special guest entertainers from Darwin's Mindil Beach Markets. 

The programme has now been finalised:

IMPORTANT: Just for opening night, the car park at Kristu Rei will be restricted to stallholders and VIP's only. However, you will be able to take the shuttle minibus from beside the fish market (Bidau Sant'Ana) near Lita Store - all the way down to the Sunset Fair site. The return fare is just 20c. You might also be able to park in Metiaut or Areia Branca and pick up the bus from there, but we recommend that if possible you just PARK 'N' RIDE from Lecidere! There will be three minibuses running a continual loop on the route, starting  up around 3pm and all the way through the evening until at least 11 pm. We want to keep the traffic running smoothly, so thank you for your cooperation. 

At 8pm, Cinema Lorosa'e will premiere its first movie of the 2011 season with a wonderful family film called "Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga'Hoole". This animated movie is sure to thrill adults and children alike. See http://www.cinemalorosae.com/ for more details.

Thanks to Airnorth's continuing sponsorship of the Sunset Fair, we will be welcoming some guest entertainers from the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets as well as Mindil committee members who will be sharing their expertise in market management with the Sunset Fair stallholders. Last season, the Mindil entertainers were hugely popular with the children and we're looking foward to seeing more of their stilt-walking, fire-eating, bubble-blowing, hula-hooping shenanigans again this year... 

Stilt walking: apparently there's a knack to it
but it helps if you have the right equipment!

Sunset Fair/Feira Lokraik Opening Night - Friday, August 26th

Plans for our opening night festivities are really taking shape and we're starting to get very excited about the programme. We can now confirm that there will be a big-screen movie screening every week at the Sunset Fair/Feira Lokraik by Cinema Lorosa'e, plenty of other entertainment and fun for the whole family.

You can find more details about Cinema Lorosa'e at
http://cinemalorosae.blogspot.com/

There will be plenty of stalls and lots of delicious food - some new businesses as well as favourites from last year. Registered stalls include: Companhia Girasol, Arte Moris, Grupu Feto Maubara, G Empresarios, Haburas Cultura, Hafoti, Blue Ocean, Timor Top, Ventura Hotel (including Bouncy Castle!), Dili Beach Hotel, Octaviana, Virgilia Serao, Kor Timor, Grupu Feto Empresario, Virgilia Serao, Angelina Martins, Olivia Serao, Isabel dos Santos, Jacinta Monis, Alola Esperansa ltda. and Diak Printing.

Don't forget that there is a shuttle bus service running throughout the evening from Bidau Sant'Ana - a return trip is only 20c. We'd like to keep the traffic to a minimum so perhaps you could consider "park and ride" as the best way to get down to the Sunset Fair.

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Sunset Fair 2011 - take the bus!

The Sunset Fair organising committee is pleased to announce that this year there will be a shuttle bus service operating between Bidau Santana (Lita Store) and Kristu Rei. So you can "park and ride" or just "ride" down to the Sunset Fair for only 20c (return ticket). This will cut down on traffic and make it easier for everyone to come down and join the fun - every Friday evening from August 26th to mid-December. See you there!

Sunset Fair 2011 Season Starts August 26th

We're pleased and excited to announce that the opening date for the Sunset Fair/Feira Lokraik 2011 season will be August 26th, and we plan to run through to December. So pencil every Friday night in your diary and prepare to have some fun! Parents will be delighted to know that the much-loved bouncy castle will be there again this year, so that the little ones can work off some energy whilst Mum and Dad enjoy a refreshing cool drink as they watch the sun go down.

We are working on some new developments to make this year's Sunset Fair even bigger and better this year, so follow this blog and our new Facebook page (see panel on left) to get all the news.

Looking forward to meeting up with you all again down at Kristu Rei!