Armidale Creative Streets Festival
24/10/25
I’m a little sad to admit that I missed the opening night of Armidale’s first Creative Streets Festival (though it was due to travel), but I did manage to make it to the After Dinner Delight Night held the following Friday. It was a lot quieter than what I’d seen of the festival the previous week, but given how much the few photographers I spoke to struggled with getting good shots due to the sheer visual busyness, maybe that’s not a bad thing, at least for me. The main act for the night was a band called The Axemen. They weren’t a group I’d seen around before, but they put on a great show in the mall, and I got some photos I’m really happy with. For this particular occasion, I chose the Canon R8 with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4.
There are a lot of fantastic ambient light sources in the Beardy Street Mall, but rarely enough people out at night to actually make use of them for photography. Still, I managed to get a couple of shots that I really like, even if the subjects aren’t the most exciting in the world. I’m especially fond of the image of the guitarist taken through the front door of Boo Books.
We met up with frequent collaborator Evelyn from Peacock Photography, along with her husband and child, and hung out for most of the night. Her little one is always keen around the camera, I guess that’s what happens when your mum’s a photographer. The photo I snapped of her holding my wife Kelly’s hand as they walked down the street is pretty adorable.
And speaking of my wife Kelly…
We also decided to bring the dogs, it seemed like a good idea at the time… until we realised just how much noise the festival was bringing to the table. I’m glad I managed to get this shot before they fully freaked out and we had to take them back to the car. It’s not often I get to take photos of the three of them outside the house, let alone on something as nice as the spring bench they had set up. A cute pic from what turned out to be a really chill night. I can’t wait to see what Council manages to do with the event next year.
