Saturday 5 December

Nambucca Heads, from the afternoon into the evening. The exact spot goes up here as soon as it's locked in.

Everyone welcome. Nothing to bring.

Dates go up here as soon as they're locked in. If you'd rather be told, leave your name and we'll let you know.

Tell me when one's on

What happens on the day

A pop-up removes the usual barriers — cost, confidence, and unfamiliar buildings. We set up in public, visible, everyday spaces, so that showing up takes nothing more than walking over.

01Show upWe're set up in the open, in a place you already walk past. Nothing to sign, nobody to get past.
02Pick something upInstruments sit together in the middle. Take whichever one you find yourself drawn to and go and sit with it.
03ExplorePlay it, write something, record something, or just make a noise and see how it lands. Ask if you want a hand.
04Pass it onShow someone else what you worked out. That's most of what a pop-up actually is.

Instruments are there. You don't bring anything.
No audition, no stage, nobody performs.
Free, and always will be.
Stay five minutes or the whole afternoon.

Why pop-ups

Why we set up in the open

You don't need experience, talent, or a plan. Curiosity is enough.

Music is older than language, and nobody had to qualify for it.

You're holding a small piece of a very old, very large thing.

Long before Pythagoras noticed that a harp string cut in half plays the same note exactly one octave higher, before Confucius wrote that music reveals the order beneath heaven and earth, people were already singing their way across country. Song encodes memory and direction, carrying meaning across generations and centuries, long before anyone wrote a word down.

Different corners of the world, entirely different reasons for making sound, and yet the same discovery arrived at again and again: rhythm keeps us orientated, melody keeps us connected, and song outlasts memory. It isn't only humans either — whales pass song along across oceans, birds learn dialects from their parents, and even the universe hums faintly in the radiation left over from its own beginning.

A pop-up gives a place its own sound for an afternoon. Neighbours who've walked past each other for years end up keeping the same rhythm, and that tends to last longer than the afternoon does.

Starter packs

We're gathering everything for our starter packs now, so people can take something home from a pop-up and keep playing.

Bring one to your part of the valley

A street, a hall, a market stall, a school yard, a shelter, a driveway. If you know a place where people already gather, tell us about it.