2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival - Opening Night

Wanted to photograph Federation Square crowded with people (just like during 2006 FIFA World Cup when it was broadcast at Fed Sq. I missed that).

There were many excellent cultural performances. How excellent were they? Just watch the reaction of the crowd.

Music performance dominated the evening. A very strong crowd made up of people of all ages and all races - senior citizens who brought with them chairs, office workers, students, families, youth and kids.

This picture of the jumping girl do no justice to how high (thus excited) she was jumping. She is not that much taller than the boy in front of her! She should be in our Olympic volley ball team!

This guy can dance, he and his friends had so much fun. Just look at how he is transfixed to the performance on the stage.

And what about this girl (and her partner - the lucky red shirt guy behind her), she was great - photogenic, moves great with the music, really enjoying herself, a pleasure to photograph. I killed many shots on her. Basically everyone in the front close to the stage were dancing. It was just crazy. The only person who didn't appear to be enjoying himself was the guard who was standing by the edge of the stage watching for any mis-behavior. Even he must be happy to say the crowd was good and behaved well.

That said, I must say I was very happy about how nice people were. They were polite and caring. Some even made effort to let me move around. I was pleasantly surprised. Australia is a great country and Australians know how to have fun!

OK, what were they cheering for? What were they dancing to?

This guy is good. Notice he is actually facing the crowd, not the marquee? That's right, he was conducting the crowd as well as the orchestra. He did really great to stir up the crowd.

Everybody's favorite, John So, the Melbourne mayor

Victorian premier John Brumby