The Rocks Aroma Festival 2010 promised visitors the experience of the world through taste sensations. With four corners of the globe showcasing coffee, tea, chocolate and food, Sydneysiders descended to the historic Rocks area of Sydney where the event spilled onto the harbour foreshores.
What it also served was a good dose of patience.
The event was so popular that queues formed and snaked around to get close to the stalls. People lined up patiently for a dose of caffeine, food or a chance to try a free sample while others gave up and moved along.
The highlight of the festival was located near the Ocean Passengers Terminal. Cups of coffee in a variety of liquid colours were arranged to form a picture of Marilyn Monroe in “Some like it hot”. From the ground level, the image was merely invisible while the view from the top showed it in detail.
The festival was divided into four sections:
The Latin Quarter – with Latin American rhythms, Guatemalan coffee, capoera dancers
The Continent – with a focus on Europe with Italian coffees, chocolates, olives and antipasti.
The Orient – with a range of herbal teas, coffees and chai, blended with spices and a dragon show performance
The Oasis – featuring Turkish coffee and sweets, performances, belly dancing and shoe shine with the highlight being camel rides along Sydney Harbour.
The rest of the story is told in the photo gallery below. Thank you to everyone who posed or smiled at our cameras.
* * * Please note that all photographs are copyright of Gourmantic and cannot be used without written permission. * * *
The Rocks Aroma Festival
A sea of people on a gorgeous winter day.
A kiss at the Continent – One way to pass the time when queuing up for coffee.
Crowd view from the top
The Food
Beautiful displays from Naked Berry
Tea Drop Tea in colourful packaging
Do you Voodoo bars?
The teastick for those who don’t like to jiggle.
Sweet temptations from Bacco Pasticceria
Sad looking macarons from Bacco Pasticceria
A very popular stand at Sparkle Cupcakery Sydney
Islands of cup cakes
Vibrant stand from Segafredo coffee
Olives and cheese specials
Coffee Art
Can you pick the pattern?
Almost…
Marilyn in coffee cups
Some Like It Hot
The Oasis
The Oasis under Sydney Harbour
Turkish sweets – it’s not all Turkish delight
Mehmet Efendi Turkish coffee
Turkish coffee and baklava stand
A good Turkish coffee has a sediment this thick.
Coffee cup readings by Psychic Deniz
Thank you for the lovely smile.
The Gozleme stall is an example of efficiency. Spinach and cheese gozleme.
Shoe shine, anyone?
Traditional show shine box
Derwich and show shine
Performers and a belly dancer
Camels on Sydney Harbour
Camel rides and the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Camels in front of the Sydney Opera House
Silhouetted
The camel and the opera
The Entertainment
Turkish band performing songs from Turkey and Persia at the Oasis.
The band at the Continent
The accordionist at the Continent
The dancer at the Continent
Dragon dancers at the Orient
The ensemble at the Latin Quarter
People Watching
Food art and the artist
END
Proof that we are a coffee loving city.
The Rocks Aroma Festival was held on Sunday 25 July 2010.
What a fun event! Those macarons do look very sad though 🙁
It was a lot of fun, particularly at the Oasis end with the Turkish food and entertainment. I think the macarons didn’t enjoy their day out!
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I love this kind of event. I saw the Marilyn Monroe piece on the local news here in NZ last night, pretty cool! Wellington has its own food festival coming up, but nothing like what I’ve seen here. Looks like a great day
Ant, they did the Mona Lisa last year but I missed it. The Wellington Food festival sounds interesting to me, particularly if they showcase traditional Maori food ad cuisine.
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I haven’t been to the Aroma festival for a few years now but I always like seeing the coffee art! 🙂
It’s cool, isn’t it? 🙂 My first time at Aroma and it was a lot of fun!
I can see why so many people went to this, it looks fabulous and that coffee art!! What a creative way, I’ve seen toast art but this one is better. Would like to have tasted some of those teas. Great post!
Thanks Cate 🙂 It was a great turnout, and judging by the amount of coffee and food sold, the stall holders must be happy!
Did they read your fortune from the left over Turkish coffee grinds? Very common in Turkish households – and supposedly the best “fal” or fortune readers are old ladies. The older the lady, the more accurate the fortune, it is said.
It would have been fun to do it but there was a long queue. The guy seemed to be concentrating hard and I didn’t want to disturb the moment too much by taking too many photographs. No old ladies, but the women working at the gozleme stand were amazing to watch!
Looks delicious, good to see people branched out from last year’s cupcakes or this year’s macarons.
Ouch that sounded catty didn’t it, just sayin’…
It’s not catty, just a good observation. Though there were lots of cup cakes around. Not being a fan, I got bored photographing them!
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