FFWD Festival

Sorry Thanks I Love You announces FFWD Festival: 1 – 4 August 2024, 183 Clarence St, Sydney.

Three radicals of Sydney’s cultural landscape have come together to pioneer a four-day festival that brings together an edgy fine dining menu, unorthodox natural wines and a renegade high-end fashion marketplace.

Iconic restaurateur Maurice Terzini (Icebergs Dining Room and Bar) and high profile wine judge and critic Mike Bennie (P&V Wine + Liquor) have joined forces with experimental concept store Sorry Thanks I Love You to create FFWD Festival - an IYKYK fashion, food, wine and music mash-up headlined by Julian Hamilton (The Presets) at a converted substation in the heart of Sydney.

Centered around a fashion market in Machine Hall’s colossal steel and glass atrium, FFWD presents a collection of new season and archival pieces curated from STILY’s stable of renegade designers - like Comme des Garcons, Acne Studios, Diesel, Issey Miyake, Marni and MM6 Maison Margiela.

Harnessing the same subversive artistry, Terzini is transforming Machine Hall’s subterranean bar into a shadow Icebergs Dining Room and Bar experience – offering an edgy fine dining menu canvasing everything from grass-fed O’Connor beef tartare to fairy bread macarons, developed by chef Alex Prichard. Back in the main hall, short and sharp variations on the Icebergs Bar menu will be available all weekend – think porcini
and truffle lasagna, and tiramisu by the scoop.

Bennie will be riffing on the same themes, pouring a special selection of unorthodox and party-friendly natural wines from the cellar that has made P&V Wine + Liquor famous. “We’ll be splashing a colourful array of drinks to match the tone and energy of this stellar event, and couldn’t be more grateful to be once again involved with this talented array of humans,” says Bennie.

Add screenings of the newly released fashion documentary John Galliano High & Low, a large-scale art installation from Dover Street Market artist Brett Westfall, BTS interviews from Paris Fashion Week and a program of tastings and panel discussions with art, food and fashion industry leaders and a soundscape of live DJs, and you have a weekend like no other in 2024.

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“I am a big fan of any event where fashion, food, wine, drinks and a party vibe come together… let alone collaborating with Mike and P&V in such an iconic space,” says
Terzini. “Julian on the decks next to Comme Des Garçons is surely an event not to miss!”

“What a coup it is to have such a creative long leash and derring-do to meld a festival around such electric and inspiring talent banks!” says Bennie. “Total freedom to do
different, so well, and in all this we arrive at a series of events that combine with unprecedented originality – we’re all in from our end. Fashion, food, art, music, culture
all wrapped up in a landmark venue with great minds going deep on different.”

Produced by Buddy Creative (Splendour In The Grass, Big Day Out), FFWD launches on Thursday 1 August with a raucous all-inclusive opening night cocktail party headlined
by Julian Hamilton (The Presets) plus a live set from psychedelic rock band Velvet Trip, Archie Rose cocktails, canapes by Icebergs Dining Room And Bar and fashion-forward
drinks curated by Bennie.

Between sets: a quickfire, champagne-fuelled charity auction of archive Comme Des Garçons pieces live from the runway to raise money for integrated cancer hospital Chris
O’Brien Lifehouse.

Already billed as the hottest ticket of the season, FFWD tickets start at $25 and run all the way up to $5000 for a “Yes Chef” all-inclusive access pass – with complimentary
drinks all weekend, a shopping spree at STILY, lunch for two at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, and a $2500 donation to the Lifehouse all thrown in.

“Creating unconventional, exceptional live experiences with people at the top of their game is what we do. So I guess it’s no surprise that the three of us have clicked,” says
STILY co-founder Caroline Ball. “Working with Mike and Maurice, who pursue excellence and see fine food and wine as their artistic mediums, feels exactly right.”