The Sew Surfside retreat is on again!!
At this early stage of the game I don't have exact prices or details of what the projects will be - I can tell you though that the retreat will have the same format. Two seperate full day classes for small projects, and a night time lecture on the Friday night. There's also the opportunity for welcome drinks in the Annexe on the Thursday night, let me know if you think that sounds fun! The price will be similar to the 2024 retreat - that was $200/240 AUD.
If you would like to secure your place, please let me know and you can make a non-refundable deposit of $50 per day (so $100 for the two days) and be the first on the list for 2025. This guarantees you a class place and first access to kits (if you want them) when the rest of the details are released. The $50 will then of course come off your total class price. If you only want one day, you don't need to specify which day yet, I will get that information from you closer to when the classes are released.
When and where is the retreat?
Sew Surfside 2025 retreat will take place Friday August 15 and Saturday August 16, in the Recreation Centre Annex at Avalon Beach, NSW (Sydney's northern beaches). The Annex is a little cottage in Dunbar Park. It's very spacious and has good lighting and nice big windows.
How do I get there?
The exact address of the classes is:
Avalon Recreation Centre Annex
Dunbar Park
3 Bowling Green Lane
Avalon Beach NSW 2107
There is free all day parking in the Bowling Green Lane car park behind the RSL but it does fill up quickly, so I recommend coming early and getting a coffee in Avalon before class starts if you're driving! There is also a larger timed parking lot and parking in the surrounding streets if you don't mind more of a walk.
Avalon is around 1 hour drive from Sydney airport outside of peak hour. If you are coming from interstate or overseas, you can obviously hire a car at the airport and drive here!
There is also a train and bus service from the airport that will take you to Mona Vale Beach, and we can collect you from Mona Vale and take you to your accomodation. The train goes from right at the airport terminal and then you need to transfer to a bus service that goes direct to Mona Vale.
Please make sure to tick the box if you think you will require transport while you are here. We are looking into options, and how many people will actually need the transport before we make anything concrete - its hard to organise without knowing how many people are already in Sydney and how many coming from afar. If you tick the box, we will contact you after all the places are filled and give you some options. If there are enough people requiring transport, we will look into hiring a mini bus and having two or three collections from the airport over the course of Thursday to bring everyone here, for a small fee. If there are only one or two people this obviously won't be feasible, but Damo will be able to collect you from public transport at Mona Vale in our car if needs be.
Where can I stay?
This is my own little corner of the world, and the whole reason I want to do this retreat is to show it off to all of you. Avalon is a charming little village filled with. great cafes, bars and restaurants, lovely shopping and a truly beautiful beach. Everyone who lives here is very passionate about it. I hope you all love it too! One of the reasons Avalon is so charming however is that it's remote, and therefore can be a little difficult to get to, and a little difficult to find somewhere reasonable to stay. Airbnb is your best bet.
There are a couple of hotels/apartment style rentals in the area that I know of:
https://www.reefresort.com.au/
There is also hostel - that's mainly full of young rowdy backpackers, but here is the link anyway!!
http://www.avalonbeach.com.au/
Unless you have your own transport, you will want to be looking for accomodation in the suburbs of Palm Beach, Whale Beach, Avalon, Clareville, Bilgola Plateau, Newport or Mona Vale. Those are the suburbs we can pick you up and drive you to class from. Most things in and around Avalon Village you would be able to walk to class from. Airbnb's are probably your best bet, so if you are travelling in a group a share house is the way to go! If you are travelling alone and would like to share a house with others, please check that option at check out and we will try to get people together so that you can organise that. If there's three or four people all alone, it would make sense to rent together and share the cost. If you're not sure how far something is from us, feel free to ask me before you book.
That is all for now. More details to come soon.