Take note, no guerrilla, or "ambush" marketing materials allowed. Larger image. More World Youth Day site photos.

A quick public service announcement here, since I am seeing a lot of search queries from people seeking information about road closures in Sydney in relation to this week's World Youth Day (WYD) event (which is actually a SIX day event by the way). For full, and hopefully regularly updated, details regarding actual road closures please bookmark the RTA's WYD traffic information page. There's quite a ... Read full entry

The transformation of Randwick Racecourse for the World Youth Day event next weekend is well under way. You'd just about have never thought it was a horse racing track such are the changes that are taking place. Workers have spent most of today attaching this fabric signage to the racecourse boundary fences along Alison Road.... Read full entry

The eleventh commandment has just been handed down, thou shalt not annoy pilgrims attending World Youth Day events in Sydney this July. Whatever "annoy" actually means... Linguistics expert Nick Riemer, from the University of Sydney, said the word annoy had its origins in the French word for annoyance - ennui. The Oxford Dictionary defines 'annoy' as causing "slight anger or mental distress'', but Dr Riemer said the word ... Read full entry

Every 85 pilgrims attending Pope Benedict XVI's mass at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse will have the use of one toilet between them, thanks to Ken Talbot and company who are currently installing 3,500 toilets at the World Youth Day site. It is unlikely pilgrims will run into the big man himself "in the bathroom" though, as he will enjoy special provisions, according to Talbot. The project manager from Seven ... Read full entry

World Youth Day attendees could end up with an unusual memento of their experience courtesy of protest group the "NoToPope Coalition" who plan to hand out condoms to pilgrims as they walk to Pope Benedict XVI's outdoor Sydney mass at Randwick Racecourse in a few weeks time. Condoms will be handed out to pilgrims en route to a papal Mass at Randwick Racecourse on World Youth Day ... Read full entry

Now I thought Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was a catholic. I remember walking passed the St Francis of Assisi Church in Paddington, Sydney, one Sunday some years ago, and seeing Clover standing outside chatting with the parish priest, after a service. I was therefore surprised to read that Clover is now blocking the use of Sydney's Hyde Park after World Youth Day organisers failed to pay ... Read full entry

Hallowed turf ready when punters replace pilgrims 10,000 square metres of grass is being grown in the Hawkesbury region of NSW, to replace the turf at Royal Randwick Racecourse after Pope Benedict XVI's open air mass, and the World Youth Day event, which is taking place at the racing venue. The replacement turf is being grown in the Hawkesbury - at a cost of more than $2 ... Read full entry

Signs like this have started springing up around the local streets, in the vicinity of Randwick Racecourse, in recent days. I know Pope Benedict XVI needs to park the Popemobile somewhere when he arrives here for World Youth Day, but in reality the so called "special event parking areas" strike me as being futile. First up local residents and ... Read full entry

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens Pope Benedict XVI is proving to be a rather accommodating pope, and has said through Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, that "belief" in the existence of extraterrestrial life will not see you thrown into the fires of hell. "How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ... Read full entry