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

Preparations for World Youth Day events at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse are in full swing with work now taking place around the clock. The racecourse is floodlit through out the night and the off-white lights cast what seems like a golden glow over the site. Sound tests of the audio equipment have been in progress this morning, and ... 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

It looks a little on the small side to be heaven, but on the other hand assumes approximately the same dimensions as Royal Randwick Racecourse. "Heaven is a place," sang the Talking Heads, "where nothing ever happens." Not so in this version of the Afterlife. This is what Heaven might have looked like in the Divina Commedia had Dante not been a medieval Italian intellectual, but a contemporary Californian ... Read full entry

Olympian cost of $86m for Youth Day NSW taxpayers will fork out $86 million to host the upcoming Sydney visit of Pope Benedict XVI, and World Youth Day (actually a week-long event - go figure). Here's what we get for our money though... Widespread disruptions for motorists, with the Harbour Bridge closed for 12 hours on July 19 and, for the week-long festival, more than 300 road closures ... Read full entry

At about 11:30 last night MySweetHeartTheFlirt suggested we spend today at the Randwick races. I looked at my 400 unread RSS articles, the growing pile of unanswered emails that required attention, an alarmingly long task list, and shook my head. "But there'll be a hot-spot you can connect to," she countered. I was therefore almost resigned to a day of trying to balance a laptop on my knees, while ... Read full entry

The Jack Johnson concert, held in Sydney's Centennial Park last Saturday, was judging by the cheering we could hear almost two kilometres away in Randwick, an unqualified success. At least so far as Jack Johnson and his fans were concerned. Not so enthralled were local residents who are apparently growing ever more irate by both the increasing frequency at which outdoor concerts are held in the park, and the ... Read full entry