Welcome to the 4th Issue of Loop magazine. We look ahead in this one with plenty on the horizon for September and October in both Sydney and Newcastle. Yes, Loop is branching out with a swarm of interesting articles, reports, personality interviews and reviews of people & events stretching as far this time as The Hague in the Netherlands.

First up we’re delighted to bring you a feature four-page center spread on the upcoming This Is Not Art festival gearing up for five heady days of free workshops, exhibitions, performances, site-specific works, an artists’ market and a zine fair, and four nights of killer gigs, which are either free or very cheap. It all takes place over the October long weekend, in Newcastle NSW and our feature articles by Ann Finegan, Rachel Morley and Claire Hargreave let you in on what is This Is Not Art, the National Young Writers' Festival - Get Crack!ing and an interview with this year’s co-directors Ben Bynre, Cat Jones and Alex White. Given this is Electrofringe’s 10-year anniversary, this year's directors suggested Loop also speak to Nick Ritar, one of the festival’s first directors, for a sense of its history and foundational ideologies. If this sounds like your thing and you haven’t yet graced the shores of Newcastle make it a first and get in quick, the city is literally booked out for this five-day event.

On our local, uncovering new music front, Loop’s band scout and events manager Sarah Wise has come through again with her pick of the month and we’re excited to feature some of them in our next Loop event. We’re making it a celebration of women in music and have the Gaelic Theatre booked for Thursday the 11th of October for Les Femmes de Loop. The line up of young bands for the night includes; Sherlocks Daughter, Ouch my Face!, Cassette Kids, S.Y.L.K and a mystery DJ and you’ll find tickets on sale now through Moshtix with further details inside on our Les Femmes de Loop flier.

Looking back a bit we have live reviews of Inga Liljestrom at the Vanguard, Lions At Your Door at Candy’s Apartment, a CD review of cooling pond by beVertical and an interview with the Cassette Kids. Abram Powell reviews the new Sydney based DVD label Demux focusing on the beautiful work of Peter Newman (Paperhouse) and Wade Marynowsky (Interpretative dance) and Chris Surplice writes about a new and exciting patronage for the Surry Hills Actors Centre in the form of Hugh Jackman. From a business perspective we bring a new focus to Loop and an important one for independent musicians around the country with a report on this years 8th AustralAsian Music Business Conference. It took place in mid August over 3 days at Acer Arena, Olympic Park and Loop’s editor highlights the talks from 3 keynote speakers, Michael Smellie, John Watson and John Lefsetz in his article The Industry, The Band and The Community.

You may notice with each new issue that Loop magazine grows slightly more organically and will find our 4th has an additional focus on the literary arts and cinema including film and book reviews by two new contributors. The charming Richard Cotter brings us Conspiracies and Catastrophes (with reviews of The Accident Man, 12.23, Falling Man, Shut up and Sing, Go Girls!, The Final Winter and Dr Plonk) and the delightful Martina Lunzer brings us A Film Vanishes with a review of the Melbourne leg of Australia's International Film Festivals 2007 (watch out for the Sydney Underground Film Festival starting this coming Friday the 7th of September at The Factory Theatre, 7th-10th September). Our regular star writer Lucy Kippist has also reviewed this year’s UTS Writers Anthology 2007 in which she looks at the writing (among others) of one of Loops earlier contributors Katherine Keefe. And for the first time we have an international writer/contributor, Artist in transit, Jodi Rose who brings us a fascinating review of the 10th Den Haag Sculpture exhibition ‘De Overkant/Down Under’. The exhibition celebrates our impulse to travel and 400 years of connection between Australia and the Netherlands. Our web contribution this time comes from Zubbie Capalini who looks at music in Second Life with the globally diverse virtual orchestra, Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. We also have a review of The Trouble with the Weather: a southern response and Is it getting hotter in here? by Ann Finegan and an upcoming release of Urban Myths & Modern Fables, a group exhibition due to open at the UTS Gallery on September the 25th.

Our Shot in the Arts this time around comes from photographer Andreia V Da Cruz. Her work, titled Brick Lane captures the emptiness of the first and sadly last group exhibition/performance of this emerging artist collective wedged amidst the retail hub on Curlewis St, Bondi Beach. While one sadly closes another opens and whatever you might have planned for the APEC weekend, steer clear of the city and get along to the Global Awareness exhibition at the North Sydney Community Centre. Lucy Butler brings us the NSCC’s release for their Changeable Art Space opening with a global twist as the city closes down. Global diversity and culture thrive with a line up of art from Turkey, India, Japan and Vanuatu this coming Saturday the 8th September.

With 2 more issues to go for 2007 (October & December) we look forward to celebrating our first year on the street. A big thank you to all our contributors & readers for supporting this venture.

Happy reading,
Damian Castaldi

To contact the editor:
Email: info@loopoz.com
Mob: 0405 639525