While the masses congregated in Sydney’s Centennial Park for the Tropfest short film festival, the main feature was taking place just down the road at world famous Bondi Beach. After completing five extensive tours throughout Asia and New Zealand since 2010, as well as numerous interstate and regional concert programs, Music of Joy performed the grand finale in their own ‘backyard’ on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
As the sun set, the audience gathering at the Bondi Pavilion to catch MOJ was by no means as large in number as the one at Tropfest but what MOJ and their audience where about to share was very big indeed. It would not take place on a silver screen in front of them but on the silver screen of their own spirit. World music devoted to the spirit and inspired by Sahaja Yoga meditation brought musicians and audience together as one while massive surf crashed rhythmically onto the beach just beyond the panoramic windows of the iconic venue.
Throughout the beautifully nuanced and varied MOJ repertoire, people felt transported and while many danced others listened in sublime silence, momentarily overwhelmed, not so much by what was happening in front of them but by what was happening within them, as well as all around them. Afterwards, refreshments were taken by all on the full length balcony of the pavilion as the stars shone and the crashing of the ocean gently settled, like the beating of the heart returning to rest after the thrill of a new discovery.