We've got one more very special event here at Bar Merenda for Winter 2024, and dare I say we may have saved the best til last! On Sunday 4th August we are teaming up with Ali Currey Voumard, who has been working with us the last few months, to present CLUB MERENDA - A Provencal luncheon with musical accompaniments & an evening of dancing to follow!

We've been digging through our favourite Provencal cookbooks & have invited some of our most favourite DJs and musicians from across Victoria to reaaaaaaally turn this one out!

The day will begin with a three course luncheon based around a main course of stuffed Bundarra cote de porc (a recipe we've long admired from Richard Olney's tome on Provençal cuisine). throughout lunch, guests will be treated to an extra special set from Katie Pearson. Katie is very well known for providing moments of dancefloor ecstasy in clubs all over the country, however on this occasion she'll be bringing the honky tonk to Club Merenda. If you've ever heard her Skylab Radio program "No Guns For Men'' you'll know you're in for a big treat - and if you haven't listened, we highly recommend you do.

As lunch winds down the room will be fully heated by some live music from Jali Buba Kuyateh, a local kora player and vocalist who brings such warmth and soul to his performance, a rare treat indeed for fans of the African sounds! After lunch, the tables will get pushed aside and dancing will be strongly encouraged with Navy Blue Radio and Paul Jager (two of our very favourite dance floor DJs) taking us on a musical journey well into the evening.

Tickets for a 3 course lunch will be $80 and includes all the musical immersion, and for those who can't make it to lunch but want to come later for a dance its just $25. Lunch will be served from 12.30pm-3.30pm, after which the club doors will open in earnest!

Tickets can be purchased via the Humanitix link in our bio, be quick here as Club Merenda is a small & intimate space!

MORE INFO ON THE MUSICIANS

12.30pm-2.30pm Katie Pearson is a Melbourne club legend - big house/disco/electro vibes usually. She does a show on Skylab called No Guns For Men which is a far cry from her usual club sets, but no less impressive. It's full of honky tonk, country croonings and soulfulk folk songs, and is dedicated to her great-aunt Toots - the first ever female truckie in Australia. Toots was pretty famous, Slim Dusty even wrote a song about her (it's called The Lady Is A Truckie). Anyway, I found these playlists about a year ago and I find them like so moving and perfect for Victorian high country winter energy. I asked Katie to play within half an hour of coming up with the idea for Club Merenda. Here's the first episode of No Guns For Men https://skylab-radio.com/shows/no-guns-for-men-e1insty: @katiepearson.dj

2.30pm-4.30pm JALI BUBA KUYATEH was born in Senegal (now based in Malmsbury!) and comes from a griot (hereditary musician) family, where he has played kora since the age of five. He will be blessing us with 2 hours of beautiful traditional Senegalese live music.

4.30pm-6.30pm NAVY BLUE RADIO - an awesome Mebourne based dj duo (Folarin and Langai are their names). They have a show on Skylab (self titled), and their sets can be pretty varied but tend to always have a focus on deep percussive elements with a soulful spirit. Lots of house (detroit/chicago style), but also jazz, RnB and bruk! A good episode of their show is here, screenshot attached https://skylab-radio.com/shows/navy-blue-radio-e2 insty: @navyblueradio

6.30pm-8.30pm Paul Jager. Paul is formerly one part of the trio that used to run Club D'érange - a pretty iconic roving club night that ran for a good few years. He lives locally now and has exceptional taste in dancefloor music. The link I've added is his set from a couple of years ago at Music Room. From memory he's pretty into that like jazz-house vibe but who knows what he'll play this time. Screenshot attached https://skylab-radio.com/shows/live-from-music-room-04 insty: @lewisjager