Australia’s ‘protestival’: kayaks, music, a push for climate change action – and the risk of arrest

Fossil fuel protesters are making their annual pilgrimage to the NSW city of Newcastle to draw attention to climate policy failure. Police will be there too, with a ‘zero tolerance approach’

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It has become an annual pilgrimage. Each November, thousands of protesters flock to the New South Wales city of Newcastle for an annual climate protest – and standoff with police – as a flotilla of kayaks and sailboats head out to block the world’s largest coal port.

Hundreds of people set up camp at Foreshore Park on Friday in preparation for the Rising Tide people’s blockade on Newcastle Harbour. The crowd was expected to swell to 7,000 over the weekend as protesters arrived from across the country for what organisers said had become a national gathering for Australians frustrated by a lack of government urgency to address the climate crisis.