Issue 78

12 Rocktober

Meal Deals and Food Offers 

Many say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's also a great time to spend with family, with friends or to catch up with colleagues. There's a good breakfast buffet at Ayu at Movenpick, daily from 6.00am to 10.00am, costing Rs3,850 per person.

Dolce Italia have brought back their ever-popular "Meat Fest" offer. This platter includes chicken, beef, potatoes and sides. The cost is Rs4,500 per person. There is an option to replace the meat with fish for pescatarians - so it probably then becomes a Fish Fest.

Taj Samudra have a new "Paranthe Wali Galli" Indian street food festival on the lawns, starting on Friday 14 October and running till 24 October. It offers a buffet of kebabs, parathas, tawa dishes, biriyanis and more, priced at Rs4,490 per person.

Seconds Hostel are hosting a "Pot Luck" dinner and pool party this Saturday. Bring a dish to share and meet new people. It's from 4.30pm to 10.00pm and is limited to 25 people, so registration is essential.

This month is about Oktoberfests and Halloween (OK and Rocktober, too). You can't order a Halloween party to your home, but you can order an Oktoberfest! Mount Lavinia Hotel are offering a classic Oktoberfest menu for four, from pretzels to wurst, from schnitzels to spaetzle, all delivered to your home. You just have to supply the beverages! The cost, for four people, is Rs11,420 and this is available until 31 October.

We heard the word that Upali's will soon be launching a Jaffna Food Festival. We'll let you know more as soon as we know!

Drinks Deals

The Colombo Oktoberfest has started and will continue every day until Sunday 16 October. Taking place at Beach Park, Port City, it offers games like Pretzel Tossing, authentic food and drinks, a German band plus each night there is a local band playing. Tickets are priced at

Ladies: if you like sushi and cocktails then you'll love the new offer from Kami Maki, just for you. For Rs4990 you can enjoy unlimited sushi and unlimited cocktails from 6.00pm to 8.00pm on Saturday evenings. Sorry guys, that offer is just for the ladies.

And this one is for the guys too: Lion Pub has a buy one, get one free offer on beer from 11.00am to 5.00pm. That is from pre-lunch to post-high tea! Six hours of happy hour!

There are a couple more Oktoberfests this week as well. One is at The Bavarian, from Friday to Sunday, with traditional food, games and a German singer. The other is at Vistas, also from Friday to Sunday with buffet, a pint and live music.

Live Music and DJs

Many of the local bands are playing at the various Oktoberfests around town this weekend. Aside from that, "Slow Flow" on Saturday is bringing together seven popular local bands for a gig at the Lotus Tower Open Air Arena. That promises to be a good night! It starts at 5pm.

Also on Saturday, "Limited Edition" has The Marions on stage with five leading singers. This is at Arcade, Independence Square starting at 8pm.

Looking to next weekend and the Lotus Tower Arena will be busy again next Friday 21 October with "Hiru Life Party" featuring six singers: Wasthi, Nadeemal, Kanchana, Dinesh, Sanuka and Kaizer, with two bands: Daddy and Infinity.

And also next Friday, Colombar welcomes "The Originals": Umara, Lahiru, Chitral and Ashanthi with D Major & Hector Dias, starting at 7pm.

And the following week of course will see Rocktober Sessions 2, Stigmata and guests back at Darley Road. More on that next week.

On to EDM and this Friday there's a special event, "DB Emerging" which has two emerging talents, Fader.exe and Iyre, performing at Vinyl Cafe as a fundraiser for Decibel, who do a lot to support the new and emerging talent in Sri Lanka so this event is to support the work they do.

Also on Friday, "Void" at Zouk will have DJs Subandrio and Jayy Vibes playing extended sets, plus seven more DJs including Echo Daft and Kyotto on the decks, from 7pm onwards.

There's two big nights on Saturday as well: "Inc Code" will be a sky-high party at Virticle with seven DJs including A-Jay and A'Jerome while, out of town, "Digital Karma" at Karma Beach has DJs Jayy Vibes, Ultra and Echo Daft plus four more.

Next weekend, on Friday 21 October, at On14 "Public Secret" will feature Praveen Achary, with 12 local DJs including three B2B pairs. On Saturday, "Eyeris" Glow-In-The-Dark party at Zouk will have Jayy Vibes B2B with Echo Daft, Timtim B2B with Dr Green and four more DJs.

There's also some Classical Music next weekend as the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka will be performing works by Dvorak, Bach, Bruch and Chopin at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on Saturday 22 October at 7.00pm.

Other Events

In support of Mental Health day, the Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology is hosting a Mental Health & Psychology Exhibition this week, with stalls covering nineteen different issues or subjects. There are also some food stalls with some excellent food.

Are you one of these people who can't start eating until you've taken a photo of your meal? Well, Cafe Kumbuk is hosting a "Food Photography & Styling Workshop" on Saturday from 10.00am to midday.

There's some theatre this weekend. The Mind Adventures Theatre Company is putting on a play, "Strangers in the Night" at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. It's on for one night only this Saturday at 8.00pm.

Next week the Western Breeze Festival returns to Marine Drive for two days of food, music, stalls, arts, crafts and festivities. It's on Friday and Saturday, starting from 5.00pm.

There's been lots written about NFTs recently and next Friday there will be an exhibition and the launch of Sri Lanka's first ever NFT Collection at Hatch, from 10.00am to 8.00pm.