I was with a group of friends sitting outside Mou Very in George St late on Sunday night - well, early on Monday morning, to be more honest - when Melbourne ukulele player Thom Jackson started to strum some tunes.
Then violinist Chris Prosser and Butoh dancer Sascha Perfect from the Wellington production Quantum Enigma joined in and before you knew it a crowd of more than 20 people was involved singing, clapping and dancing.
Jackson is a ukulele virtuoso and rolled out everything from Summertime and Danny Boy to Nirvana classics over the next three hours.
University of Otago music student William Jackson added his rich baritone and Joseph Worley, who will ride his "Beam-Crawler" hybrid exercise machine across a disused walk bridge over the Water of Leith in "Leith Crossing" this Saturday, joined in with a Cossack dance.
It was like a gypsy family band had descended on the middle of town.
It was truly the magic of the Fringe and an absolute treat to experience.
Popped down to Chick's Hotel in Port Chalmers yesterday to see the Phil Dadson and Adrian Hall collaboration "New Live Sound Works".
The two old friends first met when they were sweeping Paihia beach in 1971.
"This is our first collaboration together since then," Hall grinned.
Dadson formed Auckland cult experimental band "From Scratch" 30 years ago and had assembled an eclectic collection of home-made electric instruments for the performance.
"I've been making instruments for years," Dadson said.
"I'll build one instrument and it generates another.
"I've built a whole family of instruments.
"I call it my `sprong family'."
The sound machines have names such as the "sloop spring string drum".
"New Live Cinemas" is on at Chick's again tonight.
See what it's all about at 8.30pm.
The evocative and raw Heel Ruby opens at the Allen Hall Theatre tonight.
The work is produced and performed by New Zealand School of Dance and Unitec graduates Emily Campbell, Zahra Killeen-Chance and Carly Townrow and explores the psychological architecture of Judy Garland, who was thrust into an uneasy fame as Dorothy in The Wizard if Oz.
"We all have three masks: That which we present to the world, that which we present to ourselves and that which is our truth," Campbell says.
Another fascinating work opening today is the Core exhibition at the Blue Oyster Gallery.
The exhibition is the denouement of the one-off Core performance piece by Red River held in a High St warehouse last Thursday night.
