Sydney icon turns picnic site

SYDNEY: Thousands of people ate breakfast on the Sydney Harbor Bridge as the iconic steel span was transformed into a grassy picnic ground yesterday.

Usually bustling with traffic, the bridge was covered by lawn laid specially for the morning event.

The Breakfast on the Bridge event was part of the Crave Sydney festival, a major celebration of the city's way of life, offering 31 days of food, art, comedy and outdoor fun, including the Sydney International Food Festival.

A piano player played honky-tonk music while grazing cows added a rustic touch as 6,000 lucky picnickers - chosen in a ballot - enjoyed food, music and the majestic view.

"It's amazing to see the bridge in this perspective," Sydney resident Don Fuchs said as he strolled across, taking in the Sydney Opera House. "Usually you sit in the car, you cross it, and that's it."

Picnickers brought hampers full of fruit and croissants, while organizers handed out freshly baked bread, jams, apples and yoghurt.

"This is the first time that we have organized such a big breakfast on the Harbor Bridge, but not the last. We plan to have another one next year, probably on an even bigger scale," said Jodi Mckay, the tourism minister of New South Wales state of which Sydney is the capital.

AP-Xinhua

(China Daily 10/26/2009 page8)