Espousing the perennial virtues of minimal techno and the great outdoors, Joel Gibson is one half of Yolk.

He is the Berlin-based street artist known to punters as the party starter of the inner west. According to Gibson, warehouse parties have always been on but they are now happening more regularly in public parks, side alleys and non traditional music venues across the industrial inner west. Enmore, Newtown, Botany, Rosebery, Chippendale and Alexandria are all on the party radar thanks to collectives that operate just like Yolk.

“My theory is that it’s because of the lock out laws. Because the places that the lock out laws affect are such dives, that’s why more creativity is happening around here now,” Joel Gibson says, speaking from his latest venture at Lord Gladstone in Chippendale.

Joel Gibson is lauded for creating alternative venue parties across Sydney’s inner-west.

Gibson’s recent Yolk parties have happened in a colourful industrial laneway in Marrickville, down in The Chippendale Hotel’s basement and upstairs at Lord Gladstone’s raw new gallery called Good Space. Yolk has also commandeered pretty harbourside parks, out of the way coves and old warehouses for their secret location, social media only promoted events.

“Sydney is thriving. There has never been something better happen here. Right now there are heaps of local small collaborators like Yolk popping up. You can go to like five raves every weekend in summer. The competition keeps us all on our toes,” Gibson says.

Joel Gibson’s fluro pink pleasure dome made from a light malleable foam and gladwrap is infamous in Marrickville, while his wooden vibe shack made from recycled materials has toured the country this past summer. Image by Callum Birch.

“Like Berlin in the early days, there is a do it yourself vibe. The difference is that, Berliners were coming from nothing, whereas in Sydney, it is a revolt against what was. Do it yourself here, is about pushing away what was already existing, and doing it ourselves.”

“The police around the inner west have been some of the best actually. It has reminded me a bit of overseas, because when they came we spoke to them about what we were doing they said, “hey this a public space you can do what you want,” smiles Gibson.