The Drummers On The North Bondi Grassy Knoll

Seemingly out of nowhere one day on North Bondi’s grassy knoll, a collective of drummers known as Bondi Sunset Music appeared, reshaping Sunday afternoons at the beach. Their mission? Connecting people through music, dance, and the magic of a beach sunset. We interviewed the group to find out what it’s all about.

When and how did Bondi Sunset Music start?

Bondi sunset music started purely organically when a local musician and musical hobbyist Paulo Dos Santos Charles Myssy bumped into each other on the grassy knoll one afternoon as the sun was setting, they were both playing their own instruments solo, until they decided to connect and play together, from that day, Paulo invited Charles to join him and his son Alex Dos Santos who at the time was only 9 years old to play on one Sunday afternoon. Since then, they played every Sunday and more people began to join. People like Hector Martinez and Renato Jelen other bondi locals. It has since grown to a large community where people can come together and join in.

Where and when can people find you?

People can find us playing every Sunday, depending on the weather at bondi beach from 3pm all the way til Sunset. We’ve been mixing up the locations recently, usually we play on the grassy knoll, but at the moment we are playing on the beach between ramps 6-7.

What’s the philosophy of the group?

The philosophy of the group is that we want people to re-connect with themselves and each other through dance and music. Nature, bare feet in the earth, live ecstatic tribal drumming, dancing like nobody’s watching, sober drug and alcohol free environment, for the whole community no matter your age or ethnicity, it’s powerful! You don’t have to look far to see the smiles, and the evidence backs it up. Drum circles have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and for good reason, it’s an incredible ceremony to connect people with themselves, their bodies and others. Loads of studies are out on the positive impact on drum circles for depression and anxiety, and that’s why it blew up especially during covid, people needed a safe space to let loose the stress and worries, and connect during a lonely time.

Who can get involved and how?

We have our main members of the group, but anybody can get involved. We welcome everyone to come and join us for the weekly celebration. We have a structure with how we run the sets, it’s very simple, to ensure everyone stays in rhythm, bring your instruments and join us! We get the kids to play some instruments that we bring and to hang out drums in between. Preparing the next generation of bondi sunset drummers!

You’ve changed the fabric of Bondi on Sunday afternoons, bringing a party vibe to the beach. How has the local community responded?

We’ve had a lot of mostly beautiful support from the locals which we are super grateful for! Without them we wouldn’t have been able to continue this epic event. But like anything, we get mixed feelings. Initially people thought we were bringing trouble, drugs and alcohol to the beach, but we quickly squashed that perception, next we had noise complaints, but through mutual understanding, we’ve kept the sets within limits, only play for a few hours and have regular breaks in between to break it up, and also, had a-lot of negativity during covid because people thought we were spreading the virus. Ultimately we‘ve had our challenges, like any community like any family. But we know our intentions are good and we know the positive impact we have, so many people have formed friendships, relationships from this community and people we’re literally saying to us that without the drums, they probably wouldn’t be here, as it’s given them something to look forward to every week.

Any big plans coming up you can share?

Nothing too crazy or big, I think we are just keeping it simple for now and playing for the community, but eventually we’d like to organise some actual events with some extra entertainment!

Anything else to add?

Just want to thank everyone for the love and support and we hope to see you in Bondi on a Sunday celebrating the sunset with us!