Hip to the wise
IN an international study of hipster cities, Geelong has outhipstered Melbourne!
Yes, a tad hard to believe. Yet when one delves into the detail, the facts speak for themselves, the numbers are in — Geelong is Victoria’s hipster haven.
Commissioned by global relocation company MoveHub, the 2018 study compared 446 cities in 20 countries, rating their desirability from a hipster perspective.
The Hipster City Index compared population density per 100,000 people to trendy-living indicators such as vegan eateries, coffee shops, record stores, tattoo studios and vintage boutiques.
Interestingly, barber shops were not measured, but could well have been, given the wellmanicured beards and smart moustaches of Geelong menfolk.
For Australia, the Gold Coast ranked No. 1 hipster city, followed by Cairns and Hobart, but Geelong blew Melbourne out of its laconic, latte-fuelled stupor by coming in fourth, ahead of the fifth-placed metropolis up the road.
Internationally, G Town came in a respectable #160 of 446, essentially in the top third.
Geelong, with seven vegan restaurants, 247 coffee shops (and counting) and 13 tattoo parlours, rated hipster high.
The MoveHub global report went on to make this surprising comment on our country’s general hipster status: “Australasia did not do well overall, but it absolutely bossed coffee. Gold Coast, Geelong, and Melbourne finished 1st, 2nd, and 4th for coffee shop density.”
Second internationally! That’s a truly extraordinary finding but one perhaps we always suspected. I mean, no one does a double shot macchiato or cold press coffee quite like Geelong’s talented baristas.
And we’re spoiled for choice, some might even say too much choice, as there seems to be a fair churn of cafes — they need to be excellent to survive, such is the inherent quality on offer.
The study added: “You would struggle to find any other group that changes cities at the rate that hipsters do . . . Once a city has been chosen as a trendy area, hipsters bring in all sorts of new independent businesses. This injection of consumers can really transform cities.”
Given hipsters are so fiddlefooted, Geelong may well be in the midst of a caffeine-fuelled, hipster-led population surge and economic transformation.
Well, maybe not, but there’s much activity as our economic structure continues to recalibrate.
The Ford and Alcoa closures — with consequent downstream effects — were a terrible blow. Yet, difficult as they were, with hindsight they will be seen as bellwether turning points in Geelong’s economic history. While some sectors are finding the going tougher than they would like, many seem to be sound and growing. We’re rethinking who we are — any thought of “sleepy hollow” is so 1990s.
Many businesses punch well above their weight, many of which will showcase their capacities in the Chamber of Commerce excellence awards.
In fact, two outstanding businesses, Truffleduck and Prestige Jayco, have reached their hipster milestone, having clocked up 30 years. Such longevity is by no means guaranteed in the competitive conditions within which most businesses operate and reflects the quality of their leadership. OK, OK, maybe most hipsters are not into caravanning, but campervans are often hipster motor vehicles, with, of course, a shiny town bicycle bedecked with a wicker basket on the bike rack. And given that hipsters are into diverse arts, one only need to look at last weekend in Geelong to understand the breadth we offer. The award-winning two-day extreme arts walk Mountain to Mouth was again an extraordinary event, Geelong After Dark saw thousands frolicking to the CBD on Friday for an illuminatingly different experience and the weeklong Sacred Music Festival kicked off. And that was all on top of another sacred — for some — event, a Cats home game. So is Geelong cool? Well, the answer is an ebullient “absolutely”, with a touch of kale quinoa salad on the side. But all this does then pose one of the great existential questions of our time — has Geelong reached “Peak Hipster”. I’ll leave that one with you. In the meantime, another matcha latte, please Duke. And I just love your purple beard!