Palmerston Golf Club Paint and Sip Recap: Lotti's Back, the Top End's Lit

Palmerston Golf Club, you absolute belters. That was a Friday night and a half.

Three nights of David covering the mic up here in the Top End, Lotti Rem on a quick flight back to the Gold Coast for her kids' birthdays, and then a sharp turnaround into a Friday night at Palmerston Golf and Country Club with Lotti back in the room, voice warm and ready to go. The whole tour clicked back into gear the second she stepped up. The room knew it. We knew it. By the end of the night, anyone who had not been to a Paint Juicy paint and sip with live vocals before now firmly knew it too.

Honestly, this one was a bit of a homecoming. The NT loop had been ticking along beautifully with David on the bill (and we will absolutely have him back, the man is a weapon), but having Lotti back on the mic for the Friday session at Palmerston felt like the band reuniting after a quiet week. Energy lifted. Laughs got louder. The Friday-night Palmerston crowd absolutely matched it. Big up-for-it group, ready to paint, sing, sip and not take themselves too seriously. Exactly what we are after.

And if you have been quietly stalking our Darwin and NT paint and sip dates, this one was a definite highlight of the run.

Lotti Back on the Mic and Loving It

Look, David did a beautiful job over the previous nights. Talented, kind, an actual professional, and we will keep booking him whenever the diary lines up. But there is a Lotti-shaped slot in a Paint Juicy night, and only Lotti fills it the way Lotti fills it. Big voice, easy banter, comfortable enough with the format now to read a room before she has even hit the first note.

By song two, Palmerston had stopped pretending they were not going to sing. By song five, they were doing harmonies they did not know they were capable of. By song eight, someone in the back was on her feet doing very confident 80s pointing arms. We love that for her.

Live vocals at a paint and sip do something a Spotify playlist simply cannot. They lift the whole room. They give people permission to loosen up. They turn what could have been a quiet Friday into a proper night out with paint on the side. Add a few cheeky trivia moments in the breaks (which doubles as a sneaky way to let the paint dry between layers, but no one needs to know that), and you have a format that just works.

A Function Room With Proper Top End Charm

Palmerston Golf and Country Club has the kind of function space we love walking into. Big enough for a full crowd, well lit, properly air-conditioned (which in the Top End is non-negotiable), and run by a team who actually know what they are doing. By the time we had set up, the bar staff already had the first round flowing, and the room had that pleasant hum of a Friday crowd settling in for something good.

One of the lovely surprises of the venue is the giant outback landscape print on the wall behind the painting tables. Big sweeping Top End escarpment, red rock, deep golden grass, that quintessential Northern Territory drama. It makes a brilliant backdrop for finished-painting photos at the end of the night, and it sets the tone the second guests walk in. You are not in a Sydney function room. You are in the Top End, and the venue is leaning into it.

80s and 90s Anthems, Belted Out at Volume

This was an 80s and 90s singalong session, and Palmerston did not need any encouragement to get involved. Power ballads, big chorus moments, the songs everyone secretly knows every word to even if they would not admit it out loud. By the third track, the singalong was carrying itself.

That is the magic of an 80s and 90s playlist on a Friday night. The songs are stitched into people's memories. They are nostalgia in a four-minute package. Hit the right opening chord and a room of strangers turn into a room of mates harmonising on a chorus they all know in the same accidental key. We love it. The painting carries on around it. The drinks keep flowing. The atmosphere just builds.

If you are an 80s and 90s music tragic who has been considering a paint and sip but worried it might be a quiet little arts-and-crafts moment, this is your sign. It is not. It is loud. It is fun. It is exactly the kind of Friday night you needed.

The Paintings Came Out Bloody Brilliant

Now to the artwork. The session painting was a sunflower-and-swirly-sky piece, Van Gogh-inspired, plenty of room for personality. And Palmerston brought all the personality.

One guest reinterpreted hers into a butterfly explosion in the centre with sunflowers anchoring the bottom. Another went full Aboriginal-art-inspired across her canvas, dot work and bold shapes, completely her own. A third painted a striking red-field-with-a-single-graphic-line piece, almost a gallery moment in its own right, and absolutely nothing like the original brief. We absolutely love that.

That is the joy of a Paint Juicy night. We give you the bones, you make it yours. There is no painting police walking around correcting brush strokes. There is just a room of people having a go, and a finished wall of canvases by the end of the night that all look related but completely individual. You can see in the photos that no two paintings look the same. Each one has its painter all over it.

A Top End Crowd You Cannot Out-Vibe

One of the lovely things about touring the Top End is the Friday-night crowd has a particular flavour. Warm, ready to laugh, not afraid to make a fool of themselves in the best possible way, and absolutely up for whatever the night brings. Palmerston was no exception. Possibly the best example of it on the whole NT run.

You can see it in the photos. People genuinely enjoying themselves. Friends laughing while pointing at each other's canvases. Photos with arms around shoulders. The kind of atmosphere money cannot buy and AI cannot fake. Just real people, real laughs, real Friday night.

That is who Paint Juicy is for. People who want to feel a bit younger for the night, sing a bit louder than they usually would, paint something they will quietly be proud of, and go home with a story for Saturday morning. Our Darwin and NT sessions consistently deliver this, and Palmerston led from the front.

We'll Be Back, and It Will Be Soon

Thank you Palmerston. Thank you to the bar staff. Thank you to the venue team who looked after us start to finish. And thank you to every single one of you who turned up, painted, sang, and made a Friday night of it.

If you came along, you already know. If you missed it, you have got two options. One, kick yourself gently for missing the best Friday night in Palmerston that week. Two, get on our mailing list, watch for the next Palmerston paint and sip date, and lock yourself in early.

Thinking About Coming to a Palmerston Paint and Sip?

If you are thinking about coming to your first Paint Juicy event and you are in the Palmerston, Darwin or wider Top End area, this is your sign. You do not need to be able to paint. You do not need to be able to sing. You just need to be willing to turn up, have a laugh, get involved, and let the room carry you. That is the whole format.

Check the live dates on our Palmerston Paint and Sip collection, grab your spot, and we will see you on the night. And if you are organising a hens night, milestone birthday or work crew end-of-year do, our private paint and sip parties are exactly the kind of memorable that lasts.

Palmerston Golf Club, you were proper. Catch you next time.