Sydney Festival is a major

arts festival An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry and isn't solely focused on visual arts. Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, lite ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's largest city,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

that runs for three weeks every January, since it was established in 1977. The festival program features in excess of 100 events from local and international artists and includes

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

and classical music,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

and artist talks. The festival attracts approximately 500,000 people to its large-scale free outdoor events and 150,000 to its ticketed events, and contributes more than A$55 million to the economy of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

History

The origins of the Sydney Festival are in the Waratah Festival which was established in 1956 by the Sydney Committee and took place from late October to early November, coinciding with the blooming of the NSW emblematic flower the

Waratah Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is ''Telopea speci ...

. It was an important cultural event which included a parade, a popular art competition, beauty contests, exhibitions, performances and the Lord Mayor's reception at the Sydney Town Hall. Sydney Festival was established by the Sydney Committee, the

NSW State Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party o ...

and the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

with a view to attracting people into the city centre during the summer holiday month of January. In many ways it is probably still best understood as a celebration of Sydney and what the city has to offer. In the festival's early years, its program offered everything from vintage car rallies, face-painting and kite-flying to bocce, dog obedience trials and Chinese scarf dancing. For three weeks, the festival offers a program of more than 330 performances and 100 events involving 900 artists from 17 countries, covering dance, theatre, music, visual arts, cross media and forums. In any given year, the program's diversity might include burlesque circus to New York rap to Russian theatre; from contemporary dance to family programs to traditional Indigenous arts practice. The festival uses at least 30 venues including the city's main theatre venues such as Sydney Theatre, Carriageworks,

City Recital Hall City Recital Hall in Sydney, Australia, is a purpose-built concert venue with the capacity for an audience of 1,238 people seated over three tiers of sloped seating. It is situated in the city centre in Angel Place, just off Martin Place. City ...

and venues at

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

and in

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

, as well as community halls, parks and the city streets themselves. André de Ridder at Sydney Festival

Sydney Festival presents a number of large-scale free outdoor events including the long-running Concerts in The Domain with, each attracting up to 60,000 people, a decrease from peaks of 80,000 people during earlier years. At its peak, it is estimated that the festival attracted 1.5 million people. The Festival has a history of presenting Australian premieres and many of Australia's most memorable productions such as ''

Cloudstreet ''Cloudstreet'' is a novel by Australian writer Tim Winton published in 1991. It chronicles the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who come to live together in a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Aus ...

'' have resulted from Sydney Festival's commitment to nurture local artists. It has brought many of the world's great artists to Sydney for the first time including: Ariane Mnouchkine and Thèâtre du Soleil (''Flood Drummers''), Robert Wilson (''The Black Rider''),

Robert Lepage Robert Lepage (born December 12, 1957) is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director. Early life Lepage was raised in Quebec City. At age five, he was diagnosed with a rare form of alopecia, which caused complete hair lo ...

(''Far Side of the Moon'', ''The Andersen Project'', ''Lipsynch''), George Piper Dances, Netherlands Dance Theatre, James Thiérrée (''Junebug Symphony'', ''Au Revoir Parapluie''), Philip Glass, Ian McKellen (''Dance of Death''), Batsheva Dance Company,

National Theatre of Scotland The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...

(''

Black Watch The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...

'', ''Aalst''), Christopher Wheeldon Company, All Tomorrow's Parties, Al Green, Katona Jozsef Theatre, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, The National, Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom. A survey of 1,500 attendees conducted during the 2011 festival revealed that patrons mainly live in

Greater Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

(83%), with approximately 11,500 visitors from interstate and overseas attending festival events. Not without controversy, the festival has faced challenges with profitability in its early years and was subject to a riot at a New Year's Eve concert at Sydney Opera House in 1980, when 68 people were arrested and 150 were taken to hospital; and criticism about the festival's artistic credibility.

Sydney Festival Program

The Festival's inclusive programming, broad range of free events and accessible pricing policies for the ticketed shows means that Sydney Festival is open to all. Within the program there is always a group of shows - all about an hour long - with $35 tickets. Tickets to all performances are available on the day for only $25 at the Tix for Next to Nix booth in Martin Place in the heart of Sydney's CBD. From 2008-2012, the Festival's free opening event was Festival First Night, attracting approximately 200,000 people into the city centre. Sydney Festival program highlights include Schaubuhne Berlin's ''Hamlet'', Headlong's ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'', Peter Sellars' ''Oedipus Rex & Symphony of Psalms'', 43 Rajastani musicians in ''The Manganiyar Seduction'', Al Green, Fabulous Beast's ''Giselle'' and ''Rian'', John Cale, Grizzly Bear, Grace Jones, Laura Marling, James Thiérrée, Björk, Patrick Watson, Manu Chao, David Byrne, Herrenhausen's fashion opera ''Semele Walk'' with costumes by Vivienne Westwood, Sasha Waltz' ''Dido and Aeneas'', Antony; and many more. Sydney Festival has a strong tradition of creating opportunities for Australian artists, with 23 world premières of new Australian work across the 2013 and 2014 Festivals. The free program for Sydney Festival includes concerts in The Domain or Parramatta, such as the outdoor concert by Indian superstar

AR Rahman Ar-Rahman ( ar, الرحمان, ; The Merciful) is the 55th Chapter (''Surah'') of the Qur'an, with 78 verses ('' āyāt''). The title of the surah, Ar-Rahman, appears in verse 1 and means "The Most Beneficent". The divine appellation "ar-R ...

(with an audience of 50,000 people) in 2010, and the much-loved annual Ferrython with four Sydney ferries racing around Sydney Harbour. The Festival's late night venues, both presenting contemporary music, are the Festival Paradiso Bar and Festival Village in Hyde Park with the latter hosting The Famous Spiegeltent, a traditional European wooden dance hall. As a part of corporate responsibility, the festival has a Reconciliation Action Plan which envisages engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities to positively contribute towards closing the gap between Indigenous and other Australians.

Boycott

In May 2020, Sydney Festival received $20,000 sponsorship from the Israeli Embassy to support Sydney Dance Company production of Decadence, created by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin and Tel Aviv's Batsheva Dance Company. The Sydney Festival listed Israel as a "star partner" on the festival website. A coalition of anti-apartheid advocates and organisations met with Sydney Festival in late 2021 to request the removal of Israel as a star partner of the event, which the festival refused. In December 2021, the Palestine Justice Movement Sydney announced a boycott of the 2022 Sydney Festival, urging "artists who oppose apartheid to withdraw their participation from the festival", for "all members of the public who oppose apartheid to not attend Festival events" and for "Festival board members who oppose apartheid to resign from the board". The boycott is consistent with global movement Boycott Divestment and Sanctions that aims to use economic sanctions to end Israel's oppression of Palestinians. By the start of the festival, more than 25 acts had pulled out, including comedian

Tom Ballard Thomas Colin Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. Early life Ballard was born to parents Judy and Neil Ballard and grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. He attended Brauer Secondary Colle ...

Nazeem Hussain Nazeem Hussain (born 21 April 1985) is an Australian comedian, actor, television and radio presenter. He is best known as creator and star of two television comedy shows, ''Legally Brown'' (2013-14) and ''Orange Is the New Brown'' (2018). His ...

, the

Belvoir Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Since 2016 and its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre contains a 330-seat Upstairs Theatre and a 80-seat D ...

production of Black Brass, First Nations dance company Marrugeku, Arab Theatre Studio, and Bankstown Poetry Slam.

Festival Directors

References

External links

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Sydney Festival
' – Official Website (News, updates, features, and "Interact" online community

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