Festival of Sydney.html



Symphony in the Domain

Sydney Festival is Australia's largest and most attended annual cultural event running every January since it was first held in 1977. Its program features more than 50 events including classical and contemporary music, dance, circus, drama, visual arts and public lectures. Its indoor and outdoor presentations attract an estimated 1 million people annually.

History

Sydney Festival was originally conceived by the Sydney Committee, the NSW State Government and the City of Sydney with a view to attracting people into the city centre during the holiday month of January.

The first Festival took place in 1977 and it has since grown to become one of Australia's largest annual cultural celebrations with an international reputation for modern programming. In many ways it is probably still best understood as a celebration of Sydney and what the city has to offer.

For three weeks each January the Festival offers a program of around 80 events involving upwards of 500 artists from Australia and abroad covering dance, theatre, music, visual arts, cross media and forums. In any given year, it makes use of most of the main theatres across the city including Sydney Theatre, CarriageWorks, City Recital Hall and venues at the Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Festival also presents a number of free outdoor events such as the long-running Festival in the Domain with Jazz and Symphony concerts, each attracting up to 100, 000 people. In 2008 the Festival introduced a new opening event, Festival First Night, for which people are invited to take to the streets to enjoy a large-scale celebration of music and performance. In its inaugural year, Festival First Night attracted 200, 000 people into the heart of the city.

The Festival has a history of presenting Australian premieres and many of Australia's most memorable productions such as Cloudstreet 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 (Far Side of the Moon and The Andersen Project), George Piper Dances, Netherlands Dance Theatre, James Thiérrée, Philip Glass, Ian McKellen (Dance of Death), the Batsheva Dance Company and the National Theatre of Scotland (Black Watch and Aalst).

Sydney Festival attracts a total audience of approximately 1 million across all of its events each year making it the most attended cultural event in Australia.

2009 Sydney Festival

The 2009 Sydney Festival program launched to the public on November 5, 2008. The program introduces a wide range of creative talents making their Sydney debuts, as well as welcoming back some previous Festival acts. This year’s lime green theme colour will flood the city during the Festival. The Festival program offers Robert Lepage, with his latest show, Lipsynch; Barrie Kosky’s retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic, The Tell-Tale Heart; the Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s No Dice; experiential theatre with The Smile Off Your Face; the poster face of the Festival, Reggie Watts; and life reflections with Kristin Hersh’s Paradoxical Undressing.

Sydney Opera House will host Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, performing their songs from the film Once; traditional Irish music with Masters of Tradition; Matthew Herbert’s Big Band and a production from Hungary’s Katona József Theatre of Chekhov’s first produced play, Ivanov.

Mikhail Rudy and Misha Alperin play dual pianos in Double Dream; Balkan gypsy musicians, Fanfare Ciocărlia & Special Guests, will perform at the State Theatre; and the Australian debut of French singer Camille, indie-folk artist Bon Iver and the UK’s The Cinematic Orchestra.

The Beck’s Festival Bar and Samsung Mobile Festival Garden are also back. This year the Garden plays host to The Famous Speigeltent and the Bosco Theater.

The Tix for Next to Nix program is back, offering $25 tickets to all shows in the program on the day of the performance.

Festival Directors

The 2009 program will be Fergus Linehan's fourth and final as Festival Director and Chief Executive. His successor for the 2010-12 Festivals is Lindy Hume. Previous directors were:

• Brett Sheehy: 2002 -2005
• Leo Schofield: 1998 – 2001
• Anthony Steel: 1995 -1997
• Stephen Hall: 1977 - 1994

External links

• The official Sydney Festival website
• The Sydney Festival Blog Site
• Sydney Festival 2009 - news & events

Sources

• Sydney Festival - Feature from Daily Telegraph