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Event Information:
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 around 80 events including
contemporary and classical music,
dance, circus, drama, visual arts
and artist talks. The festival
attracts an estimated 1 million
people to its ticketed shows and
large-scale free outdoor events.
Sydney
Festival was established 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
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. Attendees are predominantly
Sydneysiders with a growing national
and international audience.
For
three weeks the Festival offers a
program of around 300 performances
and 80 events involving more than
1000 artists from Australia and
abroad 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
20 venues including the city's main
theatre venues such as Sydney
Theatre, CarriageWorks, City Recital
Hall and venues at Sydney Opera
House, as well as community halls,
parks and the city steets
themselves.
Sydney
Festival presents a number of
large-scale free outdoor events
including the long-running Concerts
in The Domain with, each attracting
up to 80,000 people.
Since
2008 the Festival's free opening
event is Festival First Night,
attracting approximately 250,000
people into the city centre. With up
to seven stages set-up in the city's
closed streets, parks and laneways,
Festival First Night features up to
500 local and international
performers, many of who are part of
the Festvial program. Over the past
three years, performers at Festival
First Night include: Brian Wilson,
Grace Jones, Al Green, Sharon Jones
& The Dapkings, Pink Martini,
Santagold, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The
Cat Empire, The Manganiyar
Seduction, Dan Zanes & Friends,
Spanish Harlem Orchestra and many
more.
Local
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