Sydney Festival

Last updated

Sydney Festival
Sydney Festival logo.png
Symphony in the Domain 2007.jpg
Part of the Sydney Festival, Symphony in the Domain , pictured in 2007
Genre Major arts, theatre, music and cultural festival
BeginsSecond week of January
EndsFinal week of January
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s) Greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Years active47
Inaugurated1977
Participants964 artists (2019) [1]
Attendance365,000 to free events (2019) [1]
107,000 to ticketed events (2019) [1]
Patron(s) Margaret Beazley
Website www.sydneyfestival.org.au

Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney 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 and classical music, dance, circus, drama, visual arts 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. [2]

Contents

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. 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. [3]

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. 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. [4]

For three weeks, the festival offers a program of more than 330 performances and 100 events involving 900 artists from 17 countries, [2] 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 and venues at Sydney Opera House and in Parramatta, as well as community halls, parks and the city streets themselves.

Andre de Ridder at the Sydney Festival Symphony in the Domain 40th Birthday concert in 2016 Andre de Ridder at Sydney Festival.jpg
André de Ridder at the Sydney Festival Symphony in the Domain 40th Birthday concert in 2016

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, [2] a decrease from peaks of 80,000 people during earlier years.[ citation needed ] At its peak, it is estimated that the festival attracted 1.5 million people. [4]

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, 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 ( Black Watch , 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 (83%), with approximately 11,500 visitors from interstate and overseas attending festival events. [2]

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. [4]

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. [2]

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. [5]

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 (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. [6]

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. [7] The Sydney Festival listed Israel as a "star partner" on the festival website. [8] 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. [9]

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". [10] [11] The boycott is consistent with global movement Boycott Divestment and Sanctions that aims to use economic sanctions to end Israel's oppression of Palestinians. [12]

By the start of the festival, more than 25 acts had pulled out, [9] including comedian Tom Ballard, Nazeem Hussain, the Belvoir Theatre production of Black Brass, First Nations dance company Marrugeku, [7] Arab Theatre Studio, and Bankstown Poetry Slam. [13]

Festival Directors

DirectorYears activeCountry of originNotes
Stephen Hall1977–1994AustralianAppointed in November 1975, initially as executive director and later as general manager. [3]
Hall's contract was terminated three days short of his 18th festival after the 1994 festival suffered a loss of about $500,000, the biggest in its history. [4]
Anthony Steel 1995–1997Australian
Leo Schofield 1998–2001AustralianSchofield's tenure included overlap as artistic director of the arts festival associated with the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2000 Summer Paralympics
Brett Sheehy 2002–2005AustralianSheehy went on to be appointed artistic director of the Adelaide Festival from 2006 to 2008, followed by the Melbourne Festival from 2009 to 2012.
Fergus Linehan [14] 2006–2009 Irish
Lindy Hume [15] 2010–2012Australian
Lieven Bertels [16] 2013–2016 Belgian After his successful first Sydney Festival in 2013, Bertels' contract got extended to include the 2016 festival, the 40th anniversary edition.
Wesley Enoch 2017–2021AustralianPlaywright and artistic director who had previously directed six projects for Sydney Festival, [17] Enoch brought fresh perspectives by Indigenous Australian artists and performers to the festival. [18] [19]
Olivia Ansell2021–presentAustralianWithin the first six months of her appointment, Sydney Festival received $20,000 sponsorship from the Israeli Embassy which resulted in a boycott of Ansell's debut festival in 2022 [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera Australia</span> Principal opera company in Australia

Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent at the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, Victoria, attended by more than 294,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Sydney</span> Overview of cultures in Sydney, Australia

The cultural life of Sydney is dynamic and multicultural. Many of the individual cultures that make up the Sydney mosaic are centred on the cultural, artistic, ethnic, linguistic and religious communities formed by waves of immigration. Sydney is a major global city with a vibrant scene of musical, theatrical, visual, literary and other artistic activity.

The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is Australia’s Biggest Arts Festival and is the world's second-largest annual arts festival, held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, it features more than 7,000 artists from around Australia and the world. Over 1,300 events are staged in hundreds of venues, which include work in a huge variety of performing and visual art forms. The Fringe features many free events occur alongside ticketed events for the duration of the festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Festival</span> Cultural event in Australia

The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural event in Australia.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Festival in 1932, Cannes Film Festival in 1939 and Berlin Film Festival in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perth Festival</span> Australias longest-running cultural festival

Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, performance, literature and ideas, visual arts, large-scale public works. The main events of the festival take place every year, from February to March and the film program now known as Lotterywest Films runs from November to April, as part of the Perth Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Festival Centre</span> Theatre and enterainment precinct

Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first capital city multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the 1970s, designed by Hassell Architects. Located on Kaurna Yarta, the Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 with the rest of the centre following soon after. The complex includes Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre and several gallery and function spaces. Located approximately 50 metres (160 ft) north of the corner of North Terrace and King William Road, lying near the banks of the River Torrens and adjacent to Elder Park, it is distinguished by its two white geometric dome roofs, and lies on a 45-degree angle to the city's grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Australia</span> Overview of theatre in Australia

Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.

PolArt is an arts festival that celebrates the Polish cultural heritage of Polish Australians and New Zealanders by presenting the Polish arts. The festival is held every three years in a different state capital in Australia with the first being held in 1975. Events that take place during PolArt cover the artistic disciplines of dance, literature, music, theatre and visual arts. Wellington hosts the next PolArt Festival, commencing 2025.

The National Black Theatre (NBT) was a theatre company run by a small group of Aboriginal people based in the Sydney suburb of Redfern which operated from 1972 to 1977. The original concept for the theatre grew out of political struggles, especially the land rights demonstrations, which at the time were being organised by the Black Moratorium Committee. The centre held workshops in modern dancing, tribal dancing, writing for theatre, karate and photography, and provided a venue for new Aboriginal drama. It also ran drama classes under Brian Syron, whose students included Jack Davis, Freddie Reynolds, Maureen Watson, Lillian Crombie, and Hyllus Maris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival</span> Fringe festival in Orlando

The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival is a 14-day annual arts festival that takes place in Orlando, Florida, every May. The festival features 850 ticketed theatrical performances on indoor and outdoor stages, produced by local, national and international artists. It is an open access performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance.

Peats Ridge Festival was an Australian sustainable arts and music festival, held in Glenworth Valley, Peats Ridge, one hour's drive north of Sydney and a 90-minute drive from Newcastle, New South Wales. Established in 2004, one year after the death of the founder of the Glenworth Valley Horse Riding facility, the Festival was recognised as one of the world's leading sustainability events. It ran for three days around New Year's Eve, from 29 December to 1 January. The event organisers relied heavily on volunteer support, and volunteer service was rewarded with a free ticket. That type of employment strategy was one of many of the sustainable options chosen by the organisers of the festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seymour Centre</span> Performing arts centre at the University of Sydney

The Seymour Centre is a multi-purpose performing arts centre within the University of Sydney in the Australian city of Sydney. It is located on the corner of City Road and Cleveland Street in Chippendale, south-west of the city centre, in the City of Sydney local government area.

Israeli Australians refers to Australian citizens or permanent residents who are fully or partially of Israeli descent. The population colloquially refer to themselves as Ausraelis.

Fringe World, or Fringe World Festival, is an annual multi-arts fringe festival held in Perth, Western Australia during the city's summer festival season of January/February. The annual program of events features artists and acts from a range of styles including circus, cabaret, comedy, music, dance, theatre, film and visual art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carriageworks</span> Multi-purpose arts venue in Sydney

Carriageworks is a multi-arts urban cultural precinct located at the former Eveleigh Railway Workshops in Redfern, Sydney, Australia. Carriageworks showcases contemporary art and performing arts, as well as being used for filming, festivals, fairs and commercial exhibitions. The largest such venue in Australia, it is a cultural facility of the NSW Government, and receives support from Create NSW and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts. The centre has commissioned new work by Australian and international artists, and has been home to eight theatre, dance and film companies, including Performance Space, Sydney Chamber Opera and Moogahlin Performing Arts, and a weekly farmers' market has operated there for many years.

Culturescapes is a multidisciplinary Swiss arts festival devoted to inter-cultural exchange. The festival, which takes place in autumn, showcases the cultural landscape of a different region, nation or city. Although based in Basel the festival extends to many other places in Switzerland, such as Aarau, Bern, Chur, Zurich, Geneva or Bellinzona. Founded in the year 2002, the festival mainly focussed on Eastern European countries at the beginning. However, with festival editions devoted to countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan, China or Israel the festival gradually expanded its scope. To mark its tenth anniversary in 2012 Culturescapes focussed on Moscow, for the first time placing the topography of a city at the centre of the festival. The 2013 Balkans festival edition highlighted not only a country but an entire cultural region. 2015 Iceland was presented. At the same time was also announced that in the future the festival will take place in the biennial rhythm. The next two editions took place in 2017 with a focus on Greece and in 2019 with a focus on Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brett Sheehy</span>

Brett Joseph Sheehy AO is an Australian artistic director, producer and curator. He is currently the CEO of the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). He was also appointed to direct three of the five international arts festivals in Australia's State capital cities, namely: Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Melbourne Festival.

Lieven Bertels is a Belgian musicologist, curator and impresario.

Message Sticks Festival, also known for some time as Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival, was an arts festival celebrating the culture of Aboriginal Australians, based at the Sydney Opera House, between 1999 and 2013. It focused on film for several years, but music, theatre and dance were also showcased. The festival was succeeded by Homeground in 2014.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Annual Review". Sydney Festival Limited. 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Annual Review". Sydney Festival Limited. 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Sydney Festival Correspondence Files". City of Sydney Archives. Retrieved 15 February 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. 1 2 3 4 Verghis, Sharon (8 January 2005). "Arts and soul". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  5. "Features: Sydney Festival". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. 28 December 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2009.[ dead link ]
  6. "Corporate Responsibility(sic)". Sydney Festival.
  7. 1 2 3 "Sydney festival boycott: more than 20 acts withdraw over Israeli funding". the Guardian. 4 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  8. "Dozens of acts cancel Sydney Festival performances over $20,000 donation from Israeli embassy". ABC News. 6 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  9. 1 2 "Performers have been boycotting this month's Sydney Festival. Here's why". SBS News. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  10. "Arts organisations pull out of Sydney festival in protest at Israeli embassy sponsorship". the Guardian. 23 December 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  11. @palestinerising (22 December 2021). "Register" (Tweet). Retrieved 29 July 2023 via Twitter.
  12. "BDS Movement". BDS Movement. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  13. Maddox, Garry (5 January 2022). "Escalating boycott over Israeli embassy funding disrupts 23 shows at Sydney Festival". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  14. Meacham, Steve (6 January 2007). "Fergus Linehan - the face of Sydney Festival". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  15. Fortescue, Elizabeth; Downie, Stephen (13 June 2008). "Lindy Hume takes Fergus Linehan's job at Sydney Festival". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  16. "New Director for Sydney Festival 2013-15". Sydney Festival. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  17. "Wesley Enoch next sydney festival director". Sydney Festival. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  18. "Festival Director". Sydney Festival. 29 March 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  19. Enoch, Wesley (4 February 2021). "That's a wrap on SydFest 2021". Sydney Festival. Retrieved 24 June 2021.