I know it’s clichéd, but Washington truly has had an incredible couple of years. We’ve watched her transform from an adorable musical nerd playing the Oxford Arts Factory to an absolutely breathtaking artist selling out the Sydney Opera House in just two years. Her Insomnia show for Sydney Festival completely lived up to the hype surrounding it, to say the least.

DJ Creepy Uncle aka Megan Washington was the guest DJ at The Jagermeister Hunting Lodge last Friday night. Megan got the dance floor pumping to an eclectic set comprising of hits from the 70s, 80s & 90s.

The MART Gallery in Surry Hills is a little white room, tucked away amongst many residential and commercial buildings along Commonwealth Street. However on Thursday night, it was positively bustling.

The Twilights Concert Series is back again – bigger and better than ever! Zoo Twilights 2012 will kick off a series of events as part of Melbourne Zoo's 150th Anniversary Celebrations. The superb line-up of some of Australia's favourite artists amid the magical setting of the Zoo under the stars should not be missed! Whatever your musical tastes, there's something for everyone at Zoo Twilights this summer.

In our new news series, here's the latest news from the world of the arts...

In This Issue: Washington artwork to exhibit in Sydney, Sydney Dance Company announces new dancers, Strandbeest to roam Fed Square, Queens Street Stdio announces Residents, Alaska Project to present Samuel Hodge,

Sydney Festival is an iconic part of summer in Sydney – the lineup is always highly anticipated, annually delivering a variety of free and ticketed shows that prove to be extremely popular. Sydney Festival First Night is always raved about – it’s free and starts off the festival with a bang. This year was the fifth First Night and it might just have been the best one yet.

Sydney Festival is as ingrained in Sydney music culture as the Hottest 100 is to Australia Day, and every year it just gets better and better. This year the festival sticks with what's worked so well over the last few years - from Festival First Night, to the Spiegeltent and the Keystone Festival Bar (Formerly Beck's Festival Bar) - while adding in new features at Parramatta, a free "Hunting Lodge" at the Festival Garden, and the anticipated Black Capital. In our fourth consecutive year of coverage of the event, here's a look at 10 of the events - both musical and otherwise - that we can't wait for at Sydney Festival 2012.

Let's dive right into the next batch of favourite tracks of 2011, as voted by AU review contributors!

30.

We've been waiting for this one! The lineup for the Domain Stage at Festival First Night, on January 7th, launching Sydney Festival for 2012, has been announced. Manu Chao La Ventura will be appearing in Australia for the first time, headlining the event - an exclusive for Sydney Festival. Also headlining the stage will be Australia's own Washington and Gurrumul. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. Check out the full lineup here: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/firstnight

Many of you will probably have heard of this project by now, and it is certainly a remarkable proposition; Rewiggled: A Tribute to the Wiggles gathers together twenty of Australia’s most popular artists from the last ten years and has each of them tackle a song from the catalogue of the world’s most popular children’s group.

Sydney Festival has announced the 2012 program for its next annual three-week celebration, January 7-29.