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Sydney Festival has announced the 2012 program for its next annual three-week celebration, January 7-29.
Sydney Festival is an explosion of exceptional theatre, dance, music, exhibitions, film and talks that takes over the city, celebrating uniquely Australian work as well as welcoming companies from all over the world. The Festival prides itself on its free large-scale outdoor events including concerts and performances and even a ferry race on Sydney’s iconic harbour.
NSW Premier and Minister for Western Sydney Barry O’Farrell said, “Sydney Festival will create a welcoming and unique global atmosphere that will showcase our beautiful city through a feast of world class performances in theatre, music, dance and visual arts,” Mr O’Farrell said.
“Whether it’s in Campbelltown or Chippendale, Parramatta or Walsh Bay, I urge Sydneysiders and visitors alike to take advantage of all the Sydney Festival has to offer.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP, Chair of Sydney Festival said, “Sydney Festival is one of our most loved events and sets the tone for summer in the city. The Festival makes it easy for Sydneysiders to experience the best performing, visual and experimental arts that Australia and the world have to offer.
“Festivals and other events contribute to our local economy – they encourage people to stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, visit our top attractions, shop and enjoy all our City has to offer.” Ms Moore said.
Festival Director Lindy Hume said, “Our festival exists, in part, to hold a mirror up to our city each year. As Sydney looks to its future, so must we. The 2012 Sydney Festival looks toward the horizon with a truly global summertime celebration of our shared humanity, of Australian innovation and of two dynamic communities with the potential to shape our city's future cultural identity: Sydney's second CBD, Parramatta and Redfern – Australia's ‘black capital’.
“Sydney's summertime lustre makes our city the ideal showcase for the world's great artists. In 2012 we welcome back to our global gathering some important world names who we know are favourites in Sydney, as well as many wonderful global artists and companies performing for the first time in Australia at Sydney Festival.” Ms Hume said.
The 2012 Festival is Director Lindy Hume’s final of three Festivals, and looks both near and far, celebrating uniquely Australian work as well as welcoming companies from all over the world. Sydney Festival opens with one of Australia’s largest free outdoor events – Festival First Night, an extravaganza that invites everyone to experience Sydney in spectacular and surprising new ways.
Proving the bold claim that Sydney Festival is the most wonderful summer festival in the world is a cinch when one considers Sydney's allure and charisma as the ideal showcase for the world's great artists. In 2012, Sydney Festival welcomes back some important world names who are favourites of Sydney audiences – choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, legendary theatre director Declan Donnellan, the acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland, two-time Mercury Prize winner PJ Harvey, and versatile singer Mike Patton. And of course, the Festival always prides itself on the many wonderful global artists and companies performing for the first time in Australia. This year, debut performances include a tale of the beauty hidden within French mediocrity, and the fate of Cairo’s muezzins, the men who call the city to prayer every morning.
Sydney Festival 2012 also celebrates Sydney’s unique history and potential with Black Capital, a series of performances, seminars and exhibitions reflecting Sydney's diverse contemporary Indigenous culture in Carriageworks in the heart of Redfern. The centrepiece of Black Capital is a new work, I Am Eora, a theatre/music/film event that tells the stories of Sydney's Aboriginal cultural continuity, celebrating its heroes and embracing the sacred heart of our city. Close to fifty Aboriginal musicians, performers and creative artists from across the country will come together for one of the most thrilling collaborations ever commissioned by Sydney Festival.
For 2012, supplementary funding from the State Government, matched by an increased commitment by Parramatta City Council, has enabled Sydney Festival to significantly expand its program in Parramatta as the focus of its activities in Western Sydney. Building on Sydney Festival’s commitment to presenting work in Western Sydney since 2003, this increased funding facilitated the Festival to present this comprehensive ten-day Festival of free and ticketed events.
This newest addition to the Festival’s program, Sydney Festival Parramatta, will be staged in the true heart of Sydney’s burgeoning population. A feast for everyone, with free opening and closing events, the program also includes a whole host of music, theatre and cabaret in Riverside Theatres and Sydney’s newest venue, the very gorgeous Idolize Spiegeltent in Prince Alfred Park.
And in celebration of Australia’s strong creative spirit, the Festival has a whole host of Australian innovators including Gideon Obarzanek, Kate Champion, William Yang, Wesley Enoch, Urban Theatre Projects, Meow Meow, Martin del Amo, architecture students from The University of Sydney and many more.
All this, and so much more, makes Sydney Festival the most wonderful summer festival in the world.
The Program for 2012:
41 Strings by Nick Zinner
January 22 - 5.30pm and 8.30pm - Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
AA Bondy
January 19-20, The Idolize Spiegeltent
Adam Buxton presents BUG: The Evolution of Music Video
January 26 - 29, Everest Theatre at Seymour Centre
Amiina
January 27, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre
January 24-26, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Animagica
January 27, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre
January 24-25, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Asa & Fefe (Parramatta)
January 17, Riverside Theatres
Assembly
January 11-14, City Recital Hall Angel Place
Beth Orton
January 17-18, City Recital Hall Angel Place
Black Capital Family and Culture Day
January 8, Carriageworks
CANT
January 14-15, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes
January 13, The Idolize Spiegeltent
Dan Deacon Ensemble & John Maus – Keystone Festival Bar
January 11, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Dan Sultan & Busby Marou with special guest Kasey Chambers
January 21, Old King’s School Site
Deerhoof and DJ Yamantaka Eye (The Boredoms) – Keystone Festival Bar
January 9, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Ed Kuepper
January 21-22, The Idolize Spiegeltent
Eleanor Friedberger
January 28-29, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Fatoumata Diawara (Parramatta)
January 17-18,The Idolize Spiegeltent
January 20-21,The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
January 22,Sutherland Entertainment Centre
Frank Yamma
January 15, The Idolize Spiegeltent
Future Classic: DJ Koze & Prins Thomas – Keystone Festival Bar
January 28, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Holly Throsby presents See!
January 12-13, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
I Am Eora
January 8-14, Carriageworks
iOTA: Young, Hard and Solo
January 17-21, Sydney Opera House
J Mascis
January 11-13, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau Duo (Chatswood)
January 19, The Concourse Chatswood
January 20, City Recital Hall Angel Place
Julianna Barwick
January 15-17, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
KORT (City)
January 20, City Recital Hall Angel Place
January 19, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Kurt Wagner
January 22, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Lambchop
January 21, City Recital Hall Angel Place
Mad Racket: Peven Everett – Keystone Festival Bar
January 25,Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl
January 5-29,The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane
January 16-17, State Theatre
Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro and Electric Empire – Keystone Festival Bar
January 8,Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Parra Opening Party
January 14, Parramatta CBD
Picnic: Andrew Weatherall & Neville Watson – Keystone Festival Bar
January 14, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
PJ Harvey
January 18-19,State Theatre
Sam Amidon
January 21-22, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Shabazz Palaces, Taylor McFerrin & Shangaan Electro: FBi Night – Keystone Festival Bar
January 13, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
So Frenchy So Chic: Asa & Fefe – Keystone Festival Bar
January 18, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
January 19, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Sons and Daughters, Songs & The Laurels – Keystone Festival Bar
January 12, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Summer Sounds in The Domain: Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane
January 14,The Domain
Symphony in The Domain: The Young Ones
January 21, The Domain
Taraf de Haidouks & Kocani Orkestar – Band Of Gypsies (Chatswood)
January 13, The Concour
January 12,Enmore Theatre
The Jolly Boys (Penrith)
January 6, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre
January 8-10,The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
The Pedrito Martinez Group & Watussi – Keystone Festival Bar
January 26, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
The Stepkids & Electric Wire Hustle – Keystone Festival Bar
January 27, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
The Whitest Boy Alive & New Navy – Keystone Festival Bar
January 21, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Tubular Bells for Two (Inner West)
January 10-15, Seymour Centre
Tubular Bells for Two (Parramatta)
January 18-22, Riverside Theatres
Tune-Yards & Jonti: FBi Night – Keystone Festival Bar
January 20, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Keystone Festival Bar
Tune-Yards (Spiegeltent)
January 18, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Vintage Trouble
January 27-29, The Famous Spiegeltent, Honda Festival Garden
Walk a Mile in My Shoes
January 8-11, Carriageworks
Washington presents Insomnia
January 25,Sydney Opera House
West Side Story
January 27-28, Sydney Opera House
