Pictured: Tropfest.

Pictured: The Daptones Super Soul Revue.

Sydney Festival time is upon us once again and this year the festival passed on its usual “Festival First Night” branding and introduced us to “Day One: An Opening in Three Acts”, which was a rather artistic way of telling us there would be three events happening in the Sydney CBD on the first day of Sydney Festival 2013. Though a much more downscaled approach to things (with the exception of rubber ducks), especially from the music point of view, the event felt just as big as ever, culminating in a huge party in the Domain.

Ah, Field Day; the party that started the shift in New Years Day reveling returns for another year to claim its mantle. Now in its 11th year, it’s amazing to see how the festival has grown through trends and now a whole new generation of partiers. Fluro, Nu Rave, Breaks, Dubstep – even the garage rock fad; every trend over the last decade has seen its fair share of the Domain’s green field.

Pictured: The Vaccines.

Pictured: Blondie.

Pictured: Tim Rogers.

Homebake 2012 was one of the most pleasant and courteous festival experiences I have ever had. Strange to describe it as courteous, sure, but crowd atmosphere is a big thing for me and this 'Global Edition' of Homebake held exactly that for its punters. Perhaps because the smaller turnout meant more grass area (suits me) or that the crowd seemed older... either way, the 'Global' aspect was definitely upheld by the fact that every single world cuisine was available, as well as of course the fact that from-the-other-side-of-the-globe Blondie was headlining; much of the assumed reason for an older crowd.

In the first of our 2012 backstage at Homebake series, Larry catches up with Husky and Gideon from Husky to talk about the year past (which included no less than five trips to America!) and the year ahead... which looks to include the recording of their next album!

Want to start your 2013 off with a bang? Sydney is going to be holding one hell of a party when Field Day hosts some epic artists on New Year's Day! With more acts to be announced the Field Day line up looks set to bring some of the best in indie, dance and pop music to The Domain in 2013.

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB
TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS
DJANGO DJANGO
THE VACCINES
MARK RONSON (DJ Set)
COOLIO

As the rain poured and the lightning could be seen in the distance, the winners of the 20th Anniversary of Tropfest were announced by an impressive group of judges that included Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Toni Collette.

Winning the competition was "Lemonade Stand", by Director Alethea Jones of Melbourne.

Under threatening grey skies, Sydneysiders flocked back to The Domain for the latest in Sydney Festival's free concert series. Tonight drew more members of the rock community with vocal extraordinaire Mike Patton's (Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk to name a few) latest offering Mondo Cane: an ensemble including a twenty five piece orchestra performing Italian pop songs of the 1950 and 60s. While many of the crowd probably never listened to the album released in the later half of last year, you never miss an opportunity to see Mike Patton perform.

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.