American songstress Julianna Barwick is by no means a typical female singer songwriter. Rather, her spine-tingling, arrestingly beautiful compositions have an otherworldly quality to them – made even more spectacular when performed live. The Famous Spiegeltent served as the perfect venue for the musician, enhancing the magical ambience that her music evokes. Playing to a full venue, Barwick had her audience transfixed from start to finish.

From 3pm today, Sydney Festival First Night will be taking over the CBD with free performances from Manu Chao, Washington, Gurrumul, The Jolly Boys, Norman Jay, Electric Empire and dozens more. At a special media event yesterday, we got a preview as to what we can expect from the big event - including performances from Gurrumul and The Jolly Boys - here's a look now! We hope to see you out there tonight...

The media briefing for the Sydney Festival First Night featured Emmylou Harris with some of her band in an intimate performance.

It's day 5 of Sydney Festival, and the first round of artists are coming to an end. Tonight marked the final performance in the Spiegeltent of Montreal's Patrick Watson, who went on to play at Beck's Festival Bar (replacing The Middle East and supporting Grizzly Bear) for his final Sydney gig - and we were there!