A sneak peek at Sydney Festival 2010
A free concert from the Beethoven of Bollywood, AR Rahman, is just one of the highlights coming in January
By Millie Churcher
Summer is on the horizon and with it comes Sydney Festival, Australia's leading cultural event, which in its 33rd year is estimated to attract over a million people this coming January. Tickets go on sale from November 9.
The 21-day festival brings together some of the world's top names in performing arts and features more than 50 free and ticketed events, spanning everything from theatre, dance and circus to music and cut-price meals at some of Sydney’s finest eateries.
Although the full programme has yet to be announced, new artistic director Lindy Hume is planning to take the festival in a different direction, with an Asia-Pacific flavour and an emphasis on the fast-emerging cultural hubs of the inner west and western Sydney.
Throughout the month, the Seymour Centre at Sydney University will devote its space to a variety of artistic performances. And on January 16, Parramatta Park will be transformed into a Bollywood movie set with the king of contemporary Indian music, AR Rahman – composer of the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and seller of over 300 million albums (you read that right) – whipping crowds of up to 80,000 into a dancing frenzy.
The regular favourites are still on the itinerary too – with the popular Festival Garden at Hyde Park and the Famous Spiegeltent running alongside the Beck's Festival Bar at the Barracks, where you'll find international DJs hitting the decks.
For lovers of all things free, don't miss Festival First Night on January 9, which kicks things off with a smorgasboard of what is to come. Visionary director Nigel Jamieson will transform Sydney into an epic theatre featuring international and Australian performing artists doing their thing in parks and streets and on stages, buildings, rooftops and balconies across the city, in one huge, free street party.
The Domain series will also return with free concerts for 80,000 picnickers on Saturday 23 January for Symphony in the Domain and the following Saturday, when there will be a performance of the opera Candide set to Leonard Bernstein's score.
This year the festival will be more affordable and accessible than ever with the About an Hour series returning (one hour shows, $30 tickets) and Tix for Next to Nix (a small selection of $25 tickets available on the day for all shows happening that day, from the booth in Martin Place).
The big shows always sell out super-quickly so we're on hand to help you get organised. Time Out readers can sign up to our free special Sydney Festival e-newsletters – the first of which will be sent out at 9am on November 9 as soon as the first release of tickets go on sale – with updates about all the shows as they are announced.
Read about the Sydney Festival's music line up
