Festival Director: Brett Sheehy

The 2002 Festival opened with a free theatrical performance by the internationally acclaimed Transe Express on the Sydney Opera House forecourt, followed by projected lighting of the majestic colonial buildings starting with Customs House, created by Electric Canvas in a Festival commission.

The Festival expanded its reach into the Fox Studios precinct, and beautiful aerial ballet courtesy of Les Arts Sauts was staged out of The Domain carpark.

Australian talent continued to be fostered within the program in the world premiere of Same, same But Different, a contemporary work by Kate Champion and her new company Force Majeure, commissioned by Sydney Festival and Melbourne Festival. Two-Up!, a Festival initiative for independent theatre companies was launched, the program included ATM, a play written by Brendan Cowell and directed by Leland Kean. The Festival also commissioned the Marrugeku Company in Crying Baby, in association with Perth Festival.

It wasn’t just Australian festival collaborators that helped facilitate new projects, The Angel Exchange saw the Festival team up with the prestigious UK Cheltenham International Festival of Music for a series of chamber concerts at City Recital Hall, Angel Place.

In other international entertainment, a three-part celebration of the art of David Byrne was an Australian premiere event. This included Byrne live in concert, an outdoor gallery of Byrne’s lightbox images, and the artist in conversation.

For Festival attendees looking for something to do between performances, the Bacardi Latino Festival was in full swing at Darling Harbour, and the Hahn Premium Festival Bar launched in the Hyde Park Barracks.

THEATRE

The Flood Drummers
Written by Hélène Cixous
Directed by Ariane Mnouchkine
Music by Jean-Jacques Lemêtre
Théâtre du Soleil

ØBS
La Fura dels Baus

Kayassine
Les Arts Sauts

Shadows
William Yang

Two-Up!: 360 Positions in a One Night Stand
Written by Ben Ellis, Veronica Gleeson, Nick Marchand, Tommy Murphy and Emma Vuletic
Directed by Chris Mead
Kicking and Screaming

Two-Up!: ATM
Written by Brendan Cowell
Directed by Leland Kean
Roguestar

Mad Bad & Spooky
By Beatrix Christian
Kim Carpenter's Theatre Of Image

Bell Malouf Euripides: Hippolytus
The Bell Shakespeare Company

Kinderspiel - Out of Bounds
Australian Theatre for Young People, Carrousel Theater an der Parkaue of Berlin

DANCE

Same, same But Different
Devised and directed by Kate Champion
Force Majeure

Hotel Central
Claude Brumachon and the Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes

Crying Baby
Marrugeku Company

MUSIC

Symphony In The Domain
Sydney Symphony
Conductor: Alasdair Neale
Soloist: David Tong

The Angel Exchange
Soprano: Leanne Kenneally
Piano: Julius Drake
Sydney Soloists: Alison Mitchell (flute), Francesco Celata (clarinet), David Periera (cello)

The Angel Exchange: Belcea Quartet

The Angel Exchange: Belcea Quartet, Australian String Quartet

The Angel Exchange
Oboe: Nicholas Daniel
Reader: David Malouf
Sydney Soloists: Michael Dauth (violin), David Periera (cello), Francesco Celata (clarinet), David Bollard (piano)

The Angel Exchange
Oboe: Nicholas Daniel
Piano: Julius Drake
Percussion: Tim Constable

The Angel Exchange: Sydney Soloists
Violin: Michael Dauth, Fiona Zeigler
Viola: Esther van Stralen
Cello: David Pereira
Clarinet: Francesco Celata

Hahn Premium Festival Bar
Herbert, Shooglenifty, Joe Camilleri and the Revelators, David Lane, The Catholics, The Hive, Big Drum Up

Jazz On The Water

Battleship Potemkin
Sydney Symphony
Conductor: Alasdair Neale
Film by Sergei Eisenstein
Music by Dmitri Shostakovich

Bacardi Latino Festival
Ricardo Lemvo, Makina Loca, King Chango, Club Salsa

David Byrne: Live In Concert

Gong Myoung

Jazz In The Domain
Sydney Festival Jazz Orchestra, led by Maria Schneider

Mingus Big Band

Testimony: The Legend Of Charlie Parker
Australian Art Orchestra
Director: Nigel Jamieson

The Celestial Bells
Transe Express

The Michael Nyman Band

Vitale Salinas & Friends

FILM

Who Weekly OpenAir Cinema

An Evening With Len Lye

TALKS

Choreographers' Forum
Kate Champion, Claude Brumachon

Composers' Forum
Michael Berkeley, Peter Sculthorpe

Crtics' Forum
Deborah Jones

Directors' Forum
Ariane Mnouchkine

DJ's Forum
Matthew Herbert

Public Art and Advertising
David Byrne

Shiro Matsui's Forum
Shiro Matsui

An Evening With Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig

EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS

Buddha: Past, Present, Future

Neo-Tokyo: Japanese art now

Stranger Than Truth

Akira Isogawa

Deep Water/Aqua Profunda
Lyndal Jones

parascope
Shiro Matsui

The New Sins
David Byrne

Neon Colonial
Electric Canvas

Leunig Animated
Michael Leunig

On Location: Sydney

Spinning Around: 50 Years Of Festival Records

CELEBRATIONS

Australia Day Harbour Parade

Australia Day Picnics

Australia Day Spectacular

Buddhist Blessings in the Domain

Darling Harbour Celebrations

St George Bank Hyde Park and Eastside Celebrations

SPORT

Coca Cola Amatil Ferrython

NRMA Motorfest