Festival Director: Lieven Bertels
Sydney Festival marked 40 years as a cultural leader in our spectacular city with birthday art projects celebrating the collaborative spirit of the Festival. We infused our annual events with memories of the past and imaginings for the future, while presenting a lively program of free and ticketed events by some of the world’s great artists.
In 2016, the Festival reflected on 40 years by celebrating the diverse players it takes to make a festival. Photographer Eva Vermandel created 40 Portraits of artists, volunteers, audience members and behind-the-scenes staff, exhibited in public sites around the city. An archive of the Festival’s work was created online and 40 Moments were collated from stories shared by artists, staff and audiences.
As always, the Festival introduced Sydney audiences to artists unknown to most Australians.French artist Olivier Grossetête collaborated with Sydneysiders in our largest community participation event to date, The Ephemeral City. Switzerland’s Daniele Finzi Pasca’s take on contemporary visual circus La Verità delighted family audiences, Catalonia’s Antigua i Barbuda whose whimsical mechanical fairground Arquitectura de Feria needed all hands on deck to operate the rides.
From Belgian orchestra Anima Eterna Brugge, to South African DJ Black Coffee, Germany’s Thalia Theater Hamburg and American folk hero Michael Hurley - the Festival premiered performances from well established artists who’ve never performed in Australia.
Sold out shows across several venues characterised this year’s performance works by artists from different nations across Australia – the intimacy of backyard storytelling with Uncle Wes in Fire Bucket, the directorial feature film debut of Stephen Page’s Spear, the physical joy and documentary story of Djuki Mala, the urgency of climate change explored in Marrugeku’s Cut the Sky, the soulful songs of Kev Carmody, and the fusion of Tiwi song, dance and jazz music in Tiwi + Jazz.
ABOUT AN HOUR
+51 Aviacion San Borja
Okazaki Art Theatre, Japan
Double Blind
Stephanie Lake Company, Australia
Fall Fell Fallen
Lonely Circus, France
In Between Two
Performance 4A, Australia
O Mensch!
Sydney Chamber Opera, Australia
This Is How We Die
Christopher Brett Bailey , UK
Tomorrow's Parties
Forced Entertainment, UK
CABARET
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs!
Alan Cumming, USA
Meow Meow's Little Mermaid
Meow Meow, Australia
Songs for the Fallen
Critical Stages and Shane Anthony, Australia
The Very Worst of The Tiger Lillies
The Tiger Lillies, UK
CIRCUS
Knee Deep
Casus Circus, Australia
La Verita
Compagnia Finzi Pasca, Switzerland
What Will Have Been
Circa, Australia
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Anima Eterna Brugge Beethoven's Symphonies
Anima Eterna Brugge, Belgium
Bach and his Dutch Contemporaries
Simon Murphy and New Dutch Academy, Australia / The Netherlands
Symphony in the Domain
Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Conductor Andre de Ridder, Australia / Germany
Winterreise
William Kentridge + Matthais Goerne, South Africa / Belgium
COMEDY
The Invisible Dot Cabaret,UK
DANCE
Cut The Sky
Marrugeku Australia
Cypher
Nick Power Australia
Fase
Rosas, Belgium
Spear
Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia
Vortex Temporum
Rosas & Ictus, Belgium
EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS / FREE
40 Portraits
Eva Vermandel, UK / Belgium
El Anatsui: Five Decades
El Anatsui, Ghana
Pleasure Garden
Genevieve Lacey, Australia
Skateboarders vs Minimalism
Shaun Gladwell, Australia
The Book of Sand
Created by Michel van der Aa, The Netherlands / Australia
The Column
Adrian Paci, Albania
The Ephemeral City
Olivier Grossetête, France
The People's Tower
Olivier Grossetête, France
FAMILY
Arquitectura de Feria
Antigua I Barbuda, Catalonia
Djuki Mala
Australia
My Family's Weirder Than Your Family
Josh Earl, Australia
Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon
Arena Theatre Company and Salvador Dinosaur, Australia
Tolu
Casus Circus, Australia
MUSIC
Summer Sounds in The Domain
The Flaming Lips, USA
St Stephen's Sunday Folk
Mirel Wagner & Nadia Reid, Finland / NZ
Michael Hurley & Meg Baird, USA
Sir Richard Bishop & Daniel Bachman, USA
Arthur Russell's Instrumentals directed by Peter Gordon
Peter Gordon, Ernie Brooks, Gerry O’Beirne, Peter Zummo, Bill Ruyle, Max Gordon, Kit Fitzgerald
USA
Birdman (or, the unexpected virtue of ignorance)
Screening and Live Score
Antonio Sanchez, Mexico
Cosmic Cambodia
The Cambodian Space Project, Cambodia / Australia
Dam-Funk, USA
Dirty Three, Australia
Dreamland
Jack Ladder, Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benet, Laurence Pike
Australia
Exit Ceremonies
The Australian Art Orchestra and Ensemble Offspring, Australia
FBi SMACS
Black Coffee
Okmalumkoolkat
South Africa
Girlpool, USA
Hailu Mergia w/Tony Buck & Mike Majowski, Ethiopia / Australia
Jenny Hval, Norway
Joanna Newsom, USA
Kate Tempest, UK
Kev Carmody, Australia
Klub Koori
Gadical Information Service Redfern, Australia
Maru Tarang, Australia / India
Matthew E. White, USA
Mexrrissey: Mexico Goes Morrissey
Mexico
Outernational
Deadly Dragon Soundsystem ft. Screechy Dan & Lord Echo, Jamaica / USA / New Zealand
Reykjavik Calling
FM Belfast & Hermigervill
Iceland
Ryley Walker, USA
Secrets
Muziektheater Transparant / Claron McFadden, Belgium
Thank God It's 2016
702 ABC Sydney , Australia
The Apartments, Australia
The Blackeyed Susans, Australia
The Chills, New Zealand
The Migration
Stu Hunter, Australia
The Weather Station, Canada
Tiwi + Jazz
The Tiwi Strong Women's Group, Australia
OPERA
Opera in the Domain
Opera Australia
Passion
Soloists Elise Caluwaerts + Wiard Witholt, Sydney Chamber Opera, Directed by Pierre Audi, Revival Director Miranda Lakerveld, Conducted by Jack Symonds
Australia / The Netherlands / Belgium
The Rabbits
Opera Australia + Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Australia
TALKS
Art Festivals: The Long and Winding Road
Keynote address by Robert Wilson, USA
Artist Talk: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
Belgium
UTS Big Thinking Forums
THEATRE
All The Sex I've Ever Had
Mammalian Diving Reflex, Canada
Fire Bucket
Uncle Wes Marne, Australia
The Events
Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre + STCSA, Australia
The Object Lesson
Geoff Sobelle, USA
Woyzeck
Thalia Theater Hamburg, Germany
AUSTRALIA DAY
Ferrython
