From giant seagulls to ancient Cambodian circus mastery, from late night martini-fuelled burlesque to turbo-charged jazz, First Nations song gatherings, Celtic AI opera, Kate Bush rapture, snaking inflatable neon and “kidult” comedy, the 2024 Sydney Festival’s smorgasbord of theatre, dance, opera, art, comedy and music ticks every summer taste. Here’s our cheat’s guide to some of the highlights whatever your tastes are.
William Barton will perform original works as part of Sydney Symphony Under the Stars.
Free
Pack a picnic for Sydney Symphony Under the Stars: Pictures in the Sky, featuring didgeridoo artist William Barton, sitar musician Anoushka Shankar and guest conductor Benjamin Northey weaving the baton towards a fireworks finale. (January 20, Parramatta Park)
Invent new-wave clothing design and help save the planet at House of Fast Fashun. This workshop-performance swings a DIY-haute couture spotlight on fast fashion, textile waste and inventive reworkings of secondhand threads. Wear your designs in daily fashion parades. (January 20-21, Tumbalong Park)
Hide the hot chips from Seagulls, Snuff Puppets’ flock of giant roving birds getting their beak into your business. (January 5-14, Bondi, Tumbalong Park, The Thirsty Mile, Circular Quay)
Hear the voices and hopes of young First Nations people filling the night air in Vigil: The Future featuring the Marliya Choir from Cairns. (January 25, Stargazer Lawn, Barangaroo)
Dinosaur World Live will appeal to family festival-goers.
Family
Marvel at a moving life-size triceratops, microraptor, T. rex and more in Dinosaur World Live. (January 18-20, Riverside Theatres, $69.90 -$79.90).
Hop on the train, put on your headphones and press play to hear stories, dreams and adventures in Hive Festival: Trains by the Kids, a self-guided immersive audio journey for children between St James Station in the CBD and Blacktown station. Connect via AGNSW, Blacktown Arts Centre and Sydney Festival websites. (January 13-20, free)
Catch the two-day art, music, performance and play Hive Festival: Blacktown Arts, featuring Ngiyampaa and Guringai artist Tarni Eastwood’s traditional and contemporary weaving skills, western Sydney disability-led collective We Are Studios wearable art workshop, and live music performances including Zindzi and the Zillionaires. (January 19-20, The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, free)
Join little boy Wehea and his rhinoceros beetle friend in A Bucket of Beetles, Indonesia’s acclaimed Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s all-ages tale of nature’s fragility and grandeur. (January 9-13, Seymour Centre, $29-$49)
Make like an eight-limbed mollusc at interactive children’s exhibition Octopus Garden (Until February 5, Australian National Maritime Museum, $25)
Try circus tricks at Camp Culture, award-winning Kamilaroi man and circus artist Dale Woodbridge-Brown’s fun interactive show for kids aged six and over. (January 12-14, Seymour Centre, $35)
British sculptor Michael Shaw with his Sydney Festival work, Hi-Vis.Credit: Steven Siewert
Visual Arts
British sculptor Michael Shaw’s twisting, breathing, neon inflatable Hi-Vis snakes langorously through impossible spaces until night-time, when it glows in the dark. (January 5-28, Moonshine Bar, free)
Discover what happens when AI, opera and Celtic dream-theatre merge in Katy B Plummer’s Margaret and the Grey Mare, a sprawling immersive video weaving 21st century technology with the year 1630. (Until April 28, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, free)
The Listies.
Comedy
Gird your laughing chops for The Listies: Make Some Noise, the finest cavalcade of silly songs, burp and fart jokes and Nutella-smearing comedy you’ll ever see. (January 3-13, Bondi Pavilion, $35)
Have a laugh thanks to the stellar line-up of comedians at the Multicultural Comedy Gala. Performers include Nazeem Hussain (SBS’s Legally Brown, Orange is the New Brown); comedy veteran George Kapiniaris (Wogs Out of Work, Fat Pizza) and Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) Best Newcomer nominee He Huang. (January 27, Riverside Theatres, $49-$69)
Catch an encore showing of Michelle Brasier’s award-winning Average Bear, about her experience living in the shadows of hereditary illness. (January 25-26, Wharf 1, $39-$79)
Feel the scorching satire of Masterclass, a chauvinist takedown of heavily wigged promotions, starring no-holds-barred performer Adrienne Truscott. (January 12-16, Sydney Opera House, $49-$69)
A performer in Dancenorth Australia’s Wayfinder.
Dance
Lose yourself in Dancenorth Australia’s Wayfinder, a joyfully cataclysmic collision of beats, bodies and bright wool, fabric and rope flinging high. (January 19-20, The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre, $49-$59)
Brazil’s Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças transform a kaleidoscope of 140 colourful blankets into creatures, characters, clothes and a heart-pounding celebration of nature and freedom in Encantado (January 5-10, Sydney Opera House, $59-$99).
Award-winning recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey and choreographer Gideon Obarzanek spark a unison of movement for dancer-choreographer Stephanie Lake and 32 members of the public in Soliloquy. (January 17, City Recital Hall, $79-$99).
Sarah-Louise Young in An Evening without Kate Bush.
Theatre
Slip on your red Wuthering Heights dress for An Evening without Kate Bush, UK singer-performer Sarah-Louise Young’s award-winning cabaret-comedy paean the queen of experimental pop. (January 18-21, Sydney Theatre Company, $59 – $99)
A wowing reflection of contemporary tensions (and palindromic titles), Are we not drawn onward to new erA is Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed’s vivid look at environmental apocalypse. (January 16-20, Roslyn Packer Theatre, $79-$109)
Palestinian artist and activist Aseel Tayah uses poetry, stories and song while cooking a four-course Arabic meal in A’amar, a celebration of connection and community. (January 25-28, Riverside Theatres, $90)
Dazzling acrobatics and heart-gripping opera fuse in Orpheus and Eurydice, an epic collaboration between circus artists Circa, Opera Australia and Opera Queensland. (January 12-31, Sydney Opera House, $49-$379)
Yuwaalaraay playwright Hannah Belanszky and Kalkadoon director Abbie-lee Lewis’ Saplings is inspired by stories from young people snagged by the youth justice system, weaving together funny and heart-wrenching tales of life interrupted. (January 24-February 4, Australian Theatre for Young People, $35)
Elenoa Rokobaro (left) stars as Nellie, with Eleanor Stankiewicz in the Sydney Festival show, Send for Nellie.Credit: Janie Barrett
Cabaret
The world premiere season of Send For Nellie, playwright Alana Valentine’s portrait of 1940/50s pioneering singer and cross-dressing cabaret artist Nellie Small, celebrates a Sydney entertainment legend who always brought down the house. (January 10-14, Wharf 1, $39-$79)
The foot-stomping, whip-cracking, sequin-soaked brains behind Smashed: The Brunch Party deliver after-dark burlesque and ever-camp satire in Smashed: The Nightcap, a juicy jamboree of circus, song and martinis. Special guests include Courtney Act, Kween Kong and Kelly Ann Doll. (January 6-27, Wharf 1, $59-$99)
Penelope Seidler will be part of the Iconic talk.Credit: Steven Siewert
Talks and Workshops
Swing your Eames chair towards Iconic, a discussion between artist Paul Davies, artist/curator/designer Liane Rossler and architect Penelope Seidler about living with mid-century modern design, part of the 14-artist exhibition Lost in Palm Springs. (January 18, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, $20)
Join the all-ages and abilities Torres Strait Culture Sharing Workshop, which is linked with storytelling and dance work Gurr Era Op, a Force Majeure and Ilbijerri Theatre Company production spurred by climate change’s effects on culture, home and identity. (Workshop January 18-19, Neilson Studio, Sydney Dance Company, $20; Gurr Era Op January 13-19, Bangarra, $65)
Courtney Barnett.
Music
Switched On: Courtney Barnett’s End of the Day is a two-part performance by the acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter, showcasing her instrumental album, End of the Day, and most-loved songs. (January 20, City Recital Hall, $79)
The internationally renowned Josh Meader Trio return home for turbocharged live modern jazz after sell-out shows in Europe. (January 11-14, The Neilson, $49-$89)
Night Songs at Coney Island, featuring Sydney Philharmonia Choirs artists, soloists Peter Coleman Wright and Cheryl Barker, a children’s ensemble and a chamber orchestra, brings music by Elgar, Stravinsky, Mahler and Poulenc to Luna Park. (January 22-25, Pier One, $110)
Enter the intimate environs of the Brett Whitely Studio Sessions for songs and stories from music artists Anoushka Shankar, Harold López-Nussa, Tim Freedman, Jo Davie, Judith Hill and Rizo. (January 6, 13, 20, 27, Surry Hills, $79)
How The Birds Got their Colours.
Circus and Physical Theatre
Inspired by a Dreamtime story, Living Sculptures: How the Birds Got their Colours is a lyrical fusion of acrobatics and dance created by Arc Circus Co and Yugambeh Aboriginal Dancers, performed on sand, grass and earth, for everyone. (January 10-14, Bondi, Manly, MCA, Royal Botanic Gardens, Parramatta Square, free)
Phare Circus, a company founded by refugees to help transform young lives in Cambodia, swirl, twirl and fly in White Gold, a riveting and affecting tale of humanity, survival and healing merging spectacular acrobatics, live music and painting and lots of rice. (January 9-21, Seymour Centre, $49-$69)
*Booking fees may need to be added to ticket prices.
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