10 Questions: Ignatius Jones, producer, 56

THE Vivid Sydney director wants to stage events that change the way the world thinks about a city.

Taking art to the streets: Vivid Sydney director Ignatius Jones. Picture: Nick Cubbin

You were born Juan Ignacio Trápaga in the Philippines to a Basque-Chinese father and a Catalan-American mother. Have you always stood out because of your exotic background?

When I arrived in Sydney 51 years ago I was the first wog most people had seen. It doesn’t help that my name sounds like a gastric condition. Today I’m more representative of the Australian culture; the Anglo-Saxon monoculture is dead.

You’re the director of Vivid Sydney, the light festival at Circular Quay. Why is it so successful?

Two big things: firstly, it is about taking art out of the museums, off the walls and onto the streets, where people can look at it, touch it, smell it, lick it if they want to. Where art can do what it’s meant to do — tell stories, open minds, bring joy, change people’s lives. Secondly, 80 per cent of Vivid is free.

You and Tony Abbott were academic competitors at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview. Who came up trumps?

Let’s just say we were the ultimate schoolboy rivals. Tony represented the far right and I represented the way-out left. I can still get a rise out of him by mumbling obscenities about the Queen. We have a drink at school reunions.

Did you start your own band straight after leaving school?

No. I studied classical ballet. My little brother Luis started a rock band and said, “You can sing.” He gave me a tape and at 16 I was singing Satisfaction. In those days I’d go on stage with long, long black hair and platform shoes. Then I joined Jimmy and the Boys. I was also working as a journalist on music magazines.

After that you started cabaret swing band Pardon Me Boys. Why did you choose music?

Music kind of chose me. Our family’s big in entertainment on both sides. I was getting light opera lessons from my aunts at age five and six. My parents wanted us to be doctors or lawyers but when your father reads you plays as bedtime stories you don’t have much chance.

Your sister Monica Trapaga is an entertainer; are your other siblings, Luis and sister Rocio, in the business?

No. They’re the sensible ones. My brother works in alternative medicine and my other sister is a senior figure in the Immigration Department.

What took you into staging events?

In ’94 I was running the big band; my day job was as a sub editor on titles such as The Picture, People and Sextra. I got a call from Ric Birch, who had just come back to Australia to run the opening of the Sydney Olympics. Baz Luhrmann had said he should call me.

You’ve staged many big events but 2002 was a standout year. Why?

Getting to direct the “opening night” of a country, East Timor [for its independence that year], is pretty special. I also had the main ceremony of the Gay Games in Sydney and my first opera, Orpheus in the Underworld, which I devised, directed and co-translated for Opera Australia.

You walk with a stick. Why?

I danced for 35 years so I have profound arthritis in the ankles and a few back issues. I’ll continue to walk with a cane — everyone needs a good affectation.

You worked on this year’s Mardi Gras; now you have Vivid Sydney. What then?

The 2015 Mardi Gras. I’m very interested in destination making, the new thing. I’ve been lucky to be one of its pioneers in Australia — changing the way the world thinks about a city, a state, a nation. When you change the way the world thinks, you also change the way the local people feel about the place they live in.