Sydney Festival 2012: January 7-29
Sydney Festival opened its 2012 program with Australia's largest free outdoor cultural event, Festival First Night, attracting hundreds of thousands of people into the city centre for eight hours of music, theatre and visual arts. Headlining the event was internationally-acclaimed music superstar Manu Chao, who had 60,000 people dancing to his unique blend of Latin reggae.
Keeping things at a lively pace were street performances by Tuba Skinny, Lewis Floyd Henry and Norman J and his Good Times Bus. Casper Babypants, Holly Throsby and Erth's mythical puppet creatures kept the kids laughing and dancing throughout the afternoon.
Festival First Night is just the beginning of the city's annual three-week celebration. Sydney Festival is an explosion of exciting theatre, dance, music, exhibitions and talks that takes over the city, celebrating uniquely Australian work as well as welcoming companies from all over the world.
As part of the opening weekend, the Festival celebrated Australian Indigenous culture with Black Capital, a suite of theatre, music, exhibitions and a symposium that reflect Sydney's diverse contemporary Indigenous culture. On Sunday, Sydney's history was told from the black perspective, with the world premiere of I Am Eora. Audiences were captivated by six Indigenous divas from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, as they told stories of life on the road and in the spotlight in Walk A Mile in My Shoes.