Sydney festival marks the start of the summer season – and a new year of city festivals – but it’s more than just a knees-up in the sun, says artistic director Lieven Bertels.
Alongside its familiar free concerts in the Domain and Hyde Park’s festival village hub, the 2015 programme aims to challenge ideas of what a summer festival should look like, says Bertels – and that starts with its poster girl.
Kelli Jean Drinkwater – performer, activist and plus-sized model – is the co-creator of Nothing to Lose, a new work by dance company Force Majeure that explores our relationship with the word and idea of “fat”. Nothing to Lose is featured on the front of the 2015 brochure.
Force Majeure’s final show before Kate Champion steps down as artistic director, it’s one of 18 world premieres in a program of 179 events at 25 venues across the city.
Returning to Sydney is French circus performer James Thierrée in Tabac Rouge, his fourth show at the festival, and Indian director Roysten Abel, with The Kitchen, a follow up to his 2010 production, The Manganiyar Seduction. This new show invites audience to get involved in the action.
“It’s a big summer party, but it also challenges some of your perceptions,” said Belgian-born Bertels of his third programme as artistic director. “It’s not just a happy summer party. It dares to reflects some of the bigger questions. And some people are surprised by that.”
Less of a surprise is the return of festival favourites: this year’s film in concert will be The Artist, accompanied by Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Domain will also play host to a free concert by Brazilian superstar, Seu Jorge, in his Australian debut, and Beat the Drum, a celebration of 40 years of Triple J.
The festival village returns to Hyde Park, but in place of Jeremy Deller’s crowdpleasing Stonehenge installation, Irish street artist Maser is building Higher Ground, a two storey Escher-like structure asking to be Instagrammed.
Parramatta gets a separate programme of free and family events, while also providing the stage for one of 2015’s set pieces, Far From Folsom, in which Australian singer Tex Perkins will recreate Johnny Cash’s 1968 prison concert in the 19th-century grounds of Parramatta jail.
“Being first up of the city festivals means we can do a number of openings and world premieres,” said Bertells, who added that Sydney was “the most diverse” of the major city programmes, despite Indigenous artists being less obviously represented than at the recent Brisbane and Melbourne festivals.
Asked how he shopped for works, he said: “I really loathe that idea. It’s never a supermarket trolley. Works need to find you or you need to find works. There’s a lot of serependipity in how they end up in my festivals.”
He added: “Some say, ‘doesn’t it all have to be happy and merry’? But we should not forget that visual and performing arts, even in summer, are great ways to challenge people and get the conversation going.”
- Sydney festival runs from 8 - 26 January 2015 – see full program here
- The 2015 Sydney Festival brochure features Ally Garrett from Nothing to Lose on its cover, not Kelli-Jean Drinkwater. The article was corrected on 24 October 2014 to reflect this.
