On January 9th, Festival First Night kicks off, an annual free event for the Sydney Festival in Australia. The festival is one of Australia’s biggest arts festivals, which provides theater and dance and art throughout the first month of the year. Festival First Night began just two years ago, but it’s already considered a tradition, held in Hyde Park, featuring a family-centered host of activities: people are taught to dance and juggle; daredevils perform in an outdoor circus. There’s music throughout the afternoon, and, then, around sunset, lights in the park’s trees come on and over forty Rajasthani musicians provide an advance performance of the scheduled work, The Manganiyar Seduction.
During the festival, there will be a series of plays and concerts, including the following: Hamlet, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Oedipus Rex & Symphony of Psalms, the Maganiyar Seduction, Ruhe, Oedipus Loves You, Happy as Larry, and others; concerts include Al Green, The Maganiyar Seduction, Ruhe, Fractured Again, Isy Suttie, Music Alive: Zeeko, and John Cale as a keynote performer.
The Black Arm Band, an inspirational indigenous group, is scheduled to perform as well, with a show titled Hidden Republic, which includes over 25 musicians and songwriters, backed by a full orchestra. The musicians include Ruby Hunter, Jimmy Little, Archie Roach and Dan Sultan, after which Al Green, gospel and soul singer, will appear for the first time in Australia.
All these performances will change the winter city into a playground in summer. Keep on the watch for the unanticipated!
The organizers of the event, suggest people prepare properly for the sun — wear your hats, sunscreen, and drink water, and also to leave behind items that might be troublesome at the park, such as pets and glass, skateboards and rollerblades, and thongs.
They note, too, that food and drink will be available throughout the day, but if you don’t want to have festival food, you might wish to avail yourself of any number of fine restaurants Sydney has to offer.
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