Sydney Festival’s music line-up will bring new life to unexpected places

Sydney Festival is an annual celebration of all of the wonderful things our art scene has to offer. Over the years it has become known for its off-beat theatre, cabaret and art experiences. This year though, with the help of world-renowned musical festival curator Chris Twite (Falls Music and Art Festival, Sydney Opera House), Sydney Festival is placing a greater emphasis on contemporary music.

Speaking to Time Out, festival music curator Chris Twite explained how the team came to settle on a direction for the festival’s music program.

“Myself and Olivia Ansell [Sydney Festival’s artistic director] share a vision for a Sydney that is vibrant, exciting and a place for new and emerging art. I think we’re achieving that vision with what we’re doing in the music program.”

We go from the natural softness of Sydney’s environment to the harshness of brutalist architecture

Included within their vision for Sydney Festival as a whole is a desire to help reinvigorate the city’s nightlife scene, a sector of the economy that has been ravaged by lockout laws and rolling lockdowns.

“We are part of a coalition of promoters, parties, artists and organisations who are committed to making sure that Sydney remains a vibrant city. One of the big driving forces of the festival music program this year is definitely doing that by bringing art into interesting spaces,” Twite said excitedly. “One of the most interesting things a festival can do is create these special moments and special spaces for artists to create art.”

With this renewed emphasis on bringing life back to Sydney’s night-time economy, Sydney Festival will welcome an impressive line-up of international and local acts. Some of the highlights on the bill include Alice Skye, Astral People, Bonobo, Coloured Stone, June Jones, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Katie Noonan, and Kelsey Lu.

What should be of particular note when looking at the festival line-up is the mix of well-known artists and emerging acts – a deliberate decision that only an event like Sydney Festival could provide, according to Twite.

“Traditionally arts festivals create these big moments in special spaces for renowned artists. But we wanted to show that we value the creative community and the emerging arts within Sydney… I think that’s a really beautiful gesture from the Sydney Festival to Sydney.”

_{Photograph: Sydney Festival/Jacquie Manning | Lucid Dreaming}

The biggest showcase of these emerging acts will occur below ground at the Commercial Travellers’ Association building as part of The Weary Traveller program. This hidden bastion of ’70s bar culture, residing beneath the unmistakable Seidler mushroom building in Martin Place, is just one of the forgotten spaces Twite’s program is reinvigorating. 

“We’re going to have 16 nights of emerging Australian and international talent,” explained Twite. “We're talking about artists that we think are going to have careers that are long and fruitful. We want to help foster them because we see value in them and want to create those relationships with them going forward. We want to identify that artistry early and talk to the city to say, ‘this is the vanguard. This is the bleeding edge of contemporary music and artists who are pushing the edges of what is possible.’”

It’s not just the fantastic artists that make this year’s Sydney Festival so special. The venues that these artists will be performing in are also distinctive to Sydney Festival. Rather than look to the traditional venues where live music has always occurred in Sydney, Chris and the festival team cast a much wider net. In doing so they have been able to secure a range of venues that will provide artists and audiences with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience music.

“These are things that could only happen in Sydney,” said Twite.  As he continued to speak with wholehearted enthusiasm about the music program, a few clear standout events came to the fore.

One of the most interesting things a festival can do is create these special moments and special spaces for artists to create art

First and foremost were the two Call To events – Call To The Morning: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Call To The Night: Bonobo.

“The Call To series is a concert in two halves and speaks to two different identities of Sydney,” described Twite. “Call To The Morning will be a beautiful moment. We are blessed with one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, so to see the sun rise over that water while Kaitlyn creates an ambient composition will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

On the other end of the spectrum is Call To The Night. Here, Sydneysiders will experience a hidden dance floor manifest within the Banquet Hall of the brutalist Sydney Masonic Centre.

“We go from the natural softness of Sydney’s environment to the harshness of brutalist architecture,” said Twite. “There is a duality that exists between those two spaces which are completely different but both intrinsically part of what Sydney is.”

The second element of the music program that Twite was particularly enthusiastic to speak about was The Lucid: A Dream Portal to Awakening by Kelsey Lu.

“Kelsey is creating a brand new eight-hour composition that will be experienced in the Commercial Travellers Association’s individual hotel rooms. The concept of this work explores what sound can do to your dreams as you sleep through it. What recess of your own mind can sound help you delve into?”

Another event Chris wanted to highlight is Alabaster dePlume’s In Chamber. In order to experience this particular work, individuals will have to lock themselves inside the safe of the art-deco Kimpton Margot Hotel.

“In Chamber is a series of poems and audio created in isolation to then be experienced in isolation. So you’re both alone together, which is quite beautiful,” glowed Twite. “Alabaster is taking the audiences into a place where they can be alone by themselves with the audio work and be vulnerable while also knowing that they're fully safe within a concrete and steel structure. I think that's going to be quite an interesting, emotional and very unique experience.”

Sydney Festival runs from January 5-29, 2023. Check out the Sydney Festival website for the full program.