A Festival For Insomniacs

The whistle blows and the fireworks bang. Suddenly Sydney is beating to the sound of theatre, dance, art, performance and music in a dizzying spell that captures the imagination of a city often too cool to dance to someone else’s tune.

But dance they did. Fergus Linehan, Artistic Director, suddenly realised he had gripped the city on the second weekend when “we had about 18 or 19 things going at the same time and there were tens of thousands of people pouring out of the domain concert. The Hyde Park Becks bar was humming – there were all these kids sitting outside, and I love this, because they are too young, they just sit outside and listen to the music.

“You also had a huge queue of people waiting to get in and it was just jumping inside. And then down at the Spiegeltent, the garden was absolutely full, and all the international performers are in there. And there was just a moment and I thought ‘ok, we now have a festival city’.”

It hasn’t always been like this. In fact, it’s never been like this. Linehan believes that “it broke through to a broader consciousness; the overall event just seemed to be really well loved, a warmth, people were almost affectionate towards it”.

The Sydney Festival which wrapped up last weekend, had a programme of over 100 events incorporating the talents of 780 performers from around the world. It was an extraordinary programme which put its technicolour fingerprint on the face of the city. It’s no wonder that they engaged with it - it was so terribly hard to ignore.

It’s Fergus Linehan’s second year at the helm, and he has built on the cumulative success of his debut last year as well as the previous festivals since its inception in 1977. It attracts around 1 million people making it the biggest cultural festival in the country.

What differentiated this year’s festival, however, was the breathless way it changed the city. Linehan believes that “in general there wasn’t necessarily the one thing that absolutely jumped out. The whole thing has gathered a momentum. It is bigger than all of us.”

In a programme of events that included Lou Reed’s Berlin, a Gate Theatre Beckett trilogy with Ralph Fiennes, Cristoph Marthaler’s Seemanslieder, Maly Drama’s Uncle Vanya, Stomp, Akram Khan, Batsheva Dance Company and a hot air balloon symphony floating over the city, Sydney as a whole engaged with the cultural events like never before.

The Sydney Festival’s accessibility is an enormous factor in its appeal. Last year the NSW State Government provided an extra injection of funds to specifically bring down the cost of tickets. As well as that, each event has an allocation of tickets for ‘next to nix’ on the day of the performance.

“There’s a whole gang of people that did the whole festival like this,” says Linehan. “And every morning they go down to Martin Place to get their tickets, queuing from 3 or 4am and going to shows that night. And they were doing it night after night. It’s for insomniacs this festival!”

If only locals showed such passion and commitment for the arts scene already on their doorstep. Which, when you know and understand Sydney, highlights the amazing challenge that Linehan has managed to overcome. In fact, he believes that audiences here are “very experiential and you’ll never get wrapped across the knuckles for mucking around with form and tradition”.

This is a city of 4 million people spread out over 12,000 square kilometres. Bringing together people for anything is a hard ask. The 2007 festival however, or more specifically, the overall programme of events with their strategic placement through the city, has meant that it is exposing cultural events to an extraordinary amount of people. He has proven that it can be done.

From the Sydney Opera House, to Circular Quay, Hyde Park, the Domain and Parramatta, the Sydney Festival had its pink street banners along every esplanade and city street screaming - ‘This is our city in summer’. And perhaps that new slogan has struck a chord with the citizens. This is OUR city.

Linehan likes to point out that “this is always a festival that is specifically for Sydney-siders.” And he believes that festivals must always be programme driven and “if you get that right, it all just fits in place”. Which is why it’s so hard to put your finger on the reason why his festivals work so well.

There is very little criticism of Linehan’s tenure. He is a darling of the public, the power brokers and the media. In fact, most journalists tend to be more consumed by the fact that he wears a t-shirt and sneakers to work, rather than commenting on the semblance of the festival he puts together. This year, however, more than previously, the lack of local content was glaringly obvious. Out of the entire programme only eight events had Australian acts. This disappointed many, particularly contemporary performance companies, visual arts organisations and the local music industry.

Despite this, Linehan has managed to awaken something in Sydney that was never truly exploited – a passionate, culturally aware and sophisticated group of party animals.

One of the major things that Linehan would change if he could, is the length of the Festival. “I think we struggle with 21 days – it’s a little long – and audiences are wrecked by the end of it. And you can feel people thinking – if I never go to another show again it won’t be too soon! I am going home, and I am going to get out the box set of the West Wing and I’m going to watch it!”

A festival for insomniacs it really is.





Photo Credit: Prudence Upton, courtesy of the Sydney Festival