The undergound gets an airing

Sydney’s underground cultural scene came together arm in arm with the cultural establishment last night as independent youth radio station FBi presented their inaugural Sydney Music, Arts and Culture Awards (SMACs) at the Opera House.

In a marquee overlooking the harbour, an eclectic gathering of inner city artists, rockers, musicians and performers drank champagne as awards were handed out to those “people who make Sydney the vibrant, exciting cultural capital that Melbourne insists we're not”.

In a sign that the arts, and more particularly the underground arts scene in Sydney is finally coming of age, the SMAC of the Year Award was given to out-going Sydney Festival director, Fergus Linehan for the way he has brought the city alive in what is now the best cultural event of the year.

The irony of an underground awards ceremony

 honouring someone who is at the head of an organisation in the middle of the cultural establishment was not lost on the crowd gathered with their fashionista apparel. But Linehan is different to all the other members of the establishment from the Biennale to the major performing arts companies who were all ignored.

Compared to the rather dour and high-brow Melbourne Festival, the festival in Sydney after four years with Linehan at the helm has brought cultural events out onto the streets to make it more of a people’s festival. From Hyde Park to Martin Place to the Botanic Gardens and the forecourt of the Opera House, Linehan has untapped something that makes the locals see their city in a whole new light.

The timing of Linehan’s appointment four years ago could not have been more perfect as the

 underground cultural scene was starting to wake from its long slumber, suffocated by the most expansive amount of archaic licensing and public entertainment red-tape in the western world.

FBi Radio who call themselves ‘an independent, community-based radio station, delivering the best in new music and emerging culture’ with a charter which demands they broadcast 50%

 Australian music, with half of that from Sydney is just another example of how the cultural fabric of Sydney is changing. Local artists and musicians are now getting more exposure than ever before.

The SMAC in Your Face Award, which honours those that have been shaking up the cultural scene went to the Raise the Bar initiative which publicly lobbied the community, the media and eventually the pollies on Macquarie Street to transform the liquor licensing laws to allow smaller bars, more live entertainment and less poker machines.
The Best Arts Event Award went to a small and diverse collective of young artists and cultural organisers for the Underbelly Public Arts Lab and Festival 08 which showcases experimental performance from emerging artists. Sydney just hasn’t seen anything like this in years.

What all this means is that artists, musicians and collectives in Sydney are no longer just sitting back and complaining about the lack of funding, venues or opportunities and they have finally found a way to get what we wanted – our own type of Melbourne arts industry. It’s a DIY cultural scene that’s emerging and legislators, councils and government agencies are going to have to run to keep up.



For a lit of all the winners, click here.

Disclaimer: I was on the judging panel for the awards.