2016 ANNUAL REVIEW THIS IS OUR CITY IN SUMMER
“THE HOT DAYS AND BALMY NIGHTS ARE FILLED WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPERIENCE THE DELIGHTFUL, CONFRONTING OR MIND-BLOWING EVENTS THE FESTIVAL HAS TO OFFER.” TIMEOUT SYDNEY
Summer Sounds in The Domain Photo: Stuart Armitt
“I LOVE SEEING A BIT OF ESOTERICA AT THE SYDNEY FESTIVAL. I LOVE THE UNUSUAL SHOWS. THE FESTIVAL IS A CHANCE TO SEE AND DO SOMETHING MORE DARING.” WILLIAM YANG, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
CONTENTS SECTION PAGE 01 SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 5 A MESSAGE FROM THE OUTGOING FESTIVAL DIRECTOR 02 40 YEARS OF SYDNEY FESTIVAL 6 03 SNAPSHOT 8 04 AUDIENCE PROFILE 10 05 ARTISTIC FOCUS 12 06 MERITON FESTIVAL VILLAGE 22 07 BARANGAROO RESERVE 26 08 PARRAMATTA 28 09 ACCESSIBILITY & INCLUSION 30 10 ARTS & CULTURE INDUSTRY 34 CONNECTIONS 11 MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS 36 12 CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS 44 13 PHILANTHROPY & DONATIONS 48 14 VOLUNTEERS 50 15 THE FUTURE A MESSAGE FROM THE 2017 FESTIVAL DIRECTOR 52 16 SUPPORTERS 54 17 SPECIAL THANKS 56
Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid Photo: Prudence Upton
SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW
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“IS THIS THE BEST SYDNEY FESTIVAL IN 40 YEARS?” JANE ALBERT, BROADSHEET SYDNEY
01 SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 A MESSAGE FROM THE OUTGOING FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
The Ephemeral City, photo Jamie Williams.
Opera’s international collaboration in Pascal Dusapin’s Passion, Stephanie Lake’s new choreography Double Blind as part of yet another successful edition of our About an Hour series, and the beautiful sonic landscape Pleasure Garden created by Genevieve Lacey at Vaucluse House. A truly memorable event was the storytelling by Aboriginal elder Uncle Wes Marne in Fire Bucket.
What a special year 2016 was for us! Celebrating four decades of arts and summer fun, Sydney Festival brought a joyous synthesis of our artistic ambitions and a welcome salute to the heroes that made our history. With 20 Festival days jam-packed with over 150 projects, we presented a bold and diverse program with some of the best Australian and international theatre, dance, music and installations. A record 33 projects received four– and five–star reviews, with wide critical acclaim for the width and depth of our program. We started the Festival with a remarkable prelude, a riveting keynote address by American arts veteran Robert Wilson discussing the role of festivals in today’s life. From there the Festival rolled out with 114 sold-out performances across our key venues and Festival sites. Our first weekend saw The Flaming Lips headline a wildly colourful anniversary edition of Summer Sounds in The Domain. From the haunting dark beauty of Woyzeck and Winterreise, to the seductive energy of Djuki Mala, the triumphant Sydney Opera House debut of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the raw beauty of Kate Tempest and the quirky musings and magic of The Object Lesson, the Festival kaleidoscope once again shone in all its facets and colours. Key new Australian works included Belvoir’s The Events at Granville Town Hall, Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid, Sydney Chamber
Our free program, a Sydney Festival hallmark, was equally diverse and again offered summer fun for all ages, with our City of Sydney Lawn Library and Family Week in the Meriton Festival Village, our series of 40 Portraits illustrating our Festival history, the traditional Domain concerts and the hugely popular The Ephemeral City, a community-built cardboard city at the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve, complemented by Shaun Gladwell’s new video installation Skateboarders vs Minimalism and the thrill ride of a flying fox. Sydney Festival 2016 was made possible through the generous core and special funding from the NSW Government – supporting the Festival through Arts NSW, Destination NSW and the Barangaroo Delivery Authority – alongside the City of Sydney and Parramatta City Council. The Festival once again benefited from the support of principal sponsor The Star Sydney and major partner China Southern Airlines, and welcomed Meriton Group as our new Festival Village partner. Sydney Festival acknowledges the increased and ongoing support of many private donors including our Directors’ Circle. Special thanks go to Peter Freedman AM and Lou Freedman for their ongoing support through the 40th anniversary fund, and Simon Mordant AM and Catriona Mordant, as commissioning partners of Skateboarders vs Minimalism. Of course our Festival was the work of many people: the artists, bringing us their creativity
and skills; our dedicated Festival team, working tirelessly to plan, prepare, produce and deliver this 40th Sydney Festival; and of course the hundreds of Festival volunteers, taking up over 1,900 volunteer shifts providing help and assistance to our artists and the audience. This 2016 annual review brings back colourful memories, and outlines our key achievements in facts and figures, as we welcome our new Festival Director, Wesley Enoch, to start planning Sydney Festival’s future. As the outgoing Festival Director, I have endeavoured, together with our team, to stay true to Sydney Festival’s core values and our rich history. We have strived to bring together those works that not only show artistic excellence, but that probably would not have happened without us. Over the past four years we were able to revive our classical music and opera program with a number of unique projects, including this year’s Anima Eterna Brugge Beethoven’s Symphonies marathon on period instruments. Alongside our diverse music offerings we chose to focus on other works with a live music element, whether it was in dance, theatre or film. We continued the exciting discovery of unusual performance and presentation spaces and tried to build strong Festival hubs for our key Festival components, between our Domain concerts, our Sydney Opera House and Carriageworks presentations, our Parramatta program and our Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park. However, ultimately Sydney Festival is not only about these works and the hubs we build. It is about the community of people, locals and visitors, artists and audiences, that come together to celebrate the arts and our city in summer. Judging from the many memories that are still fresh from this wonderful month of January, Sydney Festival can be forever young! LIEVEN BERTELS FESTIVAL DIRECTOR 2013–16
Above: Lieven Bertels Photo: Prudence Upton. Opposite: The Ephemeral City Photo: Jamie Williams.
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02 40 YEARS OF SYDNEY FESTIVAL 6
In 2016, Sydney Festival celebrated its 40th year of enlivening and transforming our city in the month of January, with a program that features everything from dance to cabaret, theatre, music and art, along with free outdoor activities and concerts. The Festival has grown incredibly since its inception in 1977. Then known as ‘Festival of Sydney’, it was a celebration helmed by founding manager Stephen Hall, who went on to direct a total of 17 Festivals. It was the start of an arts festival, though it also took in sporting highlights and umbrella events from any available local act. From community events to large-scale open air concerts and face-painting with clowns – there was even a tug-of-war competition! While some
attractions, like the free outdoor events, remain ever present in our Domain series, the following iterations of the Festival have given audiences an expansive program featuring both local and international talent. In our 40 years, we’ve presented some of the world’s best theatre, opera, music and dance inside our city’s concert halls, parks, galleries, backyards and everything in between. We’ve seen fireworks and spectacle with Els Comediants, water-themed sound art in swimming pools by Michael Redolfi, a giant Rubber Duck by Florentijn Hofman and many more events of all sizes. The Festival has also been responsible for commissioning new Australian works and assisting in the development of many local companies, from Sydney Dance Company and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, to Kate Champion and her company, Force Majeure. Seven Festival Directors have brought their unique perspective to our summer festivities, enriching with new and exciting experiences; from Anthony Steel’s push for high art to
Fergus Linehan’s Festival First Nights, to Lieven Bertels’ 40th anniversary celebrations. Of course, the Festival is for the people and it is with this in mind that for the 40th anniversary, photographer Eva Vermandel was commissioned to create 40 Portraits, a collection of images representing everyone who makes the Festival happen – from artists to behind-the-scenes staff and punters. Sydneysiders were asked to submit their favourite and most meaningful Festival memories to our 40 Moments project. We had our audience dress in ruby for the Symphony, oral historian Warren Fahey performed his 40 Ways to Love Our City and we hosted our largest ever community participation event in a new location, with The Ephemeral City at Barangaroo Reserve. Here’s to 40 more! Clockwise from top left: 40 Portraits (Photo: Jamie Williams); Symphony in The Domain (Photo: Jamie Williams); Festival First Night 2008, Opera in The Domain 1983; Els Comediants 1996.
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03 SNAPSHOT THIS IS OUR CITY IN SUMMER
155 EVENTS
12
WORLD PREMIERES
956 ARTISTS 8
86
376
PERFORMANCES
OF WHICH WERE
FREE
12
21
AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVES
NEW AUSTRALIAN WORKS
FROM
8
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES
33 22 VENUES COUNTRIES
“…ONE OF THE BIGGEST AND MOST UNIQUE SUMMER ARTS FESTIVALS IN THE WORLD.” SOPHIE TRIGGER, AUSTRALIAN NETWORK NEWS
FESTIVAL ATTENDANCE
TURNOVER $18M INCOME 35%
THE DOMAIN CONCERT SERIES
60,217
FESTIVAL SPECIAL EVENTS
56,035
TOTAL FREE
395,459
15% 10% 5% 0
LOCAL GOVERNMENT & OTHER INVESTMENT
101,870
STATE GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT
ART INSTALLATIONS
20%
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
177,337
CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS & PHILANTHROPY
MERITON FESTIVAL VILLAGE
OPERATING COSTS (INCLUDING STAFF)
25%
INCLUDING BOX OFFICE, CATERING, VENUE HIRE & OTHER
FREE EVENTS
OPERATING INCOME
30%
EXPENDITURE 60% 55% 50%
TOTAL AUDIENCE
108,093
503,552
40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0
PROGRAMMING
TOTAL TICKETED ATTENDANCE
45%
SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW
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04 AUDIENCE PROFILE
Clockwise from top left to lower right: Spiegeltent late music (Photo: Prudence Upton); Family Week; Symphony in The Domain; Soul of Sydney; Spiegeltent audience; The People's Tower Demolition Day (Photos: Jamie Williams)
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Results of a Sydney Festival audience survey conducted by Destination NSW show that the Festival continues to attract a diverse audience from Sydney and beyond.
Destination NSW surveyed 5,031 respondents during the Festival period, at a range of free and ticketed events. Results show that the Festival engages with audience members of all ages, with more than half (54%) of audiences aged 25–44. In 2016, 79% of the audience said that they were from Sydney, with results demonstrating an increase of overseas visitors (10%) when compared to survey data from the 2015 Festival (9%). The remaining respondents travelled from regional New South Wales (6%) and interstate (5%) to attend Sydney Festival events.
VISITOR ORIGIN 10% 5% 6%
SYDNEY
79%
REGIONAL NSW
6%
INTERSTATE
5%
OVERSEAS
10%
79%
HOUSEHOLD INCOME 0
2
4
UNDER $20,000
4.6%
$20,001–$40,000
4.4%
$40,001–$60,000 $60,001–$80,000
6
12
14
16
0
5
10
13.6% 15.5%
15
20
25
30
35
10%
25–34
27%
35–44
27%
10.7%
17%
45–54
12.6%
$125,001–$150,000
$200,000+
10
7.5%
$100,001–$125,000
$175,001–$200,000
8
15–24
$80,001–$100,000
$150,001–$175,000
AGE BRACKET
9.1%
11%
55–64
7.9% 14%
65 +
1%
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05 2016 ARTISTIC FOCUS Woyzeck Photo: Jamie Williams.
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“…SURELY ONE OF THE MUST SEE SHOWS NOT JUST AT THE SYDNEY FESTIVAL BUT ANYWHERE IN AUSTRALIA THIS YEAR.” LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE (ON WOYZECK)
Sydney Festival marked 40 years as a cultural leader in our spectacular city with birthday art projects celebrating the collaborative spirit of the Festival. We infused our annual events with memories of the past and imaginings for the future, while presenting a lively program of free and ticketed events by some of the world’s great artists. In 2016, Sydney Festival: • Reflected on 40 years by celebrating the diverse Minimalism, Opera Australia and Barking Gecko’s players it takes to make a festival. The Rabbits, Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre and State Photographer Eva Vermandel created 40 Portraits of Theatre Company South Australia’s The Events artists, volunteers, audience members and behindand Uncle Wes Marne’s Fire Bucket. All of these the-scenes staff, which were exhibited in public sites works represented new challenges, collaborations around the city. An archive of the Festival’s work was or contexts for the artists and producing created online and 40 Moments were collated from companies. stories shared by artists, staff and audience members. • Continued conversations with artists and • Introduced Sydney audiences to artists unknown companies by showing their recent work. to most Australians. Meow Meow, Alan Cumming, Anne Teresa De French artist Olivier Grossetête collaborated with Keersmaeker, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Peter Sydneysiders to build The People’s Tower and The Sellars, Rokia Traoré and Dirty Three. Ephemeral City, Switzerland’s Daniele Finzi Pasca’s • Presented works by contemporary Aboriginal take on contemporary visual circus La Verità delighted and Torres Strait Islander artists across family audiences, Catalonian Antigua i Barbuda's artforms and contexts. whimsical mechanical fairground Arquitectura de Sold out shows across several venues Feria needed all hands on deck to operate the rides. characterised this year’s performance works by • Presented well established artists who’ve never performed in Australia. From Belgian orchestra Anima Eterna Brugge, to South African DJ Black Coffee, Germany’s Thalia Theater Hamburg and American folk hero Michael Hurley. • Presented new works by artists in dialogue with our contemporary world. Genevieve Lacey’s outdoor sound installation Pleasure Garden, Shaun Gladwell’s Skateboarders vs
artists from different nations across Australia – the intimacy of backyard storytelling with Uncle Wes Marne in Fire Bucket, the directorial feature film debut of Stephen Page’s Spear, the physical joy and documentary story of Djuki Mala, the urgency of climate change explored in Marrugeku’s Cut the Sky, the soulful songs of Kev Carmody, and the fusion of Tiwi song, dance and jazz music in Tiwi + Jazz.
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“THE ACROBATIC, AERIAL AND JUGGLING ROUTINES ARE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, THE CLOWNING IS AMUSING AND AN APPEALING IRREVERENCE SETS IT ALL APART FROM MUCH OF ITS ILK.” JOHN SHAND, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (ON LA VERITÀ)
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NEW WORK / NEW VOICES
“THANK YOU UNCLE WES FOR ENLIGHTENING ME AND THE REST OF YOUR AUDIENCE. I WALKED AWAY FEELING US SECOND AUSTRALIANS HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN FROM THE FIRST.” JAKE WELL, TALKING ARTS (ON FIRE BUCKET)
Sydney Festival fosters the creation of new Australian and international work by commissioning and/or premiering works, thereby brokering new contexts and audiences for artists. We are in constant conversation with artists and producing companies about ambitious ideas and works in development. We also look to new generations of artists to introduce to our audiences. In 2016, a very un-Disney cabaret Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid produced with Malthouse Theatre was created for the Spiegeltent. A Major Festivals Initiative commission*, it was “a little bit weird, a whole lot of wonderful.” (The Australian Review) Two new works of scale in our free program were Shaun Gladwell’s video installation Skateboarders vs Minimalism**, commissioned for the new the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve, and Genevieve Lacey’s outdoor sound installation Pleasure Garden. Set in the gardens of Vaucluse House, Pleasure Garden was presented with Sydney Living Museums inviting people to sit and listen, move through or play in physical and sonic space.
Other new Australian works we were delighted to premiere included: Stephen Page’s debut feature film Spear – the story of a young Aboriginal man told through movement and dance; Uncle Wes Marne’s Fire Bucket, storytelling ranging from the Dreamtime to his own life stories of a 93-year-old Bidgambul man; Stephanie Lake’s dance work Double Blind with sound by Robin Fox; Performance 4A’s storytelling work by hip-hop artists Joelistics and Sietta with In Between Two; and a new production of The Events, a subtle and mesmerising piece about human reactions to trauma by UK playwright David Greig. For our 40th, our much-loved Symphony in The Domain revisited programs performed at this iconic event while still focusing on the future. In this spirit, Sydney Symphony Orchestra was joined by the extraordinary 18-year-old soloist, Grace Clifford, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto to awestruck audiences. *co-commissioned with Perth International Arts Festival and Auckland Festival. ** with the support of Simon Mordant AM and Catriona Mordant.
Opposite: La Verità (Photo: Jamie Williams) Left: Fire Bucket (Photo: Prudence Upton).
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“WENT TO SEE @RAINPAN’S THE OBJECT LESSON LAST NIGHT AT #SYDFEST, OUR FIRST WORDS LEAVING WERE “THAT WAS WORTH THE FLIGHT TO SYDNEY ALONE”.” ALICE JANE TURNER, TWITTER
“THIS IS THE CHICKEN SOUP OF SHOWS TO SEE AT THE MOMENT - A CURE TO RESTORE YOUR FAITH IN HUMANITY” KYLE WALMSLEY, ARTSHUB (ON ALL THE SEX I’VE EVER HAD)
THE WORLD STAGE Sydney Festival becomes a microcosm for great contemporary theatre and dance, as well as classical and contemporary music – from intimate exchanges in small spaces to works of grand scale in big theatres across the city. In 2016, we were thrilled to bring Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars and Rokia Traoré's Desdemona to launch the program – “beautifully observed, expertly articulated … intensely moving.” (Limelight Magazine). Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, one of the world’s greatest choreographers performed in the Festival with two pieces. Seminal 1982 work Fase – Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, presented with Sydney Opera House and danced by De Keersmaeker herself was “transfixing… quietly beautiful to behold.” (Limelight Magazine) The more recently created Vortex Temporum – “dance and music to open your eyes and ears” (Sydney Morning Herald) – was performed by seven dancers and six musicians set to the score of Gérard Grisey’s work of the same name. 2016 represented a year of brokering collaborations between international and local practitioners. Sydney Chamber Opera collaborated with international director Pierre Audi and soloists Elise Caluwaerts and Wiard Witholt on a powerful production of Pascal Dusapin’s contemporary opera Passion. Canadian company Mammalian Diving Reflex created All the Sex I’ve Ever Had, a work with six local seniors telling it all in a tightly woven script drawn from their own stories.
“THE CHANCE TO SEE THIS BENCHMARK 1982 WORK, ESPECIALLY WITH KEERSMAEKER PERFORMING IN IT … IS A REAL TREAT FROM THE SYDNEY FESTIVAL.” JILL SYKES (ON FASE – FOUR MOVEMENTS TO THE MUSIC OF STEVE REICH), SYDNEY MORNING HERALD The Object Lesson, Winterreise, All the Sex I've Ever Had (Photos: Prudence Upton); Fase - Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich (Photo: Jamie Williams).
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“It’s just joyous…. Life in all its brutal, tragic, uplifting and wonderful glory packed into two hours.” (ArtsHub). Major theatre works of the Festival ranged from large-scale music theatre to intimate magical meditations. Thalia Theater Hamburg’s Woyzeck was directed by young German director Jette Steckel – a bold physical and musical production reimagining the work created by Robert Wilson, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Geoff Sobelle’s The Object Lesson invited audiences into a massive tower of boxes and excess ‘stuff’ filling Sydney Town Hall – creating a hilarious and heartbreaking rumination on the glorious mess of life. In the classical music program, we welcomed the renowned Anima Eterna Brugge orchestra to perform a marathon of Beethoven’s nine symphonies on period instruments in their “thrilling ode to Beethoven” (Limelight 18
Magazine). Schubert’s Winterreise sung by baritone superstar Matthias Goerne amidst a visual world created by William Kentridge thrilled audiences in performances of “swirling imagination” (Sydney Morning Herald).
Oscar-winning film, Birdman. Joanna Newsom added to her 40 Portraits appearance with a sublime performance in the Concert Hall.
Our contemporary music program kicked off with a spectacle of psychedelic projections, confetti cannons and audience sing-alongs courtesy of The Flaming Lips at Summer Sounds in The Domain, the perfect free event which saw thousands of enthralled Sydneysiders ringing in Sydney Festival’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
A new series, St Stephen’s Sunday Folk, presented luminaries from three distinct branches of new folk music. Two highly touted emerging artists, Mirel Wagner and Nadia Reid provided a gloriously sparse opener. Sir Richard Bishop and Daniel Bachman evocatively proffered the possibilities afforded by the American Primitive guitar style. Michael Hurley and Meg Baird gave us a multi-generational look at outsider and freak-folk.
A trio of sold out shows wowed audiences at the State Theatre and Sydney Opera House. In their first show in three years, Dirty Three were lauded for creating “colossal towers of sound” (Sydney Morning Herald). Antonio Sanchez reprised his mesmerising live drum score to fellow countryman Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s
Our mini-festival within a festival, About an Hour at Carriageworks featured a range of national and international works including Forced Entertainment in their first Sydney season with Tomorrow’s Parties and Christopher Brett Bailey in his relentless motor-mouthed monologue, This is How We Die.
“FOR TWO HOURS, DIRTY THREE WERE THE GREATEST BAND ON ANY PLANET IN ANY UNIVERSE.” STUART COUPE, FBI RADIO
Left page, clockwise from top left: The Flaming Lips at Summer Sounds in The Domain, Michael Hurley, Birdman Screening and Live Score (Photos: Jamie Williams). Right page, clockwise from top left:: Joanna Newsom, Daniel Bachman (Photos: Prudence Upton); Dirty Three (Photo: Jamie Williams); Anima Eterna Brugge Beethoven's Symphonies (Photo: Prudence Upton); This is How We Die (Photo: Jamie Williams)
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“IT’S A PLEASURE TO SHARE A ROOM WITH HIM.”
JACQUI TAFFEL (ON ALAN CUMMING SINGS SAPPY SONGS) SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
This page left to right, top to bottom: The Very Worst of The Tiger Lillies (Photo: Jamie Williams); Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs! (Photo: Prudence Upton); The Events (Photo: Jamie Williams); The Flaming Lips (Photo: Prudence Upton); The People's Tower (Photo: Jamie Williams); Cut the Sky (Photo: Prudence Upton) Opposite page: Arquitectura de Feria, DaM-FunK, Woyzeck, Songs for the Fallen, Bach and His Dutch Contemporaries (Photos: Jamie Williams); What Will Have Been (Photo: Prudence Upton).
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“THE BAND LEFT A HUGE SMILE ON OLD FANS WHILE LEAVING A HEAP OF NEW ONES – OLD AND YOUNG – IN THEIR PATH.” JULIAN RAMUNDI (ON THE FLAMING LIPS), THE MUSIC
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“THE SPIEGELTENT IS MY MAGNET DURING SYDNEY FESTIVAL. I LOVE THE FESTIVAL VILLAGE BECAUSE IT’S FULL OF LIGHT AND HAPPY PEOPLE. I’M LIKE A MOTH TO THE FLAME.” ROBBIE BUCK (ON MERITON FESTIVAL VILLAGE), SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
In its third incarnation, the Village has grown to become the lively heart and playground that epitomises the Festival’s relaxed and inclusive nature.
06 MERITON FESTIVAL VILLAGE 22
Two spiegeltents hosted a spectacular array of ticketed shows, while the rest of Hyde Park came to life with a free program that included live bands, DJs, City of Sydney Lawn Library and the popular Family Week program. Whether you were seeing a show, looking for a place to catch up with friends or just grabbing a bite to eat, the Village welcomed everyone. The house shows in the spiegeltents ranged from the newly commissioned – Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid “cabaret perfection” (Limelight Magazine) to the thrillingly moody “punkcabaret masters” (Limelight Magazine) The Very Worst of The Tiger Lillies and the delightful personal songbook and storytelling of Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs! Sold out physical performance works included circus with live violin in Circa’s What Will Have Been, family
entertainment with Casus Circus’ Knee Deep and the “beautiful to watch” (The Guardian) Djuki Mala, a fusion of traditional Elcho Island and global popular culture. 23 music acts performed in the Magic Mirrors and Famous Spiegeltents covering an expansive range of musical styles. From the serpentine Ethio-jazz of the legendary Hailu Mergia with Tony Buck and Mike Majkowski, to the performance art/cabaret of Norway’s Jenny Hval, English poet/ rapper Kate Tempest’s incendiary shows and Reykjavik Calling’s non-stop electro-pop courtesy of FM Belfast and Hermigervill. We looked back at the careers of much loved Australian bands The Blackeyed Susans and the criminally overlooked but hugely influential Brisbane outfit, The Apartments.
Meriton Festival Village, photo Gareth Carr GC Imagery.
Kev Carmody played songs from his new career-spanning four-CD release, in a performance illuminated by a 30-minute documentary, and The Cambodian Space Project sang back to life the lost divas of the golden age of rock‘n’roll with their sci-fi psych musical Cosmic Cambodia. Family Week buzzed with activities for little ones. Tolu, Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon and Josh Earl’s show My Family’s Weirder Than Your Family introduced youngsters to the enchanting world of spiegeltents. Outside the tents, the free program had families dancing around Hyde Park with Guru Dudu’s disco tours and the instant smash hit Bubble Disco. Cake Industries’ Super Box Friends had kids building cardboard creatures then robotising them. The Australian Museum ran maskmaking workshops inspired by their Pacific culture collection. Performances throughout the week included New Zealand singer-songwriter Anna van Riel, multi-instrumentalist Adam Page with his sound-looping masterclass, and Strong Women’s Group from the Tiwi Islands. We welcomed Post-it Note who ran fun craft activities and a playful Instagram photoshoot, and again hosted the City of Sydney Lawn Library with a busy program of storytelling and workshops.
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“THANK YOU SYDNEY FESTIVAL SUCH GREAT EVENTS ON FOR CHILDREN. MY DAUGHTER AND I HAD A GREAT TIME TODAY ESPECIALLY AT BUBBLE DISCO (MY FAV AND HERS BY FAR!) “ WENDY SCOLLAY VIA FACEBOOK
Clockwise from upper left: Bubble Disco, Australian Museum Mask Making (Photos: Prudence Upton); My Family's Weirder Than Your Family (Photo: Jamie Williams); Post-it速 activation (Photo: Gareth Carr GC Imagery); Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon (Photo: Jamie Williams); Dance Your Hyde Off with Guru Dudu (Photo: David Naylor).
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07 BARANGAROO RESERVE 26
Sydney’s newest cultural space inspired the Festival to present epic artworks and activities that became the heart of Sydney Festival’s free program. Comprising two significant commissions - a new video artwork by Australian artist Shaun Gladwell and a participatory installation by French artist Olivier Grossetête, these works responded to the vast proportions of the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve.
“THIS IS JUST PERFECT. SUCH A JOYOUS CELEBRATION OF ARCHITECTURE, COMMUNITY SPIRIT AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE, AND WHAT A GREAT DISCOVERY OF A NEW URBAN SPACE. WELL DONE SYDNEY FESTIVAL” PENELOPE SEIDLER AM
Olivier Grossetête is known for his large-scale public participatory artworks that culminate in beautiful temporary structures made only of cardboard and packing tape. Over 16 days the public and volunteers helped him build 13 enormous buildings – some inspired directly by the city skyline, others as fantasies of a utopian world. Children, parents and grandparents poured into Barangaroo Reserve and used 3,300 rolls of tape and 6.9 tonnes of cardboard to create one of Sydney Festival’s largest public artworks. Several buildings came down in the process but 10 epic structures survived, filling the Cutaway for the destruction finale on Australia Day. Spectators counted down and cheered as each building toppled, then the gates opened and thousands of children pounced on the debris, bouncing with delight as the cardboard was crushed ready for recycling. Shaun Gladwell’s video installation Skateboarders vs Minimalism was the result of the artist matching his favourite skateboarders (Rodney Mullen, Hillary Thompson and Jesus Esteban) with his favourite American minimalist artists (Donald Judd, Carl Andre, David Smith and Ellsworth Kelly). Projected as a triptych of slow-motion performances along the western wall of the Cutaway, the artwork spanned more than 55 metres and had a soundtrack that included works by Philip Glass and Kazumichi Grime. For the younger visitors, Melbourne-based artists BOXWARS facilitated two weeks of kids workshops – an invitation to craft something from cardboard that they would like to see in Sydney. Each carefully built idea was added to a scale model metropolis, straight from the minds of our junior city planners. And for the adrenaline junkies, a custom built flying fox was installed offering riders a unique perspective of The Ephemeral City as they flew around the Cutaway and between the cardboard buildings.
Flying Fox at The Ephemeral City Photo: Prudence Upton
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08 PARRAMATTA Compagnia Finzi Pasca’s Australian premiere of their grand circus La Verità and Antigua i Barbuda’s fairground Arquitectura de Feria were the central productions of our most artistically diverse and successful program to date. These two major international works engaged family audiences from Western Sydney and continued the Festival’s commitment to presenting a balanced program of free and ticketed events.
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Alongside Arquitectura de Feria, the free program included the artwork 1000 Bells. Conceptual artists Lauren Brincat and percussionist Bree van Reyk held a series of ceramic bell-making workshops with the public that culminated in a large sonic installation in the trees of Prince Alfred Square. With Arquitectura de Feria and 1000 Bells filling the park right next door to Riverside Theatres, it was important to join together these significant precincts creating a hub for all Festival activities. So, for the duration of the Festival, Market Street was pedestrianised and hosted the Summer Nights program including food stalls, partner activations and a program of free live music every weekend.
In addition to the free music on Market Street, we presented six ticketed Australian and international music acts in the intimate surrounds of Riverside’s Lennox Theatre, from Maru Tarang’s exquisite blend of Rajasthani folk and Australian roots to DaM-FunK’s signature G-Funk grooves and Matthew E. White’s country soul.
Cypher by Nick Power concluded the Festival’s activities at the Riverside Theatre. This high energy hip-hop dance battle performance gave audiences a glimpse into an extraordinary and vibrant subculture. At Old Government House and Elizabeth Farm, the Festival presented the Parramatta edition of Fire Bucket, with Bidgambul elder Uncle Wes Marne. Sharing stories from his life, the three nights offered an extraordinary juxtaposition of Australian alternate histories. At Granville Town Hall, we presented The Events, a new production by Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre and State Theatre Company South Australia, starring Catherine McClements alongside a number of community choirs from around Sydney’s west.
“THIS IS MY FIRST SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND I’M BLOWN AWAY BY ITS DIVERSITY. IT’S NOT JUST A FESTIVAL FOR INDIVIDUALS; THERE IS SO MUCH THAT’S GREAT FOR THE FAMILY OR FOR CATCHING UP WITH FRIENDS.” ALESANDRO LJUBICIC, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Arquitectura de Feria Photo: Jamie Williams.
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09 ACCESSIBILITY & INCLUSION FREE EVENTS & AFFORDABLE OPTIONS
To ensure Sydney Festival events are accessible to people of all income brackets, free and lower cost ticket options continue to be a cornerstone of the Festival’s commitment to accessibility. In 2016, 86 of 155 events were free. A total of 394,459 people attended free events ranging from our major cardboard box installation at Barangaroo Reserve to The Domain concert series, the Catalonian fairground at Parramatta’s Prince Alfred Square and the City of Sydney Lawn Library at Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park. Tix for Next to Nix continues to be an important inititative each year, offering an allocation of tickets to all paid Sydney Festival events at just $25. Tickets are available daily, at the Meriton Festival Village box office, for events taking place that day. A total of 1,372 tickets were sold as part of the program. Sydney Festival is also committed to delivering affordable options in a range of other ways. Events in the About an Hour series continue to be priced at $35, while many of the music and family events in Parramatta and Meriton Festival Village were also priced at $35 or less. Promotions such as daily deals and an anniversary ticket promotion offered a range of productions at half price. Reduced ticket prices were also offered to arts industry workers and community contacts. Opposite page: The Ephemeral City (Photo: Jamie Williams); Summer Sounds in The Domain, Arquitectura de Feria (Photos: Jamie Williams); The Rabbits tactile tour (Photo: Prudence Upton); Pleasure Garden performance (Photo: Tina Walsberger)
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DISABILITY ACCESS
We welcome all visitors to Sydney Festival and make every effort to ensure that the program is accessible and inclusive to all. We believe that Sydney Festival is for everyone, regardless of their individual accessibility requirements. Sydney Festival’s Disability Action Plan (DAP) is available via our website and the Human Rights Commission website. In 2016, Sydney Festival offered more accessible services than in previous years. These included live theatre captioned performances of All the Sex I’ve Ever Had, Cut the Sky and The Rabbits, plus Auslan interpreted performances of La Verità and Songs for the Fallen. Other accessible services offered included tactile tours of The Rabbits and Pleasure Garden, a pre-show audio description of Passion and an audio described performance of The Rabbits. There were relaxed performances of Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon and Tolu, for children on the autism spectrum and people with intellectual disabilities. We presented surtitled performances of foreign language shows +51 Aviación, San Borja, O Mensch!, Passion and a fully surtitled performance of Woyzeck. In addition, Sydney Festival produced an access brochure and calendar, along with braille and audio brochures. Sydney Festival aspires to improve access services each year in consultation with external consultants, members of our audience and stakeholders.
“CHEAP FESTIVAL EVENTS ARE GREAT. FREE FESTIVAL EVENTS? EVEN BETTER.” CONCRETE PLAYGROUND
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“MARRUGEKU ARTFULLY DELIVERS A STRIKINGLY RENDERED INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVE ON A LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL OUTRAGE.� MARTIN PORTUS, DAILY REVIEW
SUSTAINABILITY ACHIEVEMENTS Sydney Festival is continually working towards making the Festival a more sustainable event, and we are committed to understanding our impact on the environment. In an aim to minimise any negative impact on the environment, the Festival promotes more sustainable transport options for patrons through the provision of bike racks and encouraging the use of public transport.
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All Sydney Festival food and drink vendors are obliged to use only compostable or recyclable service ware. The Festival also reduces waste by serving beverages in reusable cups at Festival bars, providing artists with refillable water bottles and setting up water stations where patrons can refill their drink bottles at key Festival sites. The Festival has a commitment to recycling
materials wherever possible. This extends from Festival signage and infrastructure, to the harvesting of rainwater from The Domain stage canopy for use in the Royal Botanic Gardens. In the office, Sydney Festival prints on sustainably sourced paper stock with printers that meet independently assessed performance measures.
RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN
Having successfully launched and implemented our first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) back in 2013 we were pleased to receive official endorsement from Reconciliation Australia for our 2015–2017 RAP. We remain committed to working towards improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians by creating and fostering an organisational environment that
cherishes respect, creates opportunity and builds cultural awareness. We set ourselves goals in 2013/14 and we are pleased to report the vast majority were achieved, but there is still so much more we can do. We’ve learnt a lot over the past few years, and both our successes and mistakes inform our strategy for our second plan.
We've created new measurable goals, whilst simultaneously maintaining ongoing successful initiatives, and we look forward to the successes of this plan as part of the ongoing journey for the Festival and our community.
Cut the Sky Photo: Prudence Upton.
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10 ARTS & CULTURE INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS 34
Sydney Festival is both a leader and a participant in a rich local and global cultural landscape. We foster connectivity and dialogue among the cultural sector, and participate in networks and international conversations both during the Festival and throughout the year.
TALKS PROGRAM In 2016, the Festival increased and diversified the opportunities for audienecs to engage with artists and big ideas. We presented two artist talks by leading visiting international artists and two participatory forums investigating important contemporary questions. Kicking off our 40th anniversary, Robert Wilson delivered a keynote address on the place of arts festivals in today’s society, Arts Festivals: The Long and Winding Road, presented with Sydney Opera House. An alumnus of the Festival, with a body of internationally acclaimed uncompromising work across disciplines, Wilson invited us into his unique world of theatre-making in our contemporary culture. Another senior artist, the globally renowned choreographer and dancer, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, reflected on the relationship between music, movement and mathematics in her body of work, two of which featured in the Festival: Fase – Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich and Vortex Temporum. In 2016, we also partnered with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) to present two well attended forums that addressed big contemporary ideas. Participants joined leading thinkers to design a resilient and food secure Sydney, or design a new model of government for our dynamic and networked society at Feeding Sydney: The Future of Our City’s Foodbowl and Your Future Government: A Thought Experiment. All events were well attended drawing in excess of 1,000 participants.
ARTS INDUSTRY PROGRAM In 2016, the Sydney Festival Arts Industry Program continued. In its third year, the program provided artists and arts workers with the opportunity to participate in the Festival and its surrounding conversations. 262 local artists and arts workers subscribed to the Arts Industry Program, taking advantage of reduced price tickets and priority access to the Meriton Festival Village and artist talks.
INTERNSHIPS In 2016, Sydney Festival hosted 14 internship placements across multiple departments. Internships were offered to students attending NSW universities, and placements within departments were tailored to each intern’s area of study. The Sydney Festival internship experience is an invaluable opportunity for students to get hands-on experience in one of Australia’s leading arts organisations. Placements offered practical experience as well as exposure to the administration and delivery of the Festival, including insight into strategic goals. The Festival benefits from the energy and enthusiasm of our interns. We wish our 2016 interns every success for their future.
“CONSTANTLY CHALLENGED AND ALWAYS SUPPORTED, INTERNING AT SYDNEY FESTIVAL EXPOSED ME TO AN INCREDIBLY DIVERSE RANGE OF EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS AS WELL AS A TRULY DEDICATED, CARING AND INNOVATIVE MARKETING TEAM.” SAMANTHA JONSCHER, MARKETING INTERN SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016
40 Portraits Photo: Jamie Willams.
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11 MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS 36
Sydney Festival executed a multi-channel, integrated campaign around the 2016 Festival resulting in unprecedented local and international reach.
The campaign kicked off in August with an online archival project marking the Festival’s 40th anniversary. Then on 4 August, the Festival announced an October season of Peter Sellars’ Desdemona. At this time, it was also revealed that Thalia Theater Hamburg’s adaptation of Woyzeck would be the centrepiece for Sydney Festival 2016 with support from Destination NSW. Sydney Festival’s Parramatta program was launched on 19 October at Riverside Theatres, and the remainder of the Festival program was announced on 21 October 2015.
BRANDING The 2016 brand design centred on the Festival’s 40th anniversary, bringing a celebration of the Festival’s heritage and esteemed future to the heart of the visual identity. Now in its fourth and final year, the pared back brand design marked Lieven Bertels’ tenure as Festival Director. A sleek silver brochure punctuated the Festival’s important milestone and proved very popular with Festival audiences. To celebrate the Festival’s ruby anniversary, ruby was the primary brand colour, extending across all marketing tools.
1.1M VISITS TO THE WEBSITE (AUG 4–JAN 26) 117,316 FACEBOOK FANS 105,588 TWITTER FOLLOWERS 19,482 INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS
(INCREASE OF 36.2% SINCE 2015 FESTIVAL)
(INCREASE OF 54.8% SINCE 2015 FESTIVAL)
4.2M CUMULATIVE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING REACH* 698 DIGITAL ADS WITH 28.5M REACH 100 PRINT ADS WITH 25M READERSHIP 658 TELEVISION ADS
CONTENT Sydney Festival continues to invest strongly in content marketing across platforms. A crowd-sourced retrospective of our audience’s most memorable Festival moments kicked off the campaign in collaboration with our media partner 702 ABC Sydney, capturing human stories to accompany the Festival’s first documented online archive. The number of self-produced videos continues to grow each year, supported by an in-house camera team working tirelessly in January. Highlights included celebrity endorsements, behind-the-scenes footage, audience interviews and event footage which was pushed out across all digital channels. Event imagery and videos formed a large part of our social media content with spectacular photography which helped to almost double our Instagram following this year. The Family Week program and The Ephemeral City were promoted through a real life cardboard box character, Boxy, who walked the streets of our city, meeting and greeting new audiences. A total of 1.8M emails were sent to highly engaged Festival fans. 33 blog posts published on the Sydney Festival blog were read a total of 36,672 times.
353 RADIO ADS 6,399 MEDIA ARTICLES 1.8M EMAILS SENT TO 81,096 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS 33 BLOG POSTS READ 36,672 TIMES
*Total reach data via APN and Adshel.
Left: Boxy on Sydney Harbour Photo: Jamie Willams.
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WEBSITE Sydney Festival continued to improve the website’s user experience, further promoting the new filter function which allows users to search across multiple criteria including date, venue, genre and pricing. Ongoing investment in mobile functionality has also seen the Festival maintain a high level of mobile web traffic, currently at 44% of total web traffic. A new function on Sydney Festival’s mobile site allowed users to swipe their way through the Festival program, displaying one event image per page alongside the name and a short teaser blurb. From there, users were able to add events to their My Festival shortlist. The use of the My Festival function increased by 50% to 2,902 this year, across mobile and desktop platforms.
1.1M VISITS TO THE WEBSITE (AUG 4–JAN 26)
44%
OF USERS ACCESSED THE WEBSITE VIA A MOBILE DEVICE
WEBSITE USERS 7% 8%
85%
Opposite page:
NSW
85%
ELSEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA
8%
INTERNATIONAL
7%
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Meriton Festival Village food, Outside Summer Sounds in The Domain (Photos: Jamie Williams); Meriton Festival Village bandstand (Photo: David Hasseart); Sydney Festival 2016 brochure, Meriton Festival Village box office (Photos: Gareth Carr GC Imagery); Meriton Festival Village entry (Photo: David Hasseart)
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“…A PROGRAM OF TRULY EPIC PROPORTIONS” JASMINE CRITTENDEN, CONCRETE PLAYGROUND
PRINT ADVERTISING
ONLINE ADVERTISING
National newspaper: The Australian
Sydney Festival further invested in search, display and social media advertising, working Major metropolitan newspapers: The with The Web Showroom to further strengthen Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph. our digital advertising campaigns. The Festival ran a total of 698 digital ads, trialling campaigns Local newspapers: Inner West Courier, on Twitter and Instagram while refining existing Canterbury Bankstown Express, Parramatta approaches to Google and Facebook. Highlights Advertiser, Blacktown Advocate. were a 44% increase in Facebook clicks, a Specialty street press: The Music, The Brag, 187% increase in Google remarketing clicks, Cult, SX, Blaze, Gay Summer Guide, Queensland and 22,000 YouTube views. Pride, Indian Link. Online advertising: Google search and display advertising, Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Magazines: Gourmet Traveller, Limelight SMH.com.au, FilmInk, Concrete Playground, Magazine, RealTime, Fine Music, Dance Junkee, ArtsHub, Kidspot, Dance Australia, Gay Australia, FilmInk. News Network, Dendy Cinemas, The Music, Overall print readership reach: 25,093,300. Ellaslist, Ticketmaster, Fine Music, Limelight and Indian Link.
TV, RADIO, CINEMA ADVERTISING & PROMOTIONS TV: Channel 7, Channel V, MAX.
Overall digital readership reach: Over 27.1 million.
PRINTED COLLATERAL & DISTRIBUTION
Over 650,000 pieces of collateral including Radio: ABC 702, ABC Radio National, ABC Classic FM, ABC Jazz, FBi Radio, KIIS FM, 2SER, 170,000 copies of the 2016 Festival brochure were distributed via the following channels: Fine Music 102.5, Indian Link Radio. Cinema: Dendy Cinemas.
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Top to bottom, left to right: Symphony in The Domain, Festival flags on George Street (Photos: Prudence Upton); Audience member photographing at Summer Sounds in The Domain (Photo: David Hasseart); Adshel digital screen at Town Hall station, triffid at Darling Harbour, glowie in Sydney CBD (Photos: Gareth Carr GC Imagery); Festival-goer reading Sydney Festival highlights guide (Photo: Street Ninja) Following page: Meow Meow's Little Mermaid media call Photo: Jamie Williams.
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•
• •
direct mail through Sydney Festival’s customer database, targeted distribution to cafes, arts and leisure hotspots through Avant Card, household distribution to targeted postcodes, distribution to audiences of arts organisations through seat drops and mail-outs, peer-to-peer promotional activity at commuter hubs, inserts in niche publications.
OUTDOOR ADVERTISING & SIGNAGE 530 street flags and banners in the City of Sydney, Circular Quay, Parramatta and Barangaroo Reserve. 41 information columns in Sydney CBD. ADSHEL Large-format digital billboards, digital portraits and street furniture in Sydney, Parramatta and Canberra. Audience: 1.6 million. APN Large-format digital billboards, roadside posters, and busbacks across Sydney, Parramatta, Canberra and Melbourne. Audience: 2 million. ROVA Taxi advertising across Greater Sydney and Melbourne. There were 22.7 million opportunities to see this advertising on the streets throughout the campaign. SYDNEY AIRPORT Superlites, digital displays, and welcome banners at Sydney Airport.
PUBLICITY Sydney Festival 2016 received unprecedented media coverage with a total of 6,399 reports across print, online, television and radio. 6,399 FESTIVAL-RELATED ARTICLES 9,042,210,000 ACCUMULATED AUDIENCE REACH $83,640,458 IN AUSTRALIAN ADVERTISING SPACE RATE VALUE
Sydney Festival’s 2016 campaign received six months of consistent media coverage, kicking off in early August with the announcement of two major highlights – a special October season of Desdemona based on Shakespeare’s Othello, and the Festival centrepiece Woyzeck. Online media produced the most Sydney Festival coverage with a total of 3,408 reports captured by media monitors, making up 51.8% of the total coverage. Articles reporting on Festival events, news and reviews online drove 26,136 visits to the Festival’s website between August 2015 and February 2016. In 2016, there was a 30% increase in reach of articles as a result of extensive coverage from global online publications. Considerable web traffic was driven by Time Out Sydney, Concrete Playground, The Guardian, Ellaslist and Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Morning Herald was reported as the leading online publication with 107 articles (equating to an advertising space rate value of $3,409,883), followed by The Canberra Times and The Age online publications which all share the Fairfax masthead. 2016 saw increased interest from national and local print media with 783 articles in major daily newspapers, monthly magazines, free street press, regional and local newspapers, and specialist publications. 21 cover stories were published throughout the media campaign in a range of news, arts and travel publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Weekend Australian Review supplement, Sydney Morning Herald’s Spectrum, Shortlist, Summer Herald and S inserts, Jetstar Magazine, Indian Link and Fine Music Magazine. 42
Local street press titles The Brag, The Music and SX each printed special Sydney Festival editions with exclusive covers and considerable coverage both in print and online, as well as reviewing and listing events during the Festival.
With a view to broadening its audiences, Sydney Festival worked closely with a range of media partners including ABC Classic FM and ABC Radio National to record 10 live performances for later broadcast, extending the Festival’s longevity beyond January.
Radio coverage more than doubled since last year. 1,748 radio reports were captured by media monitoring alongside a significant number of interviews and mentions on community radio stations which are not included in these figures. The highest individual coverage came from 702 ABC Sydney, which aired 52 interviews and 7 live performances.
In 2016, television coverage was greater than in previous years with 629 national and local reports on commercial stations reported by media monitoring, almost doubling the figures reported last year. Commercial and independent television stations responded well to the expanded Parramatta program and the diverse program of Festival events, with national coverage broadcasted on ABC, Channel Seven, Channel Nine, Channel Ten and SBS stations.
Interviews, live performances, guest present segments, reviews and mentions were spread across ABC Radio National, ABC Classic FM, Double J, triple j, ABC Jazz, ABC Dig Radio, Triple M, 2UE Sydney, 2GB Radio, SBS Languages, Koori Radio, 2SER Radio, FBi Radio, Eastside Radio and other community stations.
International coverage exceeded that of previous years with 942 online reports, including The Guardian (US), The Guardian (UK), MOJO (US), Opera Magazine (China), Daily Mail (UK) and many more international publications. The United States, China,
“THIS IS A SHOW FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY. IT IS SUPERBLY INTELLIGENT AND JOYOUSLY NEW.” MEOW MEOW’S LITTLE MERMAID SEAN MARONEY, THE MUSIC
Canada and United Kingdom were reported as the leading regions to cover the 2016 Festival. Sydney Festival together with Destination NSW hosted a number of interstate and international journalists to attend the Festival’s program of events. Journalists from targeted media outlets in New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, China and across Australia were invited to cover the Festival in 2016.
Sydney Festival used PR Newswire, an international online distribution service, to target media outlets in the USA, UK and Asia. Two multimedia news releases were distributed to international media providing media access to press releases, images and videos and driving web traffic directly to the Festival website. There were a total of 24,808 video views and the releases were published on 529 websites with a potential total audience of 29,097,028 unique visitors per day. SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW
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12 CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Sydney Festival’s government and corporate partners helped us make our 40th anniversary a momentous celebration of arts and culture in Sydney. Our partners play a vital role in the planning and delivery of each and every Festival, and are integral in enabling Sydney Festival to present an engaging, world-class program.
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Corporate social responsibility plays a major role for many of our partners who are committed to enriching and inspiring our community. We tailor each partnership to suit our partner’s business and marketing objectives whether that be from program alignment to integration into the Festival’s marketing channels, on-site activations and promotions, digital and social media engagement and B2B networking opportunities and unique hospitality options. The Festival works with media partners across print, broadcast and digital platforms in order to promote our program, from the first announcement in August, through to the end of the Festival. Our production partners also play a vital role in staging the Festival across our many venues.
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Special thanks to Arts NSW for their continual investment in Sydney Festival and commitment to ensuring we deliver a diverse and high calibre program year on year. Along with Arts NSW, the City of Sydney has been a founding partner of the Festival since 1977 and has provided us with access to many city venues.
Returning for the third year as Principal Partner, The Star Sydney continues to generously support Sydney Festival’s program and vision.
Destination NSW has been a long-term investor in the Festival, promoting the event via their extensive marketing channels to drive visitation from interstate and international audiences. Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority have also played a vital role in supporting the Festival by contributing to the presentation of largescale events and installation art projects in the Darling Harbour precinct. Harbour City Ferries supports our annual Ferrython race celebrating Australia Day on Sydney Harbour. In 2016, Sydney Festival welcomed a new partnership with the Barangaroo Delivery Authority to present The Ephemeral City, the Festival’s largest community participation event to date, drawing huge crowds to their new arts and cultural precinct at the Cutaway. Sydney Water joined our stable of partners with the Sydney Water Bar, serving tea infused water which kept everyone hydrated in the summer sun in Parramatta. Parramatta City Council remains committed to the development and presentation of high quality arts and cultural events in Parramatta and through partnership with the Festival has had great success in achieving this.
The Festival provided audiences with an entertainment precinct at The Star Sydney that housed The Sky Terrace DJ Series; an impressive free program of local and international DJs against a backdrop of the Sky Terrace’s panoramic views. The Star Sydney showcased their exceptional catering and impeccable service at our VIP Marquee at The Domain Concert Series and at their signature establishments Balla, Black by Ezard, Sokyo, Pizzaperta Manfredi and Fat Noodle who each took part in our Fast Festival Feasts restaurant program. Sydney Festival hosts many functions at The Star Sydney including cultivation events with private donors, networking gatherings to corporate meetings. The Festival closing party at Sky Terrace officially marked the end of our 40th anniversary festivities and was a fantastic celebration to end a truly remarkable Festival. We welcomed a host of new partners for the 2016 Sydney Festival including Meriton Group who took naming rights of Meriton Festival Village, our Festival hub located in Hyde Park. James Estate Wines became our exclusive wine partner, and Moet & Chandon, King Living, Hyundai, UTS and 3M; Post-it & Scotch all joined us as partners for the first time.
Left page: Sky Terrace, The Star Sydney Photo: Prudence Upton. This page: Sydney Water Bar at Parramatta site, Post-it® activation at Meriton Festival Village Photos: Gareth Carr GC Imagery
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Streets came on board to promote their Golden Gaytime ice cream by sponsoring a ferry in our famous Ferrython race, in a friendly competition which saw them up against Meriton Group, NRMA and Sydney Festival. Leading property developer Dyldam became the co-partner of The Domain Concert Series alongside China Southern Airlines, presenting two free music events to tens of thousands of people. In addition, China Southern Airlines offered our audiences discounted international airfares and free merchandise at key Festival events. Kirin continued their partnership as the exclusive beer and cider of the Festival and brought back the interactive digital artwork Bit.Fall, as well as a large-scale dragon installation that decorated the main bar. Channel 7 supported our box office and information booth in the Meriton Festival Village, Accor Hotels housed many of our interstate and international artists, and Sydney Airport was aligned to Family Week as well as promoting the Festival at their terminals. To learn more about Sydney Festival corporate partnerships and how your brand can be integrated into Sydney Festival 2017, please contact Brooke Ravens, Senior Sponsorship Manager, on (02) 8248 6565 or brooke.ravens@sydneyfestival.org.au
FAST FESTIVAL FEASTS Now in its 16th year, Fast Festival Feasts saw thousands of Festival-goers take advantage of special offers at 26 partner restaurants across Sydney CBD, Eastern Sydney and Parramatta. The Fast Festival Feasts program is supported by Gourmet Traveller and promoted through an extensive marketing campaign across print and digital platforms. 46
Left to right, top to bottom: Kirin Bar at Meriton Festival Village, Accor Hotels, Ferrython, City of Sydney Lawn Library, Channel 7 box Office at Meriton Festival Village, Sydney Airport, 3M Post-it media triffid, James Estate Bar at Meriton Festival Village, China Southern Airlines at Parramatta Photos: Gareth Carr GC Imagery
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13 PHILANTHROPY & DONATIONS “SYDNEY FESTIVAL BRINGS DIVERSITY AND AMAZEMENT TO US. IT’S OUR ONLY OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN BUILDING A CITY OR EXPERIENCING EDGY PERFORMANCES, OR TAKING A FLYING FOX RIDE!” – PENELOPE SEIDLER AM
Sydney Festival is grateful for the growing commitment of our donors who support our vision through our philanthropic program. The program offers unique opportunities to get closer to the Festival and its artists with exclusive, behind-the-scenes experiences, resulting in conversations and friendships that continue throughout the Festival and across the years. For the 40th Festival, donors enjoyed events including a special program preview dinner attended by Festival artists, past Festival directors and the New South Wales Premier, Mike Baird MP. Others enjoyed a private lunch with American experimental theatre stage director and playwright Robert Wilson, a performance rehearsal and lunch with conductor of Anima Eterna Brugge, Jos van Immerseel, and conversations with Festival artists post-shows in the Ruby Lounge at the Meriton Festival Village. Many farewelled the outgoing Festival Director Lieven Bertels with a twilight celebration on a terrace overlooking the city or sharing a drink before the final Beethoven concert in the Sydney Opera House boardroom. The more intrepid even enjoyed a ride on the flying fox at
The Ephemeral City or took to the high seas and joined the race for the Ferrython! Our supporters enable us to provide a celebration of international and Australian creativity with artists from near and far, providing great experiences – free and ticketed – to the people of Sydney and its visitors.
JOIN US IN 2017 Learn more about our philanthropy program and the difference you can make. The program offers different levels of support with a variety of benefits including priority booking, VIP access and exclusive event invitations. Visit sydneyfestival.org.au/support or contact Marita Supplee on (02) 8248 6510 or marita.supplee@sydneyfestival.org.au for further details.
RAISE THE ROOF In 2016, the Festival asked the people of Sydney to help us Raise the Roof – a campaign that helped fund the provision of a new canopy for the iconic Domain stage. We extend a big thank you to all the members of the community who supported our fundraising campaign and contributed so generously towards the cost of a new canopy for one of Sydney’s largest celebration and gathering points. Whether you rounded up your ticket price, made an online gift or dropped a gold coin in a bucket held by one of our volunteers, it all helped. A special thanks to the Balnaves Foundation who kick started the campaign with a gift of $10,000.
Penelope Seidler AM (Flying Fox, The Ephemeral City)
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“WE WERE DELIGHTED TO SUPPORT SYDNEY FESTIVAL’S PROGRAM THIS YEAR. THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PHILANTHROPY STAFF WAS EXCELLENT AND THEY MADE US TRULY FEEL PART OF THE FESTIVAL FAMILY.” - MARCO BELGIORNO-ZEGNA AM
Left to right, top to bottom: Catriona Mordant and Simon Mordant AM, Robert Wilson and Shaun Gladwell, (Shaun Gladwell’s Skateboarders vs Minimalism preview); Peter Freedman AM, Lou Freedman and Lieven Bertels (Lieven Bertels' farewell function); Marco Belgiorno-Zegna AM and Malcom Moir (Lieven Bertels' farewell function); Peter and Jenny Solomon, Chris Tooher (Shaun Gladwell’s Skateboarders vs Minimalism preview); Martin-Weber family (Flying Fox, The Ephemeral City), Photo: Gareth Carr GC Imagery; Elise Caluwaerts performs at Government House (Photo: Prudence Upton), Marita Supplee, Roger Allan and Kathryn Lovric (Lieven Bertels' farewell function); Tanya Bush, Judith and Jonathan Casson and Paddy Carney (Lieven Bertels' farewell function).
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14 VOLUNTEERS 50
VOLUNTEERS Sydney Festival would not be possible without our army of dedicated and generous volunteers. Eventeamwork returned for a fourth year to manage the Festival’s volunteer program, which involved 303 volunteers working over 1900 shifts from October through to the end of the Festival on Australia Day. This year saw the return of the successful Team Leader Program introduced in 2015, with 21 team leaders assisting with supervising volunteers across various Festival venues such as Carriageworks, Meriton Festival Village, The Domain and the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve.
Our enthusiastic volunteers took on many roles on the ground and behind the scenes – from compiling materials for artists and staff, to invigilating exhibitions and collecting donations at the Festival’s large-scale events. In 2016, the majority of volunteer activity centred around the free program at Barangaroo Reserve, where we saw approximately 65 volunteers per day at The Ephemeral City, collecting donations, assisting with the build and workshops of the cardboard city, and managing queues at both the flying fox and BOXWARS kids workshops.
“…THERE WAS JUST A HUGE COMMUNITY FEELING BETWEEN VOLLIES, STAFF AND PATRONS ALIKE. EVERY TIME WE LIFTED A BUILDING IT WAS SUCH A TEAM EFFORT AND EVERYONE WAS HAVING SO MUCH FUN!” ANONYMOUS, TAKEN FROM VOLUNTEER SURVEY
Pictured left: Festival volunteers at the Cutaway Photo: Keith Calvin Leong Pictured right: Festival volunteers gathering donations at Summer Sounds in The Domain, volunteers aboard the Sydney Festival ferry at Ferrython, (Photos: Gareth Carr GC Imagery); volunteers helping to pull down cardboard buildings at The Ephemeral City demolition day, (Photo: Jamie Williams); volunteers at El Anatsui, (Photo: Johnny Medina)
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15 THE FUTURE SYDNEY FESTIVAL
A MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR 2017–2019
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I have been part of many Sydney Festivals as an artist, audience member, party-goer, tourist and Sydney local.
I have danced myself into a silly sweaty mess at Hyde Park Barracks, I’ve experienced the love and standing ovations of an opening night crowd at a world premiere, I’ve seen the wonder in the faces of children as they experience the majesty of Sydney Opera House for the first time, I’ve sat in the open air enjoying the company of friends, listening to music, and I’ve been challenged by the international offerings that changed the way I think about the world. BUT I have never been behind-the-scenes and observed at such close quarters the dedication and pure resilience of the people who make the Festival happen. The staff, technicians, volunteers, event staff, artists, supporters, hospitality workers, journalists, public servants, ticket sellers, audiences and many, many more. The tireless efforts of over half a million Sydney citizens go into making Sydney Festival great. I must admit that I found a new level of respect for Lieven and the amazing balancing act a Festival Director must perform to deliver to the wide array of audiences for Sydney Festival. He has walked the tightrope between the populist and the avant-garde, the history and the future, with such aplomb that I must admit feeling awe and a deep and humbling respect for him, and all my predecessors.
Top to bottom, left to right: Wesley Enoch (Photo: Prudence Upton); Summer Sounds in the Domain, Woyzeck, The Ephemeral City, (Photos: Jamie Williams).
During the 2016 Festival I would often go to shows and events by myself so I could strike up conversations with other audience members. What struck me was how those I talked to love the Festival. They didn’t always love everything they saw, but they love the Festival and what it means to the city and their lives. From these conversations, and others, I have
gleaned four very distinct personalities for Sydney Festival: 1. Heritage Celebrating the history of the Festival – with 40 years of concerts in the park, opera, Ferrython, and other events in the city’s iconic locations, parks and architecture. 2. Summer celebration Letting your hair down and having a great time – the Meriton Festival Village, community events, the free program, Family Week, the relaxed atmosphere and friendly vibe. 3. International arts festival Bringing the best of the world and the nation to one place and time, at a time for the city to enjoy, learn from and enter into a dialogue with. 4. Disruption Provide a time to think about the city differently, to enable change and imagine a future, to make and test resolutions. I’m sure there is more to be discovered but Lieven showed me the ability to think in big pictures, to create rhythms for an audience over the three-week period and to walk the tightrope. I am humbled and excited by the challenges ahead and would like to thank Lieven for his generosity of spirit and for leaving behind his big shoes. I look forward to welcoming you to Sydney Festival 2017 and beyond, as we bring you the beginning of the next 40 years of the true Festival of Sydney. WESLEY ENOCH FESTIVAL DIRECTOR 2017–19 SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW
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16 SUPPORTERS Sydney Festival wishes to thank the following individuals, foundations and organisations for their generous donations over the last 12 months.
MAJOR DONOR $200K+ Peter Freedman AM and Lou Freedman MAJOR PROJECT DONOR $25K+ Antoinette Albert The Martin-Weber Family Simon Mordant AM and Catriona Mordant Rebel Penfold-Russell OAM DIRECTORS' CIRCLE $20K+ President Michael Crouch AO Members Anonymous (1) Antoinette Albert Peter Hunt AM Dr Kathryn Lovric and Dr Roger Allan Roslyn Packer AO Rebel Penfold-Russell OAM
SPECIAL PROJECT DONOR $20K+ Rockend
FESTIVAL HEROES $10K+ Anonymous (1) Robert Albert AO and Libby Albert Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron Jonathan and Judith Casson Brett Clegg and Annabel Hepworth The Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer AM David Mathlin and Camilla Drover SPECIAL PROJECT DONORS $10K+ Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron Vic and Katie French Adam and Vicki Liberman Penelope Seidler AM LFRAIA ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS $5K+ Gillian Appleton The Arcadia Group Larissa Behrendt and Michael Lavarch AO John Kaldor AM and Naomi Milgrom Kaldor AO
Lieven Bertels Anne Blau Angela Bowne SC Graham Bradley AM and Charlene Bradley Paddy Carney Sharon Cowin Darren Dale Wesley Enoch Danny and Kathleen Gilbert Dianne Jorgensen Cheryl Lo Juliet Lockhart Dr Ann McFarlane Lyndall and Trevor McNally Adam Max Mary Read Dr Jennifer Solomon Victoria Taylor Chris Tooher John Walton AM Anthony Whealy
Roslyn and Alex Hunyor Dr Carolyn Lowry OAM and Peter Lowry OAM Julianne Maxwell Matthew and Alex Melhuish Penelope Seidler AM Judy and Sam Weiss Kim Williams AM and Catherine Dovey Dr Heather Worth SPECIAL PROJECT DONORS $5K+ Roslyn and Alex Hunyor Rebel Penfold-Russell OAM FOUNDATIONS & ORGANISATIONS The Alexandra & Lloyd Martin Family Foundation The Balnaves Foundation The Nelson Meers Foundation Sidney Myer Fund FESTIVAL LOVERS $1K+ Anne and Terrey Arcus AM John Barrer
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS PRINCIPAL PARTNERS
PRINCIPAL GOVERNMENT PARTNER
LEADERSHIP PARTNERS
Barangaroo Delivery Authority STRATEGIC PARTNER
STRATEGIC PARTNER
MAJOR PARTNER
Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority SPECIAL DISTINGUISHED PARTNER
DISTINGUISHED PARTNER
STAR PARTNER
FOREIGN GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario
CORPORATE PARTNERS PRINCIPAL PARTNER
MAJOR PARTNER
SPECIAL DISTINGUISHED PARTNERS
DISTINGUISHED PARTNERS
STAR PARTNERS
FESTIVAL LAWYERS
MEDIA PARTNERS MAJOR PARTNER
SPECIAL DISTINGUISHED PARTNERS
DISTINGUISHED PARTNERS
T A X I
M E D I A
STAR PARTNERS
FBi RADIO
RESTAURANT PARTNERS 360 Bar and Dining Balla BLACK by ezard Cafe Sydney Chefs Gallery Town Hall China Lane Chophouse
The Dining Room at Park Hyatt Sydney El-Phoenician The Emporium Parramatta Fat Noodle Food Society The Gantry
CONTRIBUTORS La Rosa The Strand The Malaya Mejico CBD Pizzaperta Manfredi Puntino Trattoria Red Lantern on Riley REGATTA Restaurant & Bar
Shayan Quarter @ Cafe Mix Sokyo Steel Bar and Grill Ventuno Pizzeria e Ristorante Walsh Bay Kitchen
Alphabet Studio Artbank Australia Bar Coco Clifton Productions Dendy Cinema Diageo EPS
Flowers at Kirribilli Hapag Lloyd RDA Research Scotch Selby’s Zomato
SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW
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17 SPECIAL THANKS
Executive Director Christopher Tooher FINANCE AND OPERATIONS Head of Finance and Operations Tanya Bush Accountant Caroline Brosnan Accounts Assistant Julie Crawford Payroll Carina Mision Executive Assistant Corey Zerna Administration Officer Courtney Lewis PROGRAMMING Head of Programming Fiona Winning Producer, Major Outdoor Events Vernon Guest The following companies and productions acknowledge the support of: Program Managers SPEAR The Australian Government through the Adam McGowan, Stuart Rogers CYPHER Adelaide Film Festival The Hive Australia Council, its arts funding and Dance Satellite Programming Associates Screen Australia advisory body. Stalker Theatre Inc Rachel Grimes-Carmichael, Louana ABC Sainsbury DOUBLE BLIND Australia Council for the Arts Creative Victoria Associate Producer Definition Films Darebin Arts Sally Blackwood Soundfirm EXIT CEREMONIES Project Manager Carriageworks Arena Theatre Company Creative Victoria Ione Davis Brown Cab Productions Australian Art Orchestra City of Melbourne Music Coordinator Arenamedia Bangarra Dance Theatre FALL FELL FALLEN Annie Mangen Bangarra Dance Theatre Belvoir Ville de Balaruc-les-Bains Program Coordinator SUNNY RAY AND THE MAGNIFICENT Casus Circus La Verrerie d’Alès, Pôle National Cirque Beatrice Hendry MOON Circa Languedoc Roussillon Programming Administrator Creative Victoria Cypher U4, Parc du haut fourneau, Uckange Bianca Moseley Double Blind THIS IS HOW WE DIE Ministère de la Culture et de la MARKETING AND CUSTOMER Ensemble Offspring Communication/DGCA et Drac Languedoc Arts Council England SERVICES Habitat Productions, Stu Hunter Ovalhouse Roussillon Head of Marketing and Customer Malthouse Theatre The Basement Conseil Régional Languedoc Roussillon Services Marrugeku Cambridge Junction Conseil général de l’Hérault Tina Walsberger Performance 4A Norwich Arts Centre SACD Marketing Manager Pleasure Garden TOMORROW’S PARTIES FASE, FOUR MOVEMENTS TO Ainslie Lenehan State Theatre Company of South Australia THE MUSIC OF STEVE REICH A Forced Entertainment and Belluard Digital Marketing Managers Sydney Chamber Opera Bollwerk International (Fribourg) Co-producers 1982: Schaante VZW, Julia Thomas, Luke de Zilva production. Avila VZW Publications Editor Co-producers Early Works: Sadler’s Wells, Co-producers: BIT Teatergarasjen Sevana Ohandjanian (Bergen), Internationale Sommerfestival Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Publications Assistant (Hamburg), Kaaitheater (Brussels), FESTIVAL VILLAGE Ione Davis Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Australian Museum Bangarra Dance Theatre Theaterhaus Gessnerallee (Zurich) and Marketing Coordinators Mark Hammer Belvoir Sheffield City Council. With the support of Emilia Batchelor, Kristine Genovese, Province Studio Critical Stages Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation. Rebecca Slater Anne-Louise Dadak Ensemble Offspring VORTEX TEMPORUM Publicity Manager Laura Pike Performance 4A De Munt/La Monnaie Jessica Keirle KNEE DEEP & TOLU Sydney Chamber Opera Ruhrtriennale Publicists Judith Wright Centre Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Julia Barnes, Catherine Hayes Arts Queensland ALL THE SEX I’VE EVER HAD Théâtre de la Ville Publicity Coordinator THE OBJECT LESSON Canada Council for the Arts Theatre Sadler’s Wells Chelsea Smith The Map Fund International Program Opéra de Lille Media Tickets Assistant Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council’s National and ImpulsTanz Danielle Giannopoulos Andrew W. Mellon Foundation International Touring Program Holland Festival The Wyncote Foundation Graphic Design Manager Oldenburg State Theatre Concertgebouw Brugge The Carol Tambor Foundation Anais Taylor ANIMA ETERNA BRUGGE WHAT WILL HAVE BEEN The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Signage Coordinator BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONIES Arts Queensland Independence Foundation Fellowship Robyn Grant Vlaamse Overheid SYDNEY FESTIVAL PATRON Philadelphia Live Arts Brewery Ticketing Manager Provincie West-Vlaanderen His Excellency General The Honourable (LAB) program Tara Easlea-Harding Concertgebouw Brugge David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d), Governor of Abrons Art Center Ticketing Systems Coordinators Opéra de Dijon New South Wales The Orchard Project Erin Garman, Sarah Toner Bruges? Sounds great! The YARD on Martha’s Vineyard BOARD OF DIRECTORS Guest Ticketing Coordinator Blaibacher Konzerthaus SPACE on Ryder Farm Chair Vanessa Knox Kulturwald. Festspiele Bayerischer Wald RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residency) Sam Weiss Alpha - Outhere Music Ticketing Assistants O MENSCH! Directors Stad Brugge Skye McLennan, Nina Werchon Carriageworks Prof Larissa Behrendt Rode Microphones DEVELOPMENT Kawai Pianos Australia David Borger ARQUITECTURA DE FERIA Head of Development Goethe Institute Paddy Carney New Zealand Festival Malcolm Moir PLEASURE GARDEN Angela Clark THE BOOK OF SAND Philanthropy Manager Australian Research Council’s Centre of Simon Corah Additional support by Performing Arts Marita Supplee Excellence for the History of Emotions Darren Dale Fund NL, Grame/Biennale Musiques en Senior Sponsorship Managers Lambley Garden The Hon Ashley Dawson-Damer AM Scène Lyon and Nederlands Kamerkoor. Anna Matthews, Brooke Ravens Four Winds Festival Diana Eilert CUT THE SKY Sponsorship Manager ABC Classics David Kirk MBE Government of Western Australia Amalina Whittaker Sydney Living Museums Matthew Melhuish Department of Culture and the Arts Sponsorship Executives SONGS FOR THE FALLEN SYDNEY FESTIVAL STAFF Australian Research Council Richard Cox, Jane You Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Festival Director Foundation Lieven Bertels
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Sponsorship Activations Manager Hayley Baynard PRODUCTION Head of Production John Bayley Production Manager Mick Jessop Catering & Sustainability Manager Fernando Motti Production Coordinators Whitney Eglington, Nathalie Taylor Production Coordinator – Parramatta Tom Webster Crewing Coordinator Alycia Stanley Hospitality Coordinator Blake Smith Festival Village Venue Manager Gordon Rymer Production Assistant Kat Anastasiou-Bell Production Assistant – Parramatta Romy McKanna Accessibility Consultants Paul Nunnari, Jenny Spinak Domain Manager Alycia Bangma Site Manager Josh Green Construction Manager Damion Holling Domain Coordinator Timothy Spohr Electricians Craig Adamson, Iain Godfrey FESTIVAL DESIGN AGENCY Alphabet Studio COPYWRITERS Sophie Harris, Darryn King ARCHIVIST Sevana Ohandjanian BROCHURE PRINTING Offset Alpine Printing VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT Eventeamwork THANK YOU Michael Abbott, Accessible Arts, Auslan Stage Left, Mike Baird, Luke Banfield, Monica Barone, The Captioning Studio, Bill Carter, City of Sydney Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel, Mary Darwell, Troy Grant, Ann Hoban, Fiona Jackson, Camille Manley, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, Clover Moore, Kelly Rose (Travel Manager – Stage & Screen Travel Services), Nell Schofield, Vision Australia and all our volunteers and interns. Amiina, Brook Andrew, Ólöf Arnalds, Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir & Sir Nicholas Shehadie, John Bell, Wendy Blacklock, David Byrne, Ruth Catlin, Kate Champion, Wei Chunrong, Tim Crouch, Olafur Eliasson, Uncle Max Eulo, Sarah & Jez Fletcher, John Frost, Craig Gilliver, Heiner Goebbels, Ontroerend Goed, Antony Gormley, Sylvie Guillem, Anita Heiss, Dawn Hobson, Florentijn Hofman, Raimund Hoghe, Sharon Jones, Paul Kelly, Akram Khan, Greg Killeen, Jirí Kylián, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jo Litson & Sal Sharah, Kathryn Lovric & Roger Allan, Melissa Madden Gray, Laura Marling, Joanna Newsom, Beth Orton, Camille O’Sullivan, Tim, Katie & Ben Pack, Archie Roach, Merrilyn Rogers, Nitin Sawhney, James Thierrée, Rokia Traoré, Mary Underwood & Philippe Genty, Rufus Wainwright, Simone Whetton, Robert Wilson, William Yang and Ursula Yovich.
“CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR, THIS IS GOING TO BE A BUSY SUMMER.” JASMINE CRITTENDEN, CONCRETE PLAYGROUND
Spiegeltent audience, photo Jamie Wiliams.
“MORE THAN ANY OTHER AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL, SYDNEY FESTIVAL IS ALL ABOUT GETTING OUT AND ABOUT THE CITY IN SUMMER…” DAILY REVIEW
Symphony in The Domain, photo Jamie Williams.
Level 5, 10 Hickson Road The Rocks NSW 2000 Australia T +61 2 8248 6500 F +61 2 8248 6599 E mail@sydneyfestival.org.au sydneyfestival.org.au