Our pick from the 179 arts, music and culture events being held as part of Sydney Festival’s mammoth 2015 program.
Festival Village, Hyde Park
From 8 to 26 January, Festival Village returns to Hyde Park and will be open day and night, offering family-friendly activities, cabaret, circus acts and musical performances in addition to dozens of dining options and pop-up bars. The Famous Spiegeltent is joined by new addition The Aurora Spiegeltent, and Dublin-based street artist Maser's giant work Higher Ground is a two-storey art installation that will be his biggest ‘playground’ to date.Sydney Buddha, Carriageworks
For the third consecutive summer, Carriageworks is presenting a free-to-the-public, large-scale installation by an international artist. Following on from 2013’s Song Dong: Waste Not and Christian Boltanski’s Chance in 2014, this year the public space will house the largest installation ever created for Australia by Chinese artist Zhang Huan. Sydney Buddha will be comprised of two facing buddhas: the first made from aluminium, which acts as a mould to form the second buddha, which is made from ash collected from Buddhist temples in Shanghai and will gradually disintegrate over the course of the exhibition.Ross McHenry Future Ensemble, Hyde Park North
Composer, producer and bass player Ross McHenry has gotten together with six of the world’s most daring musical innovators to push jazz in new directions. Taking electronic music and hip hop as influences, and future jazz and LA beat as a model, the Future Ensemble builds on the jazz band setup by adding live samples, loops and beats in a largely improvised performance that will take place at 7pm on 9 January.Bill Culbert exhibition, National Art School Gallery
In his largest solo exhibition in Australia to date, New Zealand artist Bill Culbert presents Strait, a line of milk bottles pierced by a horizontal fluorescent tube and Pacific Flotsam, a swarm of fluorescent lights and plastic containers (pictured), alongside other recent sculptures and photographic works. The exhibition – which exudes Culbert’s signature vision of making the every day radiant and extraordinary – follows the success of his installations at the 55th Venice Biennale of Art.Symphony in the Domain
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be joined by ARIA-award-winning performer, composer and didgeridoo player William Barton to perform Peter Sculthorpe's Beethoven Variations as well as songs from his own composition Birdsong at Dusk. The performance honours the working relationship of Barton and Sculthorpe: the latter taught Barton western notation for classical music and Barton in turn helped Sculthorpe integrate Aboriginal music into his compositions. Both were deeply influenced by their love of Australia, and the performance on 18 January will celebrate their sacred appreciation for its landscape.Parramatta Opening Party, Centenary Square
On Friday 9 January, Sydney Festival’s opening party will be headlined by Paul Kelly, who presents his new collaborative project The Merri Soul Sessions featuring Dan Sultan, Clairy Browne, Kira Puru and Vika and Linda Bull. The all-ages event will see a Fire Garden by artist Mike Roberts come to life after dusk, food and beverage options, and a rooftop stage proferring its own musical lineup.Source: http://www.vogue.com.au/vogue+living/arts/galleries/what+to+do+at+sydney+festival+2015,34263?pos=5
