Sydney Festival Reveals Extensive 2015 Program

Tex Perkins is set to play in a jail as part of this year’s Sydney Festival line-up, which has been announced in full today.

The annual celebration of Sydney culture, which has a distinct South American theme in 2015, has secured a number of premiere and exclusive performances for the city, while there is another increase of events taking place in Western Sydney this year.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2015

• Tex Perkins to recreate Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison shows in Parramatta Gaol
• triple j Beat The Drum concert in The Domain with Hilltop Hoods, Vance Joy
• Paul Kelly to play Parramatta’s Opening Party POP 2015
• Ed Kuepper joined by Sydney Symphony Orchestra
• Gotye, Money Mark, Luke Jenner and more to recreate William Onyeabor’s music
• Gotye’s favourite band Zammuto playing their first Aussie shows
• Client Liaison to play the Spiegeltent
• #1 Dads live debut
• Dan Deacon performance synchronised with smartphone app
• Total Control, Eddy Current members’ new project Lace Curtain
• Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon’s Body/Head

This year the festival village will expand to hold two Spiegeltents – The Famous Spiegeltent and The Aurora Spiegeltent – and there will be a number of pop-up events around the city, including a Waterfall Swing at Darling Harbour. The Star will once again host the Sky Terrace bar.

What's On

Nigerian synth pioneer William Onyeabor’s music will be brought to life at the Enmore Theatre by a collection of musicians including Gotye, Sinkane, Money Mark, The Rapture’s Luke Jenner, LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney and the Mahotella Queens. It’ll take place Friday 16 and Saturday 17 January. Dubbed Atomic Bomb!, the show has been performed in Europe and the US previously, with Damon Albarn and David Byrne involved in those shows.

Tex Perkins & The Tennessee Four will recreate Johnny Cash’s iconic Folsom Prison concerts at Parramatta Gaol, Saturday 17 January.

The Saints’ Ed Kuepper will be joined by members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to re-arrange tracks from his back catalogue (The Saints, Laughing Clowns and solo). It’ll happen at the City Recital Hall Saturday 24 January.

Radio station triple j are hosting a ticketed concert in The Domain which will feature Hilltop Hoods, The Presets, Vance Joy, You Am I and more. Full details here.

The free Symphony In The Domain (Sunday 18 January) and Opera In The Domain (Sunday 26 January) are joined this year by Brazilian star Seu Jorge Saturday 10 January, also at The Domain.

So Frency So Chic is taking to St John’s College at Sydney University on Saturday 17 January.

The lost discotheques of Parramatta will be explored by Disco Dome, with four-hour tours from 8pm taking place Friday 9, Saturday 10, Friday 16, Saturday 17, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 January.

Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon joins with experimental guitarist Bill Nace for Body/Head at The Aurora Thursday 22 January.

Dan Deacon returns to Sydney Festival for a performance Thursday 22 January at The Aurora, which will see the audience dictate the lighting through a dedicated smart phone app.

Tom Krell – aka How To Dress Well – will play The Aurora Friday 23 January with Nightmares Of Wax playing the same venue Sunday 25 January. British producer Leon Vynehall plays The Famous Spiegeltent Sunday 25 January.

Archie Roach will play two nights at The Aurora Spiegeltent Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 January. Country legend Roger Knox will take over The Aurora Sunday 25 January.

Xylouris White – a collaboration between lutenist George Xylouris and Dirty Three member Jim White – will place The Aurora Spiegeltent Thursday 15 January.

Kirin J Callinan will play the late shift at The Aurora Thursday 15 January, Client Liaison The Famous Spiegeltent Friday 16 January, Firekites play The Aurora Wednesday 21 January and New Zealand’s The Clean will play The Aurora Tuesday 20 January.

The live debut of Tom Iansek (Big Scary) project #1 Dads will take place Thursday 22 January at The Famous Spiegeltent.

There’ll be indie-folk offerings from the UK’s Olivia Chaney (The Famous Spiegeltent Sunday 11 January) and New Zealand’s Tiny Ruins (The Aurora Friday 16 January).

The music of Oscar-winning film The Artist will be created at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Friday 23 and Saturday 24 (two shows) January.

Sydney Festival A “Wild Ride” For New Programmer

Sydney’s Festival’s Program Manager Stuart Rodgers told theMusic.com.au that this year’s “been a pretty wild ride”.

“I moved back to Sydney five months ago after living for a decade in New York City to take up the position and have been going like the clappers to get the program squared away. Australian music is undergoing an amazing underground renaissance at the moment and I'm excited to have had the opportunity to tap into that.”

Rodgers said the triple j Beat The Drum concert will help them reach a younger demographic.

“Sydney Festival has both the infrastructure and profile that works perfectly for triple j’s anniversary concert, while festivals like ours rely on the younger demographic coming through. Fuzzy has run a number of concerts at the Domain so the trio of organisations made for a perfect fit for Beat The Drum. I definitely foresee more of this type of collaboration in the future.”

He believes the Festival has secured a couple of coups.

“In terms of the contemporary music program it’s hard to pick between Seu Jorge and Atomic Bomb! The Music of William Onyeabor. Jorge hasn’t toured outside of Brazil or Portugal in five years despite many good folks trying to coax him out. So getting that show over the line was definitely a coup for the Festival.”

See full details over at the Sydney Festival website.