Sydney Festival Drops Parramatta Line-Up

The Parramatta leg of the 40th annual Sydney Festival has been unveiled.

The centrepiece of the Parramatta program is Fire Bucket featuring Uncle Wes Marne, a 93-year-old Indigenous elder who will tell campfire stories in backyards across the CBD, Redfern and Parramatta.

The music program in Parramatta at Riverside Theatres features Reykjavik Calling, a pop band from Iceland; Maru Tarung, an Indian folk group; West Coast funkster DaM-FunK; country-soul crooner Matthew E White; and The Cambodian Space Project performing Cosmic Cambodia, a psych-rock reimagining of Khmer classics. 

Prince Alfred Square will become a second Festival precinct, home to Arquitectura De Feria, a collection of festival rides including a hand-cranked Ferris wheel, all created from recycled materials; as well as Summer Nights, which includes food and free live music. The Square will also house 1000 BELLS, a large-scale installation of clay bells created by local community groups throughout Sydney from October to December. 

On top of that, in the dance and theatre stakes: La Verita shows exclusively at Riverside Theatre trhoughout January, a circus work inspired by Spanish surealist Salvador Dali. Director Nick Power draws upon b*boy and hip hop culture to create a new dance work with hip hop dance battle Cypher. Before heading to State Theatre Company Of South Australia, Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir, The Events starts its life at Granville Town Hall, a play that draws upon the horrible acts of violence in Norway in 2011 to create a new worka bout violence in the community. 

Sydney Festival runs 7 - 24 Jan. 

The full Sydney Festival line-up will be announced tomorrow at midday. 

For more info, head to the Sydney Festival website.