Big Star Tribute, Chaka Khan, Mike Patton, Amanda Palmer Lead Enormous Sydney Festival Program

After a few hints were given yesterday, this evening we can confirm the full line up of the 2014 Sydney Festival and, as per usual, it's absolutely monstrous.

This year's event is groaning with musical treasures of all descriptions; an incredible program of folk, country, bluegrass and wold music sits alongside showcases from experimental music royalty, soul divas and some of the finest indie and electro acts kicking around.

Here are a few highlights we've pinpointed, There are plenty more to discover!

Listen here:

BIG STAR'S THIRD:

Jody Stephens (Big Star), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Mitch Easter (Let's Active) and Chris Stamey (The dB's) will be the band who guide a selection of vocalists through Big Star's third record Third/Sister Lovers. Those vocalists at this stage include Kurt Vile, Skylar Gudasz and Brett Harris, but there are more to be announced. If you don't know the record, which was released in 1978, then you should get to know it immediately.

CHAKA KHAN:

If you have to ask then you probably don't need to know. The Queen Of Funk will perform as a part of the big opening celebrations in Sydney's CBD, no doubt running through a wide selection of her grab bag of smash hit songs. After 50 years, ten Grammys, a bucket load of record sales and widespread critical acclaim, Chaka Khan can pretty much do what she wants and we'll pay attention.

AMANDA PALMER:

Yep, she was just here, but when Amanda Palmer hits Sydney early next year she will play a whopping ten shows in a row. Yep, you can spend ten nights with this incomparable artist in the very intimate surrounds of the festival spiegeltent.

EDWYN COLLINS:

He's pretty much UK music royalty, now Scotland's Edwyn Collins is returning to Australia to take us through plenty of his songs from both his Orange Juice days and those of his solo career. It's quite remarkable to see him back in action given a cerebral haemorrhage had him barely able to speak a few years back, but he's been dropping records like nobody's business ever since including this year's Understated.

HURRICANE TRANSCRIPTIONS:

Lee Ranaldo is one of indie rock's most revered musicians, thanks to his work with Sonic Youth as well as the number of weird and wonderful solo ventures he has embarked on, and this latest project is a big one. He teams up with Sydney's 15-piece Ensemble Offspring to perform Hurricane Transcriptions (Last Night On Earth), a piece written in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The inimitable Mike Patton will then proceed to work through Luciano Berio's 1965 composition Laborintus II – also with Ensemble Offspring and The Song Company – a wild spoken word/electronic/avant-garde jazz piece that has Patton written all over it.

SUN RA ARKHESTRA:

The incredible Marshall Allen (at 89 years of age) leads this 12-piece group as they keep the spirit of Sun Ra – one of the most important musicians in the history of time – alive. It will be an intergalactic explosion of free jazz energy and it will blow your goddamn mind.

MATMOS:

This indie, experimental, electronic, glitch duo have been at it for almost 20 years now and have produced a slew of records in that time that have blown the minds of many a brave listener who have forged into their world of field recordings, experimental techno dalliances and myriad other brilliant musical rabbit holes. To attempt to describe them in a paragraph is futile, to see them live will be a real treat.

AMADOU & MARIAM

This blind husband and wife duo from Mali will make you feel so very good with their energetic performances and infectious modern brand of African pop and rock music. Plus, Amadou is one of the greatest guitarists you'll see all year. Except, if you go to the Sydney show, you won't see him. You won't see anyone. The duo bring their Eclipse show to Sydney, a show in which the entire audience in blindfolded and unable to see a thing, allowing them to experience the music the way that they do.

BOMBINO:

This West African guitarist has released one of the records of the year in Nomad and the fact that we'll get to dance to his sweet psyched out jams this summer as a part of Sydney Festival, as well as the Falls event, is making us incredibly happy indeed.

KURT VILE:

Not only is Kurt Vile playing a show with his band The Violators as a part of the Sydney Festival, he'll also play a special midnight solo show as a part of the event and appearing as a part of the aforementioned Big Star's Third show.

MICK HARVEY:

One of Australia's truly great underground artists has been pretty busy since leaving his post in Nick Cave's Bad Seeds and has something special for Sydney Festival this year. Harvey will be paying tribute to the great Serge Gainsbourg with his Intoxicated Man show, playing songs from his record of the same name as well as the Pink Elephants LP, with a six piece band, string section and guest singers.

LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS:

Lee Fields cut his first single as a young man back in 1969 and hasn't really stopped ever since. But the artist has arguably found most success in recent years with his band The Expressions. They are widely regarded as one of the best modern soul groups kicking around and they will try and prove that to Aussie audiences early in the New Year.

JOHN GRANT:

Bella Union recording artist John Grant has released a couple of brilliant records stince stepping out as a solo artist just a few years ago. The likes of Sinead O'Connor and Midlake have loved his songs so much that they've happily played on these records – not that he's needed them, his disarmingly honest way with words and skewed sense of pop melody would be enough to rope us in no matter what.

GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW:

She is one of the hottest underground soul artists on the planet right now, the fact that she was the first female artist signed to Stones Throw is some proof of that, the rest of it comes through her brilliant blunted soul.

DOM FLEMONS:

As a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops he has had a very busy few years, but he's also pretty keen on performing solo and further shedding light on old time music. His show will be informative but also incredibly fun; the guy is a brilliant performer.

BEN CAPLAN & THE CASUAL SMOKERS:

After winning over thousands with his Bluesfest performances this year, Caplan is returning to Sydney to give us more of his raspy, foot stomping magic. A charming performer, an incredibly powerful vocalist and a unique songwriter, Caplan is surely set to enchant more and more Aussies on each visit – here's your chance to get in (kinda) early.

FUTURE CLASSIC PARTY:

New York house and disco master Jacques Renault and UK house demon Medlar bring some international flavour to this massive Friday night party, while locals Touch Sensitive and Wave Racer prove why they're being held in such high regard of late.

MODULAR PARTY:

We don't actually know who is headlining this, but the team at Modular say it's a pretty massive international guest and we've got no reason not to believe them. We do know that Movement, Roland Tings and Softwar are already on the bill though, so we're pretty confident you party people will have a great time regardless.

DONNY BENET & THE DONNY BENET SHOW BAND:

Sydney's smoothest man plays a series of free shows with his full backing band in the intimate spiegeltent.

THE STAVES:

Three Stavely-Taylor sisters make up folk group The Staves and after support slots with the lieks of The Civil Wars and Bon Iver and plenty of touring, they're starting to become pretty highly regarded in the indie folk scene. Their classy debut album Dead & Born & Grown was released late last year and continues to win them plenty of new fans.

For all dates and details, hit the festival's website.

NB: We majorly fucked up part of the program upon its initial announcement this evening. We apologise for any confusion that has resulted from that.